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First Look at Moblin 2.1

Ryan Whitwam — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:12:24 -0500

Intel showed off a new version of Moblin today for use in Atom-based mobile phones. Moblin is Intel’s compact Linux distro for netbooks. This tweaked version of the OS, Moblin 2.1, is said to have heavy social networking integration (and what doesn’t these days?), widgets, and a panel based interface. Intel claims to have heavily modified the user interface specifically for mobile phones.

The demo today was done on a MID and an Acer netbook. Those in attendance were not allowed to actually try the OS, but visual impressions were good. There are currently no Atom based phones available, and no specific devices were discussed.

A smartphone powered by an Atom chip would likely be considerably faster than today’s handsets. There is no information on when one of these phones might actually ship. So you’ll have to wait with bated breath.

Microsoft Believes it Has What it Takes to Upstage Netbooks and Macs

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:26:02 -0500

Microsoft has been exuding confidence ever since Windows 7 made the tech scene a while back. Now they’re reaffirming their lack of concern over competition in the OS market. Microsoft’s Charles Songhurst said that netbooks will not hurt Windows 7. He also brushed aside questions about Intel’s Moblin Linux distro, and Google’s (still vaporware) Chrome OS. Songhurst indicated that being free isn’t enough to beat Windows.

Windows 7’s improved performance on netbooks, combined with users’ familiarity with the Windows interface may help Microsoft protect its market share. The Redmond giant also feels confident about business users staying clear of Macs. "If they are not compelling to the CIO, they are not going to make inroads in the enterprise," said Songhurst.

Upgrade Your Netbook! 4 Lab-Tested Ways to Boost Performance

Nathan Edwards — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:00:00 -0500

Your Upgrade Path to Netbook Self-Realization

There’s no denying that netbooks possess many positive attributes, as evidenced by their meteoric rise in popularity. But all the attention garnered by their portability and low cost can’t mask the deep and troubling performance that netbooks suffer.

The fact is, there are undeniable trade-offs inherent to a sub-$400 computer. You’re just not going to get the same performance from a netbook as from something that costs three times as much. Slow single-core Atom processors; middling hard drives; pokey, undersized SSDs; and only 1GB of RAM rob the netbook of its potential.

But there is hope. Whether you have an old Eee PC with a 12GB SSD or a new netbook with an Atom N280 chip and a 160GB hard drive, you can make substantial improvements without forking over too much dough. We’ll show you first-hand how netbooks can overcome their humble beginnings. We’ll upgrade a typical older netbook—an Eee PC 901 with a 4GB SSD soldered on the mobo and an 8GB PCI-E SSD—as well as a brand-new Toshiba NB205, to show how every netbook, from bottom-of-the-barrel to top-of-the-line, can benefit from upgrades.

Consider this your guide on the journey to netbook empowerment.

Uplift Your Memory

Pep up your load times and app performance with more RAM

Adding more RAM is nearly always the cheapest and easiest way to upgrade your netbook. In order to get netbook pricing for Windows, manufacturers limit them to 1GB of RAM. Fortunately, most netbooks have easily accessible RAM slots and use standard 200-pin DDR2 SODIMMs.

We used a 2GB DDR2/667 SODIMM from Corsair for our upgrades. It costs less than the Twilight Blu-ray release.

For less than $25 online, you can buy a 2GB DDR2 SODIMM to replace the 1GB in your netbook—most have a single SODIMM slot, so you can’t just add another 1GB, and the Atom platform is limited to 2GB of RAM. We bought a 2GB Corsair ValueSelect DDR2/667 (PC2-5300) module—the Atom N280 platform in new netbooks has a 667MHz front-side bus; older netbooks with the N270 chip have a 533MHz FSB and will underclock the RAM.

In nearly all netbooks, replacing the RAM will take less than five minutes. First, power down your netbook and remove the battery. On the bottom of the chassis will be one or more panels that can be removed to reveal the RAM and/or hard drive, usually fastened with Philips-head screws. Open the panel and find the SODIMM. Release the clasps that hold it in, and the module should pop up slightly. Remove it and line up the 2GB SODIMM and slide it into place, then close the panel, replace the battery, and boot your netbook. Press F2 during setup to go into the BIOS and make sure the RAM registers, then boot your computer normally.

On the Toshiba NB205, the RAM slot is easily accessible from the bottom of the netbook's chassis.

We upgraded the RAM in an older Asus Eee 901 and a brand-new Toshiba NB205 netbook and immediately saw the difference. The improvement was particularly noteworthy on the 901, which, thanks to its anemic low-cost solid state drives, has been the slowest netbook we’ve tested to date. Before the RAM upgrade, it took the 901 1,441 seconds to run through our Photoshop benchmark, compared with the 673 seconds it took the Toshiba NB205. But with 2GB of RAM, the 901 plowed through in a (comparatively) zippy 1,163 seconds—that’s nearly a 24 percent improvement. The NB205, on the other hand, dropped just 13 seconds with its RAM upgrade, due to its faster standard hard drive.

BENCHMARKS	Eee 901 w/1GB RAM	Eee 901 w/2GB RAM	Toshiba NB205 w/1GB RAM	Toshiba NB205 w/2GB RAM
Photoshop CS3 (sec)	1,441	1,163	673	660

Accessing Your Inner Hardware

So what makes a netbook a good candidate for an upgrade? Easy access to the parts you’ll be replacing, of course. Most netbook manufacturers know that just because their customers bought a computer with just 1GB of RAM doesn’t mean that they’re going to keep it at 1GB, and so most netbook models come with easy-to-remove RAM and hard drive panels. Often all you’ll need is a Phillips screwdriver and a few minutes of your time. But not always.

Easy-upgrade candidates include the Asus Eee 901, 1000, 1000HA/HE models, Lenovo’s S10 series, and newer Acer Aspire One-series netbooks, as well as most Samsung, HP, and Dell netbooks.

Some netbooks, however, make swapping out parts more difficult, if not impossible. Toshiba’s NB205 has easy-to-remove panels, but the hard drive panel is secured with TORX-6 screws, not Phillips-head. MSI’s Wind U123 is upgradeable, but you’ll have to take off the entire bottom of the netbook, held in by 10 screws. The Eee 1005HA has a panel for the RAM, but no hard drive access (or removable battery).

