First Netbook Running Moblin Version 2 is Set to Arrive
by Sam Dean - Sep. 17, 2009Comments (2)- Related Blog Posts
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As Slashdot, Moblin Zone, and ZDNet UK are reporting, the very first netbook preinstalled with Moblin version 2 for Netbooks is likely to launch next week, very probably at Intel's Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, or at Portland's LinuxCon. ZDNet UK did an interview with Imad Sousou, head of Intel's Open Source Technology Center, in which he implied as much. Sousou has also confirmed that Moblin version 2 will be made widely available after that, with many new features.
While Microsoft's Windows 7, due in October, is going to be aggressively pushed in the netbook space, Moblin will join Ubuntu and Google's upcoming Chrome OS in the effort to keep innovative open source operating systems going in the fast-growing netbook space. Intel has handed stewardship of Moblin over to The Linux Foundation, which could help its chances. Netbooks represent an important frontier for open source adoption and innovation, and I have my own guess at who will be shipping the first Moblin v2 netbook.
Moblin Zone does a pretty good job of forecasting which vendor will have the upcoming first Moblin v2 netbook:
"If we had to guess, we'd go with Asus, since that company has shown a lot of leadership where netbook innovation is concerned...However, MSI is bent on leadership, too, boasting of its hopes to ship the first netbook built on Pine Trail, Intel's next-generation, more highly integrated netbook chip platform...Meanwhile, Dell is a strong dark horse possibility."
All those are good guesses, and Dell, which already ships Ubuntu-based netbooks, has expressed its interest in doing Moblin netbooks. That would be a boost for the operating system, given Dell's substantial marketing muscle and branding power. However, I'm betting on a different hardware player to deliver the first Moblin netbook: Acer.
Acer has already expressed its intent to put Moblin across the entire range of its hardware products, and not just netbooks, where it is a big player with its very popular Aspire One systems. PC World has quoted R.C. Chang, chief technology officer at Acer, speaking at a news conference in Taipei, saying "Acer is in the process of putting Moblin in the range of its products." Aspire One netbooks already running Moblin were on display at the same conference, although they weren't running the new version 2 of the OS.
Acer doesn't have the same level of brand recognition in the U.S. that it has overseas, but outside the U.S. it is a mighty brand. I really like the Aspire One netbooks, too, which have very comfortable keyboards and good displays. Outside the U.S., where many parts of the world are more friendly to open source than inside it, is exactly where Acer might get traction for a Linux-based operating system.
Meanwhile, Moblin is headed for non-netbook hardware platforms as well. We covered Inventec's Mediaphone device based on Moblin here. Especially as Microsoft gears up to push Windows 7 for netbooks, it's going to be interesting to watch Moblin's prospects, and hopefully netbooks based on it will come in at more favorable price points than Windows 7 machines.
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