Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

Moblin - Mobile OS for netbooks and nettops

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 03:58 AM PDT

Moblin, short for Mobile Linux, is a free and open source OS from Intel designed for netbook hardware. It is designed to be an eye candy and user friendly OS targeted to the standard home user – meaning for emailing, twittering, browsing, media playing and such – unlike the more "serious" flavors of Linux like CentOS.

It is designed to be lightweight with minimal footprint so that it will run extremely fast on Atom-based computers like netbooks. You can download the beta V.02 image file from this URL http://moblin.org/

Once you boot to your computer using the CD as first boot sequence you should see the screen below:

Installation is a breeze and might be the easiest among other Linux distros. Once installed you will be shown the "myzone" area where you will see a bunch of updates and activity information about your social network.

The myzone is divided into 3 sections: recent activities, recent files and websites and recent social network updates:

According to it's homepage document:

Recent activities provides a snapshot of your Calendar appointments and "to-do's" from your task list. Beneath your appointments and tasks are shortcuts to your favorite applications.

To populate your Calendar appointments, you enter them into the Calendar application. To create a "To-do," launch the Task application.

Recent files & websites shows your most recent content-related activity on your netbook, such as pictures you’ve viewed, or websites you’ve visited. To open or re-visit any of the items shown in this area simply click it.

Recent social network updates enables you to keep track of your internet social life. It shows your latest friends’ feeds from Last.fm and Twitter. More 3rd party services will be incorporated in future releases.

If you a re a netbook user, try it yourself. Go and download it from http://moblin.org/. I was told by my fellow tech enthusiasts that this OS release is very mouse driven, but I think it will be solved once the release candidate or a more mature beta version comes out.

Most feedback also mentions a very fast boot-up time: more or less 20 seconds on an Atom-based processor! That is impressive! Compatibility is very good too considering it is still in its beta version. Once installed you will get your display, wireless, connectivity, webcam and audio working – a plus for new users.

I hope to see more from Moblin as it matures – and maybe support for higher-end processors and not just low-end Atom based PCs. Enjoy!