And some models are downright evil: The first Acer Aspire One, the Eee 1008HA, and current-model Seashell Eee PCs require a full tear-down, including keyboard and motherboard removal, to get to the RAM and hard drive. Avoid these if you ever want to upgrade.

Transform Your SATA Hard Disk Drive

Why settle for stock when you can have greater speed and/or capacity?

Although early netbooks shipped with slow, low-capacity Mini PCI-E solid state drives, the vast majority now come with standard 2.5-inch SATA drives—usually 5,400rpm magnetic hard drives with 120GB to 160GB of storage. And that means that you have plenty of options: You can trade for a faster, higher-capacity hard drive, or a much faster solid state drive. Because solid state drives have no moving parts, they are sturdier and less prone to shock failure than standard hard drives and typically use less power. Unless you want to spend an arm and a leg on a high-capacity SSD, though, you’ll probably have to sacrifice storage space for speed.

We took our brand-new Toshiba NB205 (with a 2GB RAM upgrade in place) and tested it first with the stock Toshiba 160GB 5,400rpm drive, and then with a 64GB RunCore Pro IV SATA SSD ($250, www.runcore.com), as well as a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4 HDD ($130, www.seagate.com). However, any standard 2.5-inch drive will also work.

Seagate's Momentus 7200.4 is speedy, roomy, and only drains the battery a tad faster than a 5,400rpm drive.

Replacing your hard drive, provided you can access it, is easy. All you need is a 2.5-inch external USB-to-SATA enclosure and a trial version of Acronis True Image Home 2009. Put the new drive into the enclosure, plug it into your computer’s USB ports, and then image the drive (see below for more details on this).

Adding the 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4 drive to our netbook gave us a big boost in capacity, modest gains in performance, and a minor drop in battery life. With the Seagate, our netbook’s Photoshop benchmark time improved five percent, and its PCMark05 HDD subscore went from 4,268 to 5,167. Read speeds increased from 47MB/s to more than 80MB/s, while we lost around 20 minutes of battery life—from 6:30 (hr:min) to 6:10.

RunCore's Pro IV SSD ships with an external USB-to-SATA enclosure; for drives that don't, enclosures are easy enough to find online.

The RunCore drive’s gains were more impressive. RunCore’s Pro IV SSD uses the same Indilinx controller as the blazing-fast Patriot Torqx drive we tested in September. It also gets bonus points for coming with an external SATA-to-USB enclosure. With 2GB of RAM and the RunCore SSD, the NB205’s Photoshop benchmark time improved by eight percent, while the PCMark05 HDD subscore shot from 4,268 to a whopping 20,339. And no wonder; the RunCore’s average sustained read speed exceeded 100MB/s—more than twice the speed of the original drive. Random-access time plummeted from 18.1ms to 0.3ms. We didn’t see as much battery life improvement as we expected, though: In our battery rundown test, the RunCore-equipped NB205 bested the standard loadout by a mere four minutes. Similar SSDs will offer similar results.

BENCHMARKS	Toshiba 160GB HDD	RunCore 64GB SSD	Seagate 500GB HDD
Photoshop CS3 (sec)	660	614	636
PCMark05 HDD	4,278	20,339	5,167
HDTach Avg Read (MB/s)	47.5	103.4	80.3
HDTach Burst (MB/s)	109.6	105.1	106
HDTach CPU Utilization	11%	12%	11%
HDTach random access (ms)	18.1	0.3	17.3
Battery Life (hr:min)	6:27	6:31	6:10

Affirm Your (Drive) Image

So you’re all ready to swap out your netbook’s old hard drive and replace it with something better. But reinstalling your operating system, programs, and files can be a real pain in the ass, especially since you don’t have an optical drive. Rather than messing with all of that nonsense, we’ll show you how to use a drive imaging program to make an exact clone of your netbook hard drive. It’s easy and cheap, and you can be ready to go as soon as the new drive is installed in your computer.

First you’re going to need a way to connect the new drive to your computer. Refer to the “Transform Your Hard Disk Drive” and “Empower Your Mini PCI-E SSD” sections of this article to determine your specific path.

Cloning your old drive directly to the new one is the fastest way to upgrade your netbook's storage.

Once your new drive is connected, you can use the free trial of Acronis True Image (www.acronis.com) to clone your old hard drive to it. The trial is fully functional for 15 days; the full version is $50. Download and install the trial, then run it and hit Utilities in the left-hand menu. Click “Clone disk,” then select the Manual radio button. You’ll be prompted to select your source disk, then your destination disk, then the method of cloning. We stuck with Proportional, but you can also do As-is or Manual, and then resize your partitions later with a partition manager like EASEUS Partition Master (www.partition-tool.com). After you confirm your choices and start the imaging, you’ll be prompted to reboot. After the reboot, Acronis will continue working and notify you when your drive is ready. Then just swap it for your old drive and go! Acronis even clones the boot sector for you, so you’ll boot into Windows automatically.

Empower Your Mini PCI-E SSD

Huge performance increases await you

So, you were a netbook early adopter. You grabbed a netbook with a tiny Mini PCI-E SSD, like the Asus Eee 901 we reviewed in December 2008. You don’t mind the tiny keyboard, and you love the battery life. But gosh, having just 12GB of molasses-slow storage is painful, and there’s no room for a 2.5-inch SATA drive. Fortunately, several manufacturers make netbook-specific Mini PCI-E SSDs. We swapped out our Eee 901’s original drive with two aftermarket Mini PCI-E SSDs to see if we could wring some more performance out of the machine. In both cases, we left in the 2GB RAM upgrade from the beginning of the article—it’s such a cheap and easy upgrade that we recommend every netbook owner do that first.

Both RunCore and Super Talent make Mini PCI-E SSDs specifically for 900-series Eee PCs. We tested RunCore’s 64GB Pro SATA Mini PCI-E SSD ($220, www.runcore.com), and Super Talent’s Mini PCI-E 64GB MLC SSD ($205, www.supertalent.com). If you have a different Mini PCI-E netbook, both vendors sell find aftermarket SSDs for devices.

The only tricky part is making sure you don't lose or strip out the screws holding the drive in.

