A wave of netbooks running a new Linux distribution should be announced in a week or two, according to a director at Intel.
Moblin 2.0 is designed specifically with netbooks in mind, with power-saving features, fast boot times and a Web-centric user interface. Speaking with ZDNet, Intel's Open Source Technology Centre director Imad Sousou said manufacturers should should reveal their intentions for Moblin 2.0 within the next couple of weeks. The Centre is behind an effort to optimize Linux for netbooks and mobile devices.
Sousou outlined several reasons a user might choose Moblin over a more standard Linux distribution, and the trend seems to be towards simplicity and integration with social networking.
Here's a pithy quote: "People want to use these devices as an internet-media, social-networking consumption device, and this is what we've focused a great deal on, to provide those capabilities in an easy way to use while at the same time maintaining the traditional PC compatibility and consistency," Sousou said.
The move towards ease of use foreshadows what we might see with Google's Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system that should arrive in 2010. Introducing the operating system in July, Google said Chrome would stress simplicity, speed and security.
As my Windows-based netbook, which I work on every day, starts to age, the idea of a lightweight operating system becomes more attractive. Today's netbooks don't have a lot of hardware resources to begin with, and I'm starting to feel the inevitable strain that age is putting on the computer. It seems that temporary hang-ups are becoming more common, and by the end of the work day it doesn't take much to grind my MSI Wind to a halt.
It'd be hard for me to take the plunge into Linux now, but if the people who create distributions continue to make them more user-friendly, Linux will be harder for any consumer to ignore, at least as an option.
