Follow us on TwitterMoblin 2.0 Review
Posted by Steve Greer on August 20, 2009 in Netbook Market, Operating Systems, Reviews
At Netbook Scoop, we have been testing various new operating systems on our netbooks over the last week.
Earlier we reviewed Google Android as a netbook OS. We also published tutorials on installing Android and Moblin on bootable USB memory sticks so that you can test these OSs without actually installing them on your hard drive.
Today I’m going to show you Moblin 2.0 Beta running on an Asus Eee PC 1008HA.
Booting Moblin
I decided to install Moblin 2.0 to the hard drive of the Asus Eee PC 1008HA to give the operating system a true run. The boot time was about 45 seconds. Not bad for a Linux based OS (note that I did not install the quick boot option).
Once I was booted into the Operating System I come right into the MyZone Screen.
How to test Moblin from a USB stick
Posted by Steve Greer on August 16, 2009 in Netbook Market, Operating Systems, Reviews
It is apparent that Windows XP’s days are numbered. So, naturally there is a lot of interest in several new operating systems being developed for netbooks.
This weekend, we are 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.
There has been some talk about Acer releasing a netbook with Moblin loaded on it. So, first up is Moblin.
We wanted an easy way to test Moblin without installing it to your hard disk. We thought you might like to know, too. So here is how we did it.
Preparations
All you need is a 1 GB USB stick and a few minutes of your time.
There are a few things to keep in mind while testing Moblin on your netbook.
It is recommended that you have an Intel Atom N270 or N280 processor with the GMA950 chipset. I’ve read that Moblin does not have support for the GMA500 chipset as of yet.
While it is possible to create a bootable CD, I would also recommend booting from USB instead. I’ve done some testing with the Live CD an found it to be a very slow experience.
Steps to Create Live USB Stick
Here are the steps to create your own bootable USB key. This takes about 5 minutes and you are good to go.
1. Download the latest Moblin release from Moblin.org
2. Download Win32DiskImager.exe
3. Unzip the file and extract the contents to a known directory
4. Run W32DiskImager.exe (See screenshot below)
5. Select the Moblin Image File
6. Select the drive letter that represents your USB key
7. Select the “Write” button to byte-copy the image to the USB stick.
8. Presto! You have a bootable USB stick.
9. Make sure you set your bios to boot from USB before you try and boot.
10. Boot Moblin from your USB stick and Presto! You have Moblin available for testing.
I will make sure and post a video in the next day and share some of my experience using Moblin.
Just remember one thing while testing. This is a BETA release and does not represent the final release.
Moblin recently updated the 2.0 Beta image for Netbooks
Posted by Steve Greer on June 18, 2009 in Netbook Market, Netbooks, Operating Systems
Have you played with Moblin yet? What are you waiting for?? Moblin has just refreshed the 2.0 beta which has fixed a bunch of issues and has added some new features.
You can download the new Mobin2.0 beta image for netbooks here. If you need help with how to use the image, Moblin has put a nice page together to help you load the live image from CD or USB.
I recommend USB, because it gives you a much faster experience compared to booting from a CD. This will give you a preview of the OS without actually having to install it to your hard drive.
I would be interested in hearing from you on what your thoughts are? Feel free to send us an email or comment back.
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.