Cloning your C: drive to a Mini PCI-E drive can be tricky. The RunCore drive has a USB port on it, making cloning easy, but the Super Talent doesn’t. Eee 901 users are in luck, however; though you’ll eventually use your new SSD as your C: drive, you’re actually replacing the 8GB D: drive—the C: drive is non-removable. Power down the machine and remove the battery, then unscrew and remove the access panel on the bottom of the chassis, and unscrew the two Phillips-head screws holding the SSD in place. Remove the old drive, then slot the new SSD into place, and boot Windows normally, then follow the drive imaging instructions in the sidebar below. The cloning process will make your new SSD the active drive, but it wouldn’t hurt to verify the boot order in the BIOS first.

Both solid state drives offered much better performance than the pitiful SSD the 901 ships with. How much better? Try nearly 100MB/s reads compared to just 30MB/s pre-upgrade. Both SSDs halved the time it took the 901 to complete our Photoshop benchmark, even after the RAM upgrade, making it (finally) competitive with other netbooks. The Super Talent performed slightly better than the RunCore on this test, but the RunCore drive scored higher in PCMark05’s hard drive subscore: 9,912 PCMarks to the Super Talent’s 7,514. Both far outstripped the stock SSD’s measly 1,879 PCMarks. Surprisingly, battery life actually increased by about 40 minutes when using either upgrade drive.

Either drive is a must-have addition to your Eee 901, and they’re comparably priced. If we had to choose, we’d go with the RunCore. It’s slightly faster, and the USB port makes it easier to use.

BENCHMARKS	Stock 12GB SSD	RunCore 64GB	Super Talent 64GB
Photoshop CS3 (sec)	1,163	648	630
PCMark05 HDD	1,849	9,912	7,614
HDTach Avg Read (MB/s)	30.7	97.6	96.6
HDTach Burst (MB/s)	33.7	116.8	111
HDTach CPU Utilization	3%	8%	7%
HDTach random access (ms)	0.5	0.2	0.3
Battery Life (hr:min)	4:50	5:30	5:30

Open Your Mind to a New OS

After you've upgraded your netbook's hardware, give it some souped-up software

Chances are that your netbook came bundled with Windows XP. While this is a perfectly fine operating system, it was designed for desktop use, so it probably has more overhead than you need for your netbook. You should be running lightweight productivity applications on your netbook, not memory-hogging design suites.

Windows 7 and several specialized Linux distros are better suited for light mobile computing, and upgrading to these alternatives is fairly easy. You just download the installation disc image, mount it on a CD or USB key, and boot the install wizard from your netbook’s BIOS. Some of these operating systems even have a Live CD option, which lets you try the OS without partitioning or overwriting your existing software.

We take a look at some popular Windows XP alternatives for netbooks. While there are pros and cons to each, you might find an OS among them that better suits your needs, or at least piques your interest in experimentation.

Windows 7 RC

While Vista is simply not an option for netbooks, Windows 7 is. Microsoft’s newest OS is essentially a root-level fix for Vista, solving some of the most common complaints, such as User Account Control and boot speed. That said, the customization options are similar to what you find in Vista. Windows 7 has features designed for the current era of mobile computing. Netbook users will probably want to use the Basic or Home Premium editions when the full release is available on October 22.

It's nice that netbook users have a choice of using Microsoft's newest OS, but it can feel a little oversized on a small screen.

As is, we found that the UI design in Windows 7 isn’t optimal for netbook use. At 1200x600 resolution, the buttons and menus take up too much screen real estate.

While we can’t say Windows 7 is a memory hog (in fact, it’s quite snappy with just one or two apps running), it is overkill for a netbook. At its core, it’s still designed to support a robust selection of applications, such as Adobe Photoshop and ProTools. It’s a multitasking behemoth that taps in quite well to the processing power of Intel’s multicore CPUs, and is far heavier in terms of disc-space usage than some of the alternatives. In tests over several days with Windows 7, memory problems became an issue—you’ll definitely want more than 1GB of RAM if you plan on using it. But Microsoft’s OS does have one huge advantage over Linux alternatives—you won’t find better software compatibility than with Windows.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix

Ubuntu Netbook Remix (http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download-netbook) is a variant on the popular Linux distro, but sports a new UI design and runs without some of the overhead of big brother Ubuntu 9.04, such heavy-duty built-in apps meant more for desktop than mobile use.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix is remarkably easy to use. The main interface places all common functions and tools on one screen, a stark departure from the relatively blank desktop of Ubuntu 9 and Windows (or OS X, for that matter).

Ubuntu Netbook Remix offers a scaled-down UI that's suitable for netbook screens, but retains all the functionality of the full Linux distro.

We were impressed with Ubuntu Netbook Remix and its ability to run all open apps smoothly, even on machines with just 1GB of RAM. However, Ubuntu doesn’t come with any applications that aren’t Open Source. As such, several very common formats aren’t supported out of the box, including MP3, MPEG2, and Flash video. If you want to enable these formats in Ubuntu’s included media players, you can do so in one fell swoop by installing the package ubuntu-restricted-extras using your package manager.

We love this OS because it works well with many apps open, has some of the best UI features (such as a main screen designed for folks who are unfamiliar with Linux), loads and boots quickly, and looks simple and elegant.

Moblin

Moblin (http://moblin.org) is the new netbook operating system originally developed by Intel and now part of the Linux Foundation. Moblin’s main claim to fame is that it’s designed to facilitate access to Web 2.0 sites such as Last.fm and Twitter (with built-in controls right on the taskbar). The OS uses a zone concept, which organizes apps in special areas based on typical uses making it easy to switch between them quickly. During our test, it became clear that Moblin is still in the development stage. We had lots of problems getting the distro to work correctly—it occasionally crashed when we started to the browser. Fortunately, crashes do not freeze the entire system; you just see a pop-up dialog box that asks you to send in feedback.

Intel's Moblin has lots of potential, but its streamlined interface is hindered by minor development bugs.

The interface is slick, but requires some adjustment for Windows users. The toolbar drops down from the top of the screen, and there are icons for browser, status update, zones, applications, and IM. What is refreshing—and unusual—is that Moblin doesn’t really look like an OS, instead it mimics the look and feel of a website. The extra features for Twitter updates and IM are great, and there are plenty of extra apps including calculators, schedulers, and a media player. What Moblin lacks are full word processing apps—and there’s no clear way to add one. (In our tests, the Moblin library for adding apps did not let us install OpenOffice.) As an early beta, Moblin has a raft of problems, including a lack of USB key support (we tried about six of them) and problems playing even basic MP3 files.

