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Moblin V2 Core Alpha for Netbooks Available

One of the most appealing aspects of open source software is its ability to be almost everything to everyone. Fine, it's hyperbole, but flexibility and access to the source code means a wide array of needs can be met for diverse groups of people -- and the shared efforts benefit developers as much as those who've never written (or seen) a line of code. I've been enamored of the Moblin Project for some time, simply because it so clearly demonstrates that open source can be as hands-on (or off) as you'd like.

On Monday, the Moblin team announced its Moblin V2 Core alpha release was available for testing. Tariq Shureih, Moblin Linux Engineering Manager, says that this alpha release is the first chance the wider community has to really kick the tires on a number of new features, including package and core interactions, the "Fastboot" feature, new user interface development and connectivity tools, and a new iteration of the Moblin Image Creator.

In October, I took a look at the first Moblin Image Creator (MIC). This little utility is still available, but it's a different animal than the Moblin Image Creator 2 (MIC2).

MIC2 is based on Fedora Live CD tools, and a number of other open source projects. MIC2 has binary packages available for a number of distributions (and will likely run on others, as long as they are DEB or RPM based). Though the Moblin V2 Core pre-built image is geared for Atom or Core 2 (SSSE3) processors, MIC2 can create generic images for a number of architectures.

MIC2 uses Kickstart for configuring package and repository selection, as well as configuring Moblin-specific options. Like MIC, MIC2 can generate liveUSB/CD, loop, KVM and VMDK (VMware) images so developers can test their creations on existing hardware, or virtually.

Just want to grab the Moblin V2 Core image and run? Pre-built images are available, as well as documentation on how to get the most out of your test drive. The alpha version has been tested on the Acer Aspire One, the ASUS EeePC 901, and the Dell Mini 9. As always, this is an early testing release, and should not be used in a production environment.

The Moblin team has indicated that the releases ahead will look quite different than the current alpha. The user interface on the pre-built images is still under development, and Moblin has said the current XFCE desktop will be replaced with an alternative environment. Moblin invites (and encourages) alpha testers to file bug reports or give feedback directly to the developers on the Moblin Development team email list.

• open source
• Mobile
• linux
• Fedora
• development
• Moblin
• netbook
• XFCE

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