moblin posts

Microsoft Silverlight comes to Linux, First stop: Moblin

by Brad Linder Sep 23rd 2009

Microsoft has announced plans to bring its Silverlight technology to Moblin Linux. This is the first time the company has mentioned anything about Silverlight running on any Linux distribution. Up until now the only way to access Silverlight content including web video and interactive web media on a Linux system was to use Moonlight, an open-source implementation of Silverlight developed by Novell and Microsoft.

Microsoft isn't making a big deal of the Linux portion of today's announcement. Rather, the company is demonstrating that Silverlight plays well with computers using the Intel Atom processor. During an event at the Intel Developer's Forum in San Francisco, officials from Microsoft and Intel showed a demo of Silverlight running on Intel Atom powered devices running both Windows 7 and Moblin Linux. Of course, Silverlight has been running perfectly well on Intel Atom powered netbooks running Windows for the past year and a half, so that's no big surprise.

The question is, if Silverlight is going to run on Moblin, does that mean other Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE will be supported in the future?

[via ZDNet]

Tags: linux, moblin, mobln-linux, silverlight

Filed under: Linux, Open Source

Moblin netbooks are coming - can Linux based netbooks find a market?

by Paul O'Brien Sep 22nd 2009

When netbooks first started hitting the market, they were low on raw power, storage and profit margins, meaning that they were ideal candidates for running the Linux OS.

Asus, who arguably kicked off the whole netbook market with their Eee PC machines, originally shipped their devices with a variant of Xandros Linux and robust SSD drives. As the market matured, Asus moved to match their competitors by concurrently offering a more traditional Windows XP / hard drive option, and only recently ceased to offer the Linux configuration.

Despite the fact that Windows XP devices dominate the market, it seems Intel's 'Moblin' initiative could bring the Linux movement back to the massive Netbook marketplace.

Speaking at the first Linuxcon Conference in Portland, Oregon this week, Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said "You're going to see this week interesting new netbooks coming out that are killer. They have the cool factor and they're priced right". Jim believes that the Netbook segment is moving towards providing a free device on a wireless service contract, with a model similar to that used in the mobile phone industry today. His (questionable) assertion is that this drives down costs and encourages a low cost model that only Linux can work with, as it removes the Operating System licensing cost - something Microsoft simply aren't able to do.

Tags: acer, dell, linux, moblin, netbooks

Filed under: Linux, E-mail, Productivity, Open Source

Linux UI designer working on netbook-optimized calendar, mail

by Adam Maras Aug 6th 2009

Linux-powered netbook users that have been missing their doctors' appointments and kids' school plays because operating a calendar application on their tiny portable is, at best, clunky and painful, can finally breathe an accurately-scheduled sigh of relief. Srinivasa Ragavan, who is one of the user interface developers for the open-source Evolution personal information manager project, has taken it upon himself to develop netbook-happy frontends for the calendar and mail portions of Evolution.

The calendar interface, as shown off on his blog, makes use of the entire screen for the calendar view. It features a handy upper toolbar for navigation, and a powerful drop-down menu for selecting more viewing options. The mail frontend, named "Anjal," features such optimizations as a similar upper toolbar, a tabbed interface (something soon to be seen in Thunderbird 3), and Gmail-esque threading.

Srinivasa hasn't yet released any working source for the calendar interface, but the Anjal mail project is available for anyone willing to install Moblin on their netbook, or (for even more fun) build it from source.

[via All About Netbooks]

Tags: calendar, evolution, gnome, linux, mail, moblin, netbook

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Linux, Windows x64

StatCounter data shows Windows 7 pre-release use closing in on Linux

by Lee Mathews Jul 3rd 2009

With the release of Ubuntu 9.04 and developments like Moblin and HP's MIE creating quite stir, plenty of people were saying that 2009 would be 'the year of Linux on the desktop.' Not that the statement hasn't been made before, but there appeared to be some real momentum this time around.

Enter the Windows 7 RC. A quick look at StatCounter's most recent data shows Linux use at .71% and Microsoft's soon-to-be released OS right behind at .68%. StatCounter's chart only shows the top 5 OSes, so you'll need to take a look at the raw CSV data to get the numbers.

Things certainly look good for Windows 7, but let's keep in mind that it's still competitive with Linux on price at this point (read: free). Once people have to shell out their hard-earned money for the new OS, will things change or will Linux still struggle to make gains on Windows?

What are your thoughts?

Tags: market-share, moblin, operating-systems, statcounter, statistics, ubuntu, windows 7, windows-vs-linux, Windows7

Filed under: OS Updates, Open Source, Beta, Mobile, Android

Support for Android apps coming to Moblin 2.0

by Lee Mathews Jun 4th 2009

Moblin has already received a lot of praise in the media for its innovative interface and intelligent features, and now there's one more reason to be excited by the Intel-backed project.

Intel's Anand Chandrasekher, VP of their ultra-mobile group, showed off a device running Moblin 2.0 which also sported a number of Android applications during a speech today at Computex. Apart from generating excitement in the users community the news gives cellular providers added incentive to carry Moblin-powered devices, since many already have Android Marketplace revenue sharing agreements in place with Google.

Don't forget, Canonical recently unveiled their plans to enable Android applications in Ubuntu as well - which would likely include the Netbook Remix. Even if netbook manufacturers favor UNR or Moblin over Android for an operating system, it looks like users won't have to worry about missing out on killer Android apps.

[ via PC World ]

Tags: android-marketplace, moblin, netbook

Filed under: Linux, Open Source, Beta

Who wants Linux with sex appeal? Not this guy.

by Lee Mathews May 27th 2009

Moblin beta 2 just dropped a week ago, and things are looking good for the lightweight Linux distribution. It's innovative, sexy, and has already received loads of praise from reviewers for its ease of use, integration of activity streams, and uniqueness.