Moblin does not pretend to be a full-featured OS, but that is also what makes it attractive to netbook owners who crave speed and don’t mind sacrificing extra features. As such, the customization options are few—you can change wallpapers and themes, but Moblin lacks the depth of interface tweaks found in Windows or Ubuntu.

We’re optimistic about Moblin’s prospects, but the nascent OS needs work before we’ll be willing to permanently commit to it. Ubuntu Netbook Remix has the leg up, but we do prefer the Moblin look and feel to the other contenders.

Slax

Slax (www.slax.org) is a light Linux distro that’s suitable for netbooks, but has a few weak spots that need to be ironed out before it’s ready for prime time.

Visually, Slax looks like a traditional KDE-based Linux distribution. For personalization, Slax includes a theme manager and the ability to change colors, but most of the work involved with customizing the UI falls to the end user, who must wade through a lot of options to get the right look and feel. We prefer the easier theme controls in Windows 7. In many ways, the controls for personalization in Slax are a throwback to older Linux distros; they’re just not as slick or user-friendly as those in more modern distros.

If you can maneuver your way around the KDE environment, you'll like Slax for its tiny footprint and speedy applications.

Functionally, we were disappointed by the lack of native support for PDF documents and Flash movie files, a sign that the OS has fallen behind other options. However, there are plenty of apps included with the distro, including OpenOffice tools and the Evolution mail client.

Jolicloud

A final option is Jolicloud (www.jolicloud.com), a hybrid OS from the creator of the Netvibes.com web aggregator. Based on the Ubuntu Netbook Remix distro, the OS offers some truly innovative features, but for the most part works almost exactly like Ubuntu.

The idea behind Jolicloud is that it is a consolidated and streamlined gateway for accessing open-source and web applications. Jolicloud’s lets you install free software like Skype and Dropbox in much the same way you would on an iPhone or with Google Android. Compatible apps are listed in a dashboard—which also reports the latest Jolicloud news and support forum info—with an Install button. When you click Install, a small progress bar appears. The idea is that you can click this option and then perform other tasks, although in the beta we tested, as soon as we left the dashboard the install would stop. Still, it’s a novel idea because new users don’t have to figure out the relatively complex process of installing applications—a big barrier for new Linux users.

As its name implies, Jolicloud relies heavily on cloud-based applications, so its best utilized when you're connected to the Internet.

Jolicloud also lets you create links to common web services, such as Facebook and Twitter. It would have been much more impressive if Jolicloud actually included custom apps for the sites—similar to those you find on modern smartphones.

Once you close the Jolicloud dashboard, the OS operates exactly the same as Ubuntu—there are no discernible differences in terms of the interface, speed results, or apps you can load. Jolicloud shows promise, and you can try it out by signing up to get a beta invite at Jolicloud.com.

Netbook Gaming: Yes, You Can!

Sure, puny screens, single-core processors, integrated graphics, and the lack of an optical drive make netbooks incapable of running today’s—or even last year’s—blockbuster games. But not all great games are graphics hogs, and there are plenty of masterpieces, today’s or yesteryear’s, that will run just fine on a netbook.

Digital distribution is your friend. Steam (http://store.steampowered.com) and Good Old Games (www.gog.com) are just two ways to download delicious netbook-capable games directly to your drive on the cheap. One note: Some games might not support netbook resolution (1024x600) without some manual configuration editing.

Like casual games? Great news! PopCap’s casual-blockbusters Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle run great on netbooks and are both available on Steam. Plants vs. Zombies is $10 and Peggle Complete is just $15. Indie physics puzzler World of Goo is also on Steam for $20.

Plants vs. Zombies is a wildly popular and whimsical tower-defense game that happens to run great on your netbook.

Your new netbook is also a perfect excuse to revisit the great games of yore. Good Old Games has a huge collection—from the original Fallout and Fallout 2 to Duke Nukem 3D ($6 each). And LucasArts has begun releasing its enormous back catalog of adventure games on Steam—at press time, that included LOOM, The Dig, and Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis ($5 each). Steam also has the Game of the Year edition of Deus Ex for just $10.

If you have old copies of Blizzard games like Diablo II and Warcraft III, you can enter your CD keys into your Battle.net account and download them, or pay $20 for a fresh digital copy of either (www.blizzard.com).

If you’re itching for some twitchy multiplayer frag fests, Quake Live (www.quakelive.com), a free-to-play browser version of Quake III, runs great on nearly any netbook.

You won’t be playing Crysis, but there’s plenty of gaming action to be had on a netbook.

Intel Talking with Google Over Android-based MIDs

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:52:20 -0500

Intel had earlier made it clear that it doesn’t perceive Chrome OS as a threat to its open source OS Moblin. Now, according to a report, it wants to give a thrust to Google’s Android platform as well. According to a Digitimes report, the world’s leading chip manufacturer wants mobile internet devices (MIDs) based on its chips to run on Google’s Android platform. The report quotes sources at Taiwanese MID manufacturers. The report goes on to add that Android-based MIDs can only be expected once Intel’s Moorestown platform is out.

Image Credit: theSmartPda

Intel Not Threatened by Google Chrome OS

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:35:11 -0500

Google's announcement of Chrome OS hasn’t quite riled Intel’s feathers, if Michael Chen, director of Intel's embedded sales group (Asia-Pacific), can be taken for his word. As Chrome OS will primarily be targeted at MID devices, netbooks and nettops, it will always be on collision course with Moblin. For those of you who don’t know, Moblin is an open source OS that Intel developed for the above named device categories. "Our long-term goal is providing hardware for devices with different operating systems... more competition will drive up more innovations and that's good for consumers." Michael Chen said. Intel’s lack of concern is not entirely unprecedented, for companies usually greet a rival’s product with either customary skepticism or dubious unconcern. (Certified fake screenshot below)

Windows 7 vs Linux: What's the Best OS for Your Netbook?

John Brandon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:30:00 -0500

That shiny new netbook is light and portable, plays music and movies, and cost less than an iPhone (with service). Problem is: you might be ready to chuck it off a bridge. Running the Intel Atom processor at only 1.60GHz, netbooks are a bit on the clunky side when it comes to actual data processing. No one is going to play World of Warcraft on one of these thin machines, but it sure would be great if OpenOffice, a music player, and Mozilla Firefox could run a little faster.

