bobpeers -> blog

It’s all over the news but I’m happy to see that Microsoft have lifted the artificial 3 application limit on Windows 7 Started Edition. As much as this would have made life easier for Linux to compete it’s also ironic that to some extent the threat from Linux has forced this decision.

If there was no completion in the OS market do you really think that Microsoft would have done the same?

On the other hand they are still severely limiting the capability of the Starter Edition, to quote from the Windows Blog it DOES NOT include the following

• Aero Glass, meaning you can only use the “Windows Basic” or other opaque themes. It also means you do not get Taskbar Previews or Aero Peek.
• Personalization features for changing desktop backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes.
• The ability to switch between users without having to log off.
• Multi-monitor support.
• DVD playback.
• Windows Media Center for watching recorded TV or other media.
• Remote Media Streaming for streaming your music, videos, and recorded TV from your home computer.
• Domain support for business customers.
• XP Mode for those that want the ability to run older Windows XP programs on Windows 7.

I’m pretty sure that with Googles Android and Intels Moblin under heavy development, with some big players behind them, there’s still room for competition in the netbook OS market.

I just read that Intel has released a beta version of the Moblin OS for netbooks. This replaces XFCE used on the alpha release with the new Intel interface. I’ve yet to give it a try but I’ll post some screen shots when it’s running in VirtualBox.

Update – I’ve just realised that there are no VMWare images available for the beta as there were for the alpha, not a big deal but a bit more work to get going.

After writing about the new netbook craze and thinking of buying one I’ve been spending some time researching the options. If I do buy one I’m pretty certain that I’ll be installing a new distribution on the device since the Linux distributions they ship with seem a bit limiting for me.

It’s for this reason I’ve looked into how easy it is to replace the distros and one thing becomes very clear, Linux itself is immensely versatile and the community around Linux is incredibly productive and inventive.

Just looking at the Eee PC and Acer Aspire One there dozens of sites with modifications, hacks and plenty of resources being put into tailoring distros to work flawlessly with these computers. Both Ubuntu and Fedora have projects being worked on to the Eee PC while the Aspire One has the same

The openness offered by Linux and other open source projects allows users to re-spin existing Linux distributions to fit almost any hardware out there. Plus, from a technical perspective, I’m sure it’s much more rewarding to have complete freedom to create what you like.

Compare this to buying a netbook with Windows XP where you get a closed source OS that’s basically 7 years old and the only reason you’re allowed to get it in the first place is that Microsoft is scared to loose marked share to Linux while accepting that Vista is far too bloated to run on these netbooks.

On top of that Microsoft limit the netbook specifications to allow it to be licensed and there’s very limited possibilities for users to tweak XP for a specific netbook in the way one can for Linux.

Many people complain about the diversity in the Linux marketplace but as Linus Torvalds himself says, this diversity is good for the community and he future of Linux itself.

With companies seemingly releasing a new netbook every week I must admit that I’m tempted to buy one. There’s few things that are very appealing:

• Price, they’re very cheap so can be used as a second computer.
• Very light and portable. My 15″ laptop is miles more powerful but you can’t just throw it in a bag and not notice, the new netbooks all weight around 1kg.
• Great to play around with using Linux. The default systems run by may of these is somewhat limited but there’s a whole slew of sites started up showing you how to install your favourite Linux distro on these machines. Hours of fun for people like me!
• Later machines have better keyboards and improved battery life so are comfortable to use on long trips and will last all day.

I’m looking at the Acer Aspire One right now but I’d rather wait until it’s available with the 6 cell battery as the 3 cells only gives 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life. It runs a Linux disro called Linpus Linux Lite which is a modified version of Fedora 8 but running XFCE as the desktop manager.

I tried one out in a shop over the weekend, it was the 512MB version with the 8GB SSD disk and running Linux. I thought it felt pretty snappy in use with very little lag when opening applications, of course opening a 100+ page pdf file took about 30 seconds but for everyday use it seemed good.

The Thunar file manager was very easy to use and files appeared instantly when browsing the drive. Even though by default it’s pretty locked down there’s plenty of sites explaining how to unlock the interface. Failing that I might just install a new distro, the only problem being that it will have to be from a usb drive since I don’t have an external DVD drive (and don’t intend to buy one).

Edit: there’s a really good review of the Aspire One here.