Tech Republic's Gary Marshall, however, thinks Moblin has to be stopped - now. Why? Because he's afraid developers (and the inevitable Moblin remixes) are going to ruin a good thing. "...naturally, somebody's going to bugger it up. Of course they will. It's Linux!" Later he states "Again and again, we've seen early promise ruined because people don't know when to stop."

Perhaps someone can explain to me how Ubuntu has suffered because of projects like Mint and Linspire, because it sure seems like the project keeps moving ahead and getting better with each new release. A promising Linux distribution continues to show more promise - like the possibility of running Android apps.

To claim that shutting the project down will turn Moblin into a kind of Linux martyr is utter nonsense. Projects like Moblin and HP's MIE are creating the kind of buzz Linux needs if it's ever going to gain mainstream acceptance. Kill them off, and people are left thinking "That was a cool idea. Pity it never amounted to anything."

Get Moblin on devices. Let developers innovate. Because as concerned as Marshall is about "buggering it up," someone could just as easily create something amazing.

Unrelated, but he's wrong about the Stone Roses, too. If they'd have quit after the first album, I would never have gotten hooked on the wicked guitar riff from Love Spreads.

Tags: linux, moblin, Op-Ed, opinion

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Open Source, Beta

Moblin Beta 2 evolves into a capable Linux option for netbooks

by Lee Mathews May 19th 2009

Developers continue to push ahead with Moblin - the fast-booting Linux distribution aimed at providing a better instant-on experience. Today marks the official release of Beta 2, and it's taking shape rather nicely.

The user interface has been completely overhauled, transforming the Moblin experience from a stark, minimal Linux desktop into a more HP MIE-like experience. Hover at the top edge of your screen and the main menu appears, providing access to programs, settings, and files. There's even a built-in Twitter status updater and IM support for Jabber, GTalk, and Salut.

Moblin's web browser is built on Mozilla and tweaked with an Opera-style speed dial display for new tabs. And of course there's a media player included for browsing photos, listening to music, or checking out movies on your tiny portable.

The new M-Zone displays appointments, calendar entries, and tasks, and allows users to customize their start page with commonly used applications and URLs (speed dial entries automatically appear). The pasteboard is another nice touch, and makes gathering and managing snippets easy.

All in all, the project has come a long way in a short time span and it's starting to look like a solid Linux alternative for Intel-powered netbooks and notebooks. It ran extremely well on my 15.4" Toshiba guinea pig.

(check in later for more updates after the break)

Tags: instant-on, moblin

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Open Source, Beta

Tiny, Super-fast Linux distro Moblin V2 alpha 2 released

by Lee Mathews Mar 24th 2009

Late in January of this year I installed Moblin on my MSI Wind U100 netbook. At the time, it wasn't officially supported by the distro and my wireless wouldn't connect, so I ended up removing it. In a little under two months, the team has released alpha 2 which - among other things - includes full-on support for the Wind.

The update also includes the 2.26.29-rc7 kernel, XFCE version 4.6, the Gnome 2.26 release candidate, and drivers for additional wireless and wired lan adapters. Moblin's boot process and graphics subsystem have also been tweaked, and it started up about two seconds faster than my previous install.

There are still a few apps missing that other similar distributions include by default, like Skype or an instant messaging client like Pidgin. It's still Linux, though, so you can always add packages on your own - Skype for MIDs is available to download from the official developer site.

Those of you curious enough to try it out can download an ISO image or the ready-to-run VMWare machine. A number of the updates in alpha 2 came as a response to customer input, so get involved if you install it and submit your bugs and suggestions!

Tags: instant-on, intel, linux, moblin, netbook

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Open Source

Who needs instant on? Moblin boots in about 15 seconds

by Lee Mathews Jan 29th 2009

I've read about moblin before, but when it resurfaced in my newsreader this morning I decided it was time to take a look at the project a bit more closely. The moblin OS is built on Linux and optimized for Intel-based notebooks, netbooks, and MIDs. It is currently in alpha testing, but already looks very promising.

Most of the other Linux distributions I've tested on my MSI Wind were "customized" for netbooks, but they ultimately ended up feeling like a standard desktop distribution with an interface tweaked for small displays.

One thing immediately sets moblin apart from the others.

After installing it to the hard drive and rebooting my system, it took a mere 16 seconds to get from the Grub menu to the XFCE desktop. Holy boot times, Batman! That's impressive.

I'm aware that users have gotten times like this before with distros like Arch, but Moblin will be easier to deal with for most netbook users.

The pre-installed applications are kept to a minimum - Firefox is included and you'll be able to enjoy your music and videos with Movie Player. There are also lightweight GTD apps for managing contacts, tasks, and a calendar. You can, of course, add whatever other packages you like through yum or add/remove software.

If you want to take moblin for a test drive you can download an iso file, or a virtual machine for VMware or KVM. Keep in mind this is an alpha release. Moblin's finished form may look nothing like this, but it's an intriguing project even at this stage of the game.

Tags: linux, mid, moblin, netbook

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures

Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party

Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	111	5
2	Lee Mathews	82	24
3	Sebastian Anthony	69	251
4	Brad Linder	39	4
5	Jason Clarke	23	0
6	Dolores Parker	8	2
7	Grant Robertson	6	2
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	5	1
9	Matt Heerema	4	2
10	Nik Fletcher	4	0
11	John Burke	2	0
12	Paul O'Brien	2	0
13	Download Squad Staff	1	0

More Tech Coverage

Control Shift It's all about the experience
Somewhat Frank Perspectives on tech as it fuses in everyday life
Switched Gadgets, web news and commentary
Urlesque Exposing bits of the web

Download Squad