The answer to the netbook dilemma is: find an alternative operating system. Of course, this is a time-consuming proposition, considering you have to download the OS, burn it to a CD or USB key, load the OS, and then configure it. To find out which OS will actually add pep to your Sony P – or any number of low-cost, Atom-based netbooks – we loaded six different options on the same machine and performed a series of tests – looking at the interface, networking features, the browser and built-in apps, and how much customization you can do and ended up picking a clear winner.

For testing, we used the Acer Aspire One AOD250. It uses the Atom N270 processor running at 1.60GHz, has a 533MHz front side bus, and a 512KB L2 cache. The unit ships with Windows XP, which made our baseline testing a hair easier. It has a 10.1-inch 1020x600 screen, runs on the Intel 945GSE graphics chipset, has 1GB of DDR2 533MHz DRAM, a 160GB 5400RPM hard disk, built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi, three USB ports, and a slim form factor – all for about $298. We picked it because it is so common, but also because it supported the most operating systems. We also did a sanity check on the Lenovo S10, HP Mini 1100, and the Asus Eee 1000HE with each OS. In a few cases (e.g., with Moblin on the Lenovo S10), the OS just did not load right. We had the best success with the Acer.

For the test criteria, we wanted to cover a wide gamut. We first tested install time and boot time. Those are important for saving time initially (hey, maybe you are not going to like the new OS) but also for every single time you power on the machine. We also tested the interface and for extra features, software support, customization and personalization, RAM usage, and speed. Since there are no benchmarks we know of that work with all of the OSes we tested, the speed test was a manual grunt test – we timed browser load speed, how quickly a photo opens, PDF load time, and document load time. We also just used the system as we normally would and formed an overall impression.

The operating system options are expanding all of the time. The latest and greatest alternative to Windows XP is Moblin (www.moblin.org), which shows a lot of promise but is a bit rough around the edges. We also tried Slax, a Linux distro that is light and fast. We used Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix, and also tested Windows 7 – which was surprisingly nimble but not our first choice.

Windows XP

Our baseline test was with Windows XP. Everyone has their own opinion about this age-old OS, but we have to state first off that using it feels like a time warp back to 2003. One way you can get around the time-warp factor of Windows XP is to run a cloud-based OS such as iCloud or EyeOS, which at least seem aware of the trends in computing related to social networking and Twitter. Windows XP is a solid OS that works reliably, but our main problem with it is that we are just bored by the interface, and the idea of using an OS that thinks you still have a floppy disk drive installed is just wrong. The latest service packs take care of most networking issues (such as support for 802.11n), but Windows XP is just showing its age and is not exactly inspiring in terms of computing in 2009.

Load and Boot

One of the main complaints about both Windows XP and Windows Vista is that they take quite some time to install. On the Acer Aspire One, the install time was compounded by the fact that the machine we used for testing would not even let us install Windows XP Professional from a non-OEM DVD disc at first. The model we used came with Windows XP running already, so to do the installation we had to use a different DVD (actually, the one that came with the Asus Eee 1000HE) and performed a restore. This loads the OS install files onto the hard disk so you can run the installer. We used a Plextor PX-610U USB drive, and the total install time was 22 minutes including the restore time. That's the longest of any of the OSes we tested, including Windows 7, and one clear reason to avoid XP.

This is one issue that netbook users will face – there are no models we've found that provide a built-in DVD drive, so the assumption is that you will live with the installed OS. Fortunately, most Linux distros let you install from a USB key. Boot time for Windows XP was 35 seconds, which is one of the longer boot times we experienced compared to the other operating systems.

Interface and Extra Features

Windows XP is a known quantity, so we won't dwell on any specifics here other than to say that the OS now seems excruciatingly dull and woefully out of touch with modern computing. There are no signs of being able to update your Twitter status from within the OS (as you can from Moblin).

Network options have matured steadily, thanks to service packs.

The familiar control panel in Windows XP is yawn-inducing but functional.

Software Support

The built-in software options included with Windows XP are actually quite limited when you consider that Linux distros typically come with a productivity suite (usually OpenOffice), a full featured mail client (Evolution is most common), and a modern browser (such as Mozilla Firefox). Adding all of these components just adds to the total installation time. The Asus installer we used for Windows XP does add some handy extras, and that's typical with most netbooks and notebooks. For example, we were able to open PDF files and Internet Explorer support Flash out of the box.

Our install of Windows XP supported Adobe Flash in IE without having to do an extra install

Thanks to the OEM version of Win XP we used, the OS supported PDF out of the box

Customization and Personalization

Windows XP is fairly easy to customize, and supports a bevy of extra utilities such as Unsanity WindowShade X and many other tools. The main issue with Windows XP themes, color treatments, and desktop wallpapers is that we have seen them for so many years they just seem outdated. For power users who run a single-color background, turn off the screensaver, and live with the basic blue colors of Windows XP, this is not a major problem, but it is still a detriment.

Windows XP is easy to personalize, even if it seems as though you are taking a time warp.

RAM Usage

Windows XP falls somewhere between a light OS such as Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix or Moblin, and a memory hog like Windows Vista. Using the Performance Monitor in Windows XP, we noted that RAM usage stayed right around 30% with a browser and a few small apps running. However, when we ran Windows Live Mail, StarOffice Writer (included with the Asus OEM version of Windows XP) plus IE and other small apps, memory usage spiked to 100% frequently. This meant the Aspire One would slow down whenever we started a new app, using up all of the 1GB of RAM. However, once the apps were running, Windows XPO felt nimble enough, although we never tried a more performance-hungry app such as Adobe Photoshop, which is not really intended for a netbook.

RAM usage -- shown here in yellow – spiked repeatedly when we started new apps.

Speed

Okay, the rubber meets the road. Windows XP runs fast on netbooks, which is why it is the OS of choice for companies like Asus, Acer, and Lenovo. See the graph for all of the details on speed testing all of the alternative operating systems, but Windows XP took 8 seconds to open an MSN page, two seconds to open a large word processing document, and 10 seconds to open a PDF. That's a few seconds faster, in total, than Windows 7, but still slower than the Slax distro.

MSN.com loaded in 8 seconds, which is just a hair faster than Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix.

A long document opened quickly – just two seconds – in Wordpad.

This 5MB photo loaded incredibly fast in the Windows XP preview app – just two seconds.

