Follow us on TwitterAndroid As A Netbook Operating System
Posted by Tom Greer on August 17, 2009 in Netbook Market
At Netbook Scoop, we are doing a series of articles on new netbook operating systems (OSs).
In an earlier article, we explained how to download Google’s Android OS and install it on a bootable USB stick. That way, you can test Android on a netbook with out disturbing the existing operating system.
In this article, we will take a look at Google’s Android and decide whether it is a worthy contender as a future netbook OS.
How To Run Android On Your Netbook
Posted by Tom Greer on August 16, 2009 in Operating Systems
There is a lot of development work on new operating systems for netbooks. Obviously, Microsoft intends to replace XP with the soon-to-be-released Windows 7. They will make the transition gradually. But, they will phase out XP as soon as customers let them.
However, there are others who would like to insert themselves into the mix and grab a portion of the market.
So, we decided to spend time this weekend exploring Moblin (initially developed by Intel), Android (from Google), Kubuntu (from Canonical) and Windows 7 (from Microsoft). All of these are pre-production releases, so we expect some buginess.
Steve just posted an article on how to create a Live USB Stick to boot Moblin.
In this article, I do the same for Google’s Android.
Preparation
First off. Please realize that Android was developed as a smart phone operating system. Then some smart guys decided to load the OS on their Eee PC – and surprise, it actually worked. Sort of.
Since then, there has been a lot of speculation that Google would expand and extend Android as a real netbook operating system. Last month, Google suprised many people by announcing that they would be introducing a netbook operating system named Chrome OS.
Unfortunately, Chrome OS is not available to us. But Android is – and many speculate that Chrome OS will simply be Android with some netbook extensions. So we will take a look at Android.
The first thing we did was to make a bootable USB memory stick containing Android. We thought you might like to experiment with Android as well, so here is how we did it.
All you need is a USB memory stick. I used a 1 GB stick. You can probably fit it on a 250MB stick.
Step 1. Download the latest version from Google.
Go to the live-android download page at Google. Download these two files: liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.001 and liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.002.
Each of these files is about 90 MB.
Step 2. Join the two files
In Linux:
cat liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.001 liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.002 > liveandroidv0.2.iso
In Windows:
You will need to access the command line (Start Button -> Run -> CMD), then:
copy /b liveandroidv0.2.iso.001 +liveandroidv0.2.iso.002 liveandroidv0.2.iso
Step 3. Make the USB stick bootable
Whether you are using Linux or Windows, you will want to download and install UNetbootin.
Plug your USB stick in and fire up UNetbootin.
Screenshot of UNetbootin
Set the DiskImage field to the file you created in Step 2 above. Set the USB Drive to the one you just plugged in. Select OK.
Ready to Test
Now you just need to set the BIOS on your netbook so that it will boot from the USB stick and you are ready to go.
We will publish our results in a separate article once we have some time to evaluate it.
We also plan to shoot a video showing different netbooks running each of the OS’s mentioned above. So stay tuned.
Microsoft Blames Linux Netbooks for Revenue Miss
Posted by Tom Greer on August 5, 2009 in Netbooks, Operating Systems
Microsoft Logo
LinuxWorld noted that, in the 10-K just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft acknowledges Linux as a competitor on the client side (which is a first) saying:
Client faces strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market. Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Canonical, and Red Hat. Apple takes an integrated approach to the PC experience and has made inroads in share, particularly in the U.S. and in the consumer segment. The Linux operating system, which is also derived from Unix and is available without payment under a General Public License, has gained some acceptance, especially in emerging markets, as competitive pressures lead OEMs to reduce costs and new, lower-price PC form-factors gain adoption. Partners such as Hewlett-Packard and Intel have been actively working with alternative Linux-based operating systems. Read the rest »
Microsoft’s Netbook Quandry
Posted by Tom Greer on August 1, 2009 in Netbook Market, Operating Systems
Windows 7
There is a lot of hubbub today about the Microsoft’s pricing plans for Windows 7 and the impact on the netbook market niche.
In a nutshell, Microsoft’s current plan is to have netbooks ship with a crippled version of Window 7 called the Starter Edition. Then to charge $80 to upgrade to the Home Premium Edition. With the typical purchase price of a netbook in the $300 – $400 range, this represent a 20% increase in the cost of a netbook.
To ensure that many netbook owners will be willing to fork over the the $80, Microsoft is crippling the Windows 7 Starter Edition by eliminating remote media streaming, changing desktop background and other “advanced” features.
Of course, netbook manufacturers can bypass all that by installing Windows 7 Home Premium at the factory. As a result, the list prices will rise by $50 or so.
We forecasted all this back in June in our article “Netbook Market: What Is Coming Next?“, where we said:
Acer to Release Android-Based Aspire One Next Quarter
Posted by Tom Greer on June 3, 2009 in Acer Netbooks, Operating Systems
Acer's Android-Based Netbook
Acer has announced at Computex 2009 that they will release a version of the popular Aspire One netbook configured with Google’s Android operating system.
Android is Google’s Linux-based operating system that was originally developed for smartphones.
What is interesting about this is that the first netbooks only ran on Linux. Then Microsoft woke up and virtually wiped out Linux-based netbooks by cutting the cost for XP licenses to near zero.
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of press around two new Linux-based operating systems. Google’s Andoid and Intel’s Moblin.
Although Acer’s first Andoid-based netbook will have an Intel Atom N270 CPU, the reason for a lot of the excitement surrounds netbooks in the wings that are not based on Intel chips.
There are a number of different netbooks in development that have CPUs based on ARM designs, like Nvidia’s Tegra that we highlighted a few days ago. ARM processors are currently used on many smartphones. These CPUs are attractive based on their low power consumption which provides long battery life.
Microsoft’s Windows operating systems will not run on ARM processors.
All this creates a real problem for Microsoft. The game plan for Microsoft is to migrate netbooks to the new Windows 7 operating system and to begin making money. Speculation is that their target is a $30 per netboook increase. That represents about a 10% price increase in the average netbook.
Microsoft will undoubtably respond in an effort to kill off this new competitive threat. Call me cynical, but they have not failed in the past, and there is no sign that this will play out any differently.
But, being a Linux fan, I’ll be cheering on the sideline for the underdogs.