Saturday, September 4, 2010

Low Cost Linux Netbooks - the Future of Mobile Computing


The trend in technology is towards being ultraportable. Netbook is one such example. It is notebook made ultraportable suiting primarily to the mobile net-users. Many call these computers as subnotebooks as they retain the looks and features of notebooks, with some vital change done in hardware sections such as low powered CPU, energy efficient boards, less display size and lightweight. Owing to its scalability and open-source nature Linux is sitting almost all the major brands of netbooks. Of course, Windows is trying hard to catch up.

Right from the inception in 2007 to this date, linux has shipped on 32% of netbooks. Netbooks have sparked the development of several spins from major distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Suse. Examples include Ubuntu Netbook Edition, EasyPeasy, Jolicloud and Moblin.

Asus is the pioneer in introducing the Eee PC series netbooks and it has been reaping the benefits of an early-starter. Its success led other makes such as Acer, Intel, MSI, Dell and Samsung among others to build their versions of netbooks.

While some netbooks found their way into the lives of busy/mobile executives, others have been a student's pride possession for being cheap, rugged, highly power efficient and portable. OLPC and Intel Classmate PC are two such examples.

With Intel still innovating its Atom series of ultramobile processors and AMD keeping up the pace with its Nano series, netbook market has still a lot potential to show. However, Linux will find centerstage in this Intel-AMD fight for ultramobile dominance.

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