Conclusion

We ended up viewing Windows XP as a “live with it, not like it” OS for netbooks, something you use if you can't stand any of the other more updated OSes, such as Ubuntu or Moblin. It's just not that exciting to think you will go back in time and use an OS that has worn out its welcome.

Windows 7

Ask Microsoft about their view on Windows 7 running on a netbook and their first answer will be: what is a netbook? The company has gone on record saying they view the category as “mini notebooks” instead of a distinct segment worth a specific OS version. Still, we had to find out if Windows 7 RC would run adequately on the Acer Aspire One. The short answer is that: it runs okay.

The boot time was a rather disappointing 57 seconds, despite how Microsoft has stated that boot times will be lightening fast (apparently, not on a netbook running a slow processor). To double-check our results with Windows 7, we tried installing the OS on an Asus Eee 1000HE, and it would not boot up at all after the installation. And, there were other problems: no Flash support, no PDF support, and mediocre games meant more time installing those add-ons after the install.

Load and Boot

Windows 7 took 20 minutes to install on the Acer Aspire One netbook – only Windows XP took longer to install. Boot up time was 57 seconds, which is much longer than we expected. Windows 7 has this annoying tendency to look like it has crashed during install, but if you look closely, you can see tiny dots moving from left to right as the OS copies files over. These annoyances might be fixed for the final release when Windows 7 ships some time this fall.

Interface and Extra Features

Windows 7 is essentially a root level fix for Vista, solving some of the most common complaints. On a netbook, it is more power than anyone would likely need for a machine that is intended for the 30-minutes-of-use window (compared to 3 hours for a notebook and 3 minutes for a smartphone). Still, at least Windows 7 has features designed for the current era of computing. There's a built-in search that actually works – it finds documents quickly and accurately, for example. The games are not exactly stellar, a mild improvement over Windows Vista and XP. (Someday, Microsoft will decide to include a real shooter with every copy of Windows just to showcase the OS gaming power.) Moblin is much better when it comes to social networking features – such as updating Twitter form within the OS.

There are no built-in features for updating your Twitter status, which makes it a bit outdated.

Windows 7 just presents the goods for configuring the OS without a lot of fanfare.

Windows 7 found all of our network-attached storage drives easily enough.

Searching in Windows 7 actually works fast and reliably – unlike Windows Vista search

Games in Windows 7 are similar to what you find in Windows Vista – nothing too special.

Software Support

Windows 7 RC is just the barebones OS – when it debuts on systems this fall, the OEM version will likely include PDF and Flash support. As it stands now, the RC does not support PDF files or Flash, so you have to install those extras yourself. Or, not. We were not able to find an Adobe Flash that works with Windows 7. We did find a version of Adobe Reader for Windows 7.

Customization and Personalization

Windows 7 is a functional, practical release this time around – it is meant to address the problems in Windows Vista such as User Account Control and boot-up speed. That said, the customizations options are similar to what you find in Vista. We prefer the more modern UI design in Moblin and Jolicloud. At the smaller 1200x600 screen size of the Acer Aspire One, Windows 7 felt a little bulky with its larger buttons and large-footprint windows for selecting Wi-Fi networks and browsing files.

Windows 7 offers quite a few options for adjusting colors and themes, but they lack the OS does not have the pizzazz of Moblin or Jolicloud.

RAM Usage

While we can't say Windows 7 is a memory hog (in fact, it was quite snappy with just one or two apps running), it is overkill for a netbook because the OS is designed to support robust apps such as Adobe Photoshop or music production software such as ProTools. It's a multi-tasking behemoth that taps in quiet well to the processing power of the Intel dual-core line of processors, and is far from a light OS. In tests during several days with Windows 7, memory problems became a serious problem, – consuming 100% of the 1GB RAM repeatedly when we ran IE, a photo browser, and just one or two other apps. One of the benefits of using a light OS such as Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix is that the OS and the apps are light – the Evolution mail client barely takes up any RAM in Ubuntu.

RAM usage -- shown here in yellow – spiked repeatedly when we started new apps.

Speed

Windows 7 is not as fast as Windows XP, but we already knew that. In the photo load test, Windows 7 took 10 seconds to open a 5MB file, over twice as long as Windows XP. Windows 7 took 5 seconds to load our multi-page document and 6 seconds to load MSN.com in IE8. Overall, Windows 7 did feel sluggish compared to Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix and Slax when we ran multiple apps, while other OSes breathed life into the Acer Aspire One and made it a more usable system.

MSN.com took a couple seconds longer to load than Windows XP, taking ten seconds.

Windows 7 loaded our test document in 6 seconds, the same speedy result as the Slax OS.

We can't explain why, but this 5MB photo took a full ten seconds to open in Win 7.

Conclusion

We didn't really expect Windows 7 to run fast on the Aspire One, but Microsoft may still surprise everyone and release a stripped-down version that runs faster on netbooks. In the end, we were not impressed with the boot time, long install process, and sluggish behavior with multiple apps running.

Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix

The testing results heated up when we started testing Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix, which has a new UI design and runs without some of the overhead of the big brother Ubuntu 9.04, such as extra security protocols and built-in apps meant more for the desktop than mobile use. Ubuntu for Netbooks ended up being our top pick, a nimble OS that made the Aspire One snappy and more useful.

Load and Boot

It all starts with a relatively fast install time – about 14 minutes, compared to 20 minutes for Windows 7 and even longer for Windows XP. It means you can get up and running with your netbook and move on to configuring the system and adding extra software faster. Ubuntu is a great match for netbooks, even for those who do not normally use Linux or understand how it works, because you likely won't need to add your normal stable of apps (just keep using them on your Windows notebook), probably won't use the netbook as a gaming machine, and will likely just use it for e-mail and writing the occasional OpenOffice doc. Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix also had a quick 30-second boot time, a hair slower than Moblin (at 25 seconds) and Slax (at 20 seconds) but still much faster than Windows.

Interface and Extra Features

Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix is remarkably easy to use. The main interface places all common functions and tools on one screen, a stark departure from the blank desktop of Ubuntu 9 and Windows (or a Mac, for that matter). We prefer how Moblin provides easier access to social networks and instant messaging, but the downside with that OS is that it is buggy (in an early beta) and runs slower.

Ubuntu for Netbooks places all the configuration tools in one window.

Ubuntu for Netbooks found all of the attached network drives easily.

Not as fast as the search in Windows 7, but the search results were accurate.

