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.
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, ...