Ubuntu had a problem with an uncompressed MP3 audio file, but otherwise has built-in options for listening to Internet radio, Last.fm (an online radio service), and local music.

Ubuntu for Netbooks provides a few tools for communicating with Internet pals, such as this instant messaging client.

Customization and Personalization

Like any good Linux distro, Ubuntu for Netbooks provides a wealth of color options to change the look of the interface, themes to make quick widespread changes, and a few wallpapers.

Ubuntu for Netbooks recognized the correct size for the Acer Aspire One display, which is a common problem with some distros that do not work with irregularly shaped notebook screens.

Quick theme adjustments mean you don't have to adjust specific colors for the OS and can get a fresh look without spending any extra time. Still, the UI is not quite as slick as Moblin.

RAM Usage

Memory usage stayed right at about 25% running most apps alone, and jumped only a small amount – to 50% or so – when running multiple apps. Ubuntu for Netbooks did the best job of managing apps – there were rarely any slowdowns like there was with Moblin, and apps started up quickly without the lag you might experience with Windows 7 on a netbook.

Ubuntu for Netbooks handles memory chores easily enough, even with only 1GB of RAM.

Speed

We were impressed with Ubuntu for Netbooks and its ability to manage memory and run all open apps smoothly. The slight surprise is that it was not the fastest of all the OSes we tested. The MSN.com test took 11 seconds, opening the 5MB photo took 5 seconds, and the word processing test took 13 seconds (the highest of score on any OS). Still, Ubuntu is faster than Moblin over (which had problems loading Web sites quickly). We also ran a PDF test with a very large document that was about 2MB and Ubuntu for Netbooks opened the file in just two seconds – the fastest score of all the OSes.

It took only two seconds to open this large data sheet from Seagate.

Conclusion

We picked Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix because it runs the fastest with multiple apps open, had some of the best UI features (such as a main screen intended for those unfamiliar with Linux), loaded and booted quickly, and just looks the best compared to all of the other OSes.

Moblin

Moblin is the new netbook operating system developed originally by Intel and now part of the Linux Foundation. The main claim to fame with Moblin is that it is designed to make it easier to access Web 2.0 sites such as Last.fm and Twitter (with built-ion controls right on the taskbar). The OS uses a zone concept where you can place apps in their own zone and then switch quickly between them. During our test period using the build dated June 16, we had a lot of problems getting the distro to work correctly – it crashed when we went to the browser, when we added a Twitter account, etc. Crashes do not freeze the entire system, though, and pop up a dialog box where you can send in the feedback.

Load and Boot

We installed Moblin in 13 minutes, besting the Ubuntu for Netboosk install time by one minutes. (Slax installed in only 10 minutes, however.) the boot time for the OS is 25 seconds, so not quite as fast as Slax but still faster than every other OS. The install process is straightforward enough that you do not need to know anything about Linux to use it and asks only for a username and other info.

Interface and Extra Features

What you sacrifice with Moblin is that it is not equipped as a full distro that includes all the tools you might expect, such as a full word processor. Instead, it is designed to install with a basic set of apps and let you get on with your work. As an early beta, Moblin has a raft of problems, including lack of USB keydrive support (we tried about six of them) and problems playing even basic MP3 files.

The interface is slick and trendy, but requires some learning. The toolbar drops down from the top of the screen, and there are icons for browser, statsus update, zones, applications, and IM. What is refreshing – and unusual – is that Moblin doesn't really look like an OS, and mimics the look and feel of a Web site instead. The extra features for Twitter updates and IM are great, and there are plenty of extra apps such as calculators, schedulers, and a media player, but there are no full word processing apps – and no clear way to add them. (In our tests, the Moblin library for adding apps did not let us install OpenOffice.)

Moblin offers a way to sync your data on the netbook with a service such as Funambol

An unusual feature, you can add your Twitter account and update your status right form the OS toolbar.

We liked the search functions in Moblin, and they worked perfectly, although – if you look closely – you can see that they look almost exactly the same as they do in Ubuntu.

The UI paradigm for holding apps in zones is a common Linux construct, but one that will seem unusual to users who have decided to ditch Windows XP on their netbook.

Moblin had trouble playing even the built-in music files, let alone the uncompressed MP3 we added by sending an e-mail to our own Gmail account (since USB keys did not work).

Moblin found our wireless network just fine, but could not find any network drives.

Software Support

Moblin supported both Flash and PDF without having to install any extra software, which saves time in hunting those tools down and installing them. It's a little surprising, given the fact that the OS does not come with any superfluous software. It meant Moblin was a pick-up-and-go OS that worked without a lot of extra customization, and means you could install it and start using it without extra effort.

Flash support on a Linux netbook is hit or miss, but with Moblin it worked out of the box.

You can open PDF documents as well, using a built-in doc reader that loaded files quickly.

Customization and Personalization

Moblin does not pretend to be a full-featured OS, but that is also what makes it attractive to netbook owners who crave speed and not necessarily extra features. As such, the customization options are quite slim – you can change wallpapers and themes, but there's not the depth of color adjustments and interface tweaks that you will find in Windows or Ubuntu.

You can change themes but not adjust too many colors for the UI.

Like any good Linux distro, there's a way to change default fonts for the OS layer.

RAM Usage

We did not find a utility for testing RAM usage on Moblin, but we can tell you that – as long as you only run one or two apps, the OS is speedy enough. At times, Moblin did seem like it was trying to catch up with our mouse clicks, but we presume that is due to the beta code.

Speed

Moblin either worked extremely fast or had problems with even basic tests. For example, in our MSN test loading the built-in browser, which is essentially a re-designed Firefox, MSN.com loaded in 17 seconds, the slowest of all of our tests. Yet, the 5MB photo loade din just four seconds, and a PDF file appeared in the doc viewer in just two seconds. We couldn't test the document load tiem, since Moblin does not provide a full word processing app and only read our test doc as a TXT file.

Our doc file did not format correctly using this built-in text editor.

MSN loaded in 17 seconds – time enough to visit three site son other netbook OSes.

This photo loaded in four seconds, a hair faster than Ubuntu for Netbooks.

Conclusion

We're big fans of Moblin, it just needs work before it is ready to take up disk space as our netbook OS of choice. Ubuntu for Netbooks has the leg up here, but we do prefer the Moblin look and feel, quick access to Twitter, and the fact that it runs reasonably fast (with occasional stall-outs).

Slax

The main story with Slax (www.slax.org) is that it's a light Linux distro that makes sense for netbooks, with a few weak spots that need to be ironed out before we can fully recommend it.

Load and Boot

The only install we could find was a Live version that loads partially onto the hard disk. As such, the install comparison is not really fair (Slax took 10 minutes to configure in total for the Live version) and there is no comparison for boot time, since each time you use it, the installer kicks in from the CD. That made Slax less flexible, and required that we bring an external DVD drive with us at all times. (We also could not find a USB version of the distro.) Once loaded, Slax ran quickly on the Aspire One.

Interface and Extra Features

Slax looks like the older Linux distros we have used for years, and it uses the KDE desktop environment – which is also not our favorite UI. Slax had several problems running on the Acer Aspire: the music player did not play movies or music at all, and the hardware buttons on the netbook did not work right. For example, while the volume buttons on the netbook worked with the other OSes we tested, it did not work with Slax. We also could not get the Wi-Fi connection to work. Oddly, Slax could find our Netgear router and connect to it, but could not get an IP address. We tried setting it manually, and could still not get the Internet to work on the device. There is probably some trick, but a new user to the distro would likely not know those tricks – it should be easier.

Slax presents the typical offerings for adjusting your desktop settings and configuring a network.

The included games were the least compelling of the OSes we tested.

You can set up instant messaging –we had to use a wired connection – but there are no functions that help you update your status or access social networks quickly.

The search functions work as stated, even if there was a lag in finding documents.

Slax did not play any MP3 files we tested, including this uncompressed audio file.

Software Support

Slax did not support PDF or Flash, a sign that the OS has fallen behind other distros in supporting the latest tools for Web browsing. However, there are plenty of apps included with the distro, including OpenOffice tools and the Evolution mail client.

Customization and Personalization

Slax provides only a few options for personalization – even though there is a theme manager, and the ability to change colors, most of the work involved with customizing the UI falls to the end-user, who has to wade through a lot of options to get the right look and feel. We prefer the fastest theme controls in Windows 7 and in Moblin. In many ways, the controls for personalization in Slax are more like the Linux distros form the last few years and are not as slick or user-friendly as those in, say, Moblin.

There are only two background wallpapers included with Slax.

If you take the time to adjust colors, you can get your own custom look.

RAM Usage

Slax actually used a healthy amount of RAM, about 40% of the 1GB available, which was a lot compared to the roughly 25% usage in other OSes.

Slax uses a lot of RAM for a light distro, more than Ubuntu or Windows 7 in fact.

Speed

Where Slax did shine, though, was with application speed. In fact, the OS scored the best results in our tests. The 5MB photo we used loaded in just five seconds, the document loaded in six seconds, and the PDF file loaded in three seconds (after we installed a PDF viewer). We decided not to include test results for MSN.com in the browser over a wired connection since we tested over Wi-Fi for the other operating systems. (The site actually loaded in four seconds over an Ethernet connection.)

Kword loaded the test document in just six seconds, twice as fast as Ubuntu for Netbooks.

Near-instant photo loading is one perk of using the light Linux OS, Slax.

Conclusion

So, if Slax performed so well in our tests, you might wonder why we did not pick it as the best choice for netbooks. Speed is important, and a main goal was to make the Aspire One run faster. However, we just were not as impressed with the OS overall, especially in terms of customization options, software support, and options for how you install it. You might be able to find a USB install and get Slax running well on a netbook, but one criterion we had was that the download and install process be easy and the OS work well without a lot of tweaking, and Slax falls short.

Is Jolicloud worth your time?

One other option for netbooks is called Jolicloud, a hybrid OS from the creator of the Netvibes.com Web aggregator. Based on the Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix distro, the OS offers some truly innovative features, but for the most part works almost exactly like Ubuntu.

The major new feature is that the OS lets you install software using the same paradigm that you might already known from the iPhone and Google Android. Apps are listed in a dashboard -- which also reports on the latest Jolicloud news and support forum info – with an Install button. When you click Install, a small progress bar appears. The idea is that you can click this option and then perform other tasks, although in the beta we tested, as soon as we left the dashboard, the install would stop. Still, it is a novel idea because it means new users don't have to figure out the relatively complex process of installing applications – a gating factor for new Linux users.

Jolicloud also lets you install links to common Web services, such as Facebook and Twitter. This feature is less interesting because you are really just adding an icon that takes you to the browser and loads the Web site. It would have been much more impressive if Jolicloud actually loaded a custom app for the sites – similar to what you find on the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1, or the Palm Pre. These apps would save time, even if they were truncated versions of the full site, if all you want to do is post your status or view the latest moronic thread about the news topic of the day. It is possible that Jolicloud users will create these apps in the future instead of just relying on links.

Otherwise, once you close the Jolicloud dashboard, the OS operates exactly the same as Ubuntu – there are no discernible differences in terms of the interface, speed results, or apps you can load. Jolicloud shows promise, but for now the actual benefits to netbook users is questionable.

Intel's Moblin OS Demoed On Eee Keyboard PC

Andy Salisbury — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:07:46 -0500

In the past, Asus’ Eee Keyboard was only shown off running versions of Windows XP, but in a more recent demo at Computex, the low-profile PC was shown off running Intel’s Moblin OS.

While XP seemed like a nice choice for the keyboard PC, sticking with something simple (and Linux based) seems even better, given that this machine will be ideal for surfing the net from your couch.

There’s been no official word if this will come as an option for the Eee Keyboard, but there’s little doubt that we’ll find out in the coming weeks.

Image Credit: RBB Today

Moblin OS 2.0 Looks Pretty Slick in New Promo Video

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:28:24 -0500

Most mobile devices have their own operating systems. The iPhone, among others, is a prime example of this. But, one device that many haven’t created a specific OS for is the netbook. Instead of mobile devices they’re being treated as full sized computers packed into smaller containers – enter Intel, with Moblin 2.0.

The Moblin 2.0 OS has been designed to work specifically with netbooks, and will supposedly work with thousands of Linux applications without any porting or middleware. It’s designed to take advantage of the smaller screens, and in turn allow users to have longer battery life, shorter startups, and quick access to media and social networks.

If you’re interested in finding out more, check out this video that Intel has made promoting it. It’s only lasts a little less than two minutes, so it’s worth checking out.

Image Credit: Intel