Intel's Moblin 2.1 to compete with Windows

Could Intel's new Moblin 2.1 OS make a dent against Windows in the mobile and desktop markets?

At this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the chipmaker debuted a beta version of its Moblin 2.1 open-source operating system targeted to run on a variety of devices, including smartphones, Netbooks, nettops, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), and in-car systems.

Moblin 2.1 will compete with other open-source operating systems like Google's Android and bump up against Microsoft in the burgeoning nettop arena.

Originally developed for Netbooks, Moblin 2.1 (short for mobile Linux) will come in three flavors--one for handhelds, another for Netbooks, and a third for nettops.

In the market for handheld gadgets such as smartphones and MIDs, Moblin 2.1 will run on Atom chip-based devices. The beta demoed by Intel at IDF showed off capabilities for touch-screen and gesture input. The new interface will also let users switch among different open applications and will provide shortcuts to social-networking apps.

The Moblin 2.1 Web browser will also support Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight 3 technology to run interactive Web-based apps.

John Thode, Dell's vice president of small consumer devices, shows off a Dell Mini 10D on-stage at the Intel Developer Forum.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

In the Netbook area, Moblin is slowly starting to find its way. Dell recently began selling its $299 Mini 10v Notebook with an option for Ubuntu Moblin Remix. Other PC makers, such as Acer and Asus, are also said to be planning Moblin-based Netbooks.

For the desktop crowd, Intel is positioning Moblin 2.1 for nettops, all-in-one desktops similar to the Apple iMac and typically powered by Intel's Atom chip. Most of today's nettops, such as the Asus Eee Top and Dell's Studio One 19, currently run Windows XP.

But with XP on its way out, Microsoft has faced a challenge switching to a version of Windows 7 cheap enough for the low-cost Netbook and nettop market but pricey enough to still turn a profit.

Moblin's success will also depend on the availability of third-party software. Intel has set up its Atom Developer Program to encourage developers to design apps for the new platform. Intel has also said that different programs could be sold through app stores, similar to Google's Android Market.

Of course, Linux has been available in various flavors as a desktop operating system for years. But its complexity has kept it a niche player mostly for IT folks and technophiles. Even Dell is positioning its Moblin-enabled Mini 10v notebook as an option for the tech-savvy developer rather than the average consumer.

Intel also needs to walk a tightrope between competing and yet partnering with Microsoft, a form of "cooptition" to the famous Wintel alliance. Moblin puts Intel in competition with Microsoft on several fronts, opposing Windows Mobile on smartphones and Windows desktop on Netbooks and nettops. But the two still need to play together.

Intel and Microsoft are teaming up to incorporate the Silverlight 3 technology onto Moblin-powered Netbooks next year. Intel will also support Silverlight for developers through the Atom Developer Program.

Intel's ultimate challenge will be to position Moblin to attract people outside the limited tech world. With the right push, Moblin could be the version of Linux to take off on devices from smartphones to desktops.

Moblin 2.1 is scheduled to be released before the end of the year.

[kquaker]

This is awesome. I am so excited for it, Intel makes pretty good products..

[Rolker]

I agree, but it need to be seen if it can truly compete with Windows on Netbooks and Nettops.
But on cell phones it seems that it has a much better chance to take a large market share. In contrast to the PC world, the cellular environment is not dominated by one OS, and the chances for a new player to get in is wide open.

[Donniebrasco]

Hopefully they will price it cheaper than a Windows model. I was disappointed to see Dell currently has the Win XP Mini priced the same as the Ubuntu version.

[JDawg1983]

Yeah, i noticed that too. You'd think that with the few dollars they are saving on a windows license, that they would be able to pass that on to the consumer.

[CreativeMalcolm]

Finally hardware manufacturers are cluing into how much Microsoft has held them back. Between Android, Chrome OS, Moblin, and all the stuff Apple's doing with OS X Microsoft is going to slowly loose it's market share as Apple takes the high end and everyone else takes the low end with better pricing than Microsoft can offer.

[Vegaman_Dan]

You're right, and finally we can all go back to the late 80's / early 90's when we had a bunch of different operating systems that were all independant of each other and couldn't be used with other products. We can give up this whole 'internet' thing too and just have SUG's.

I'm sorry Malcolm, but I think you're missing the point here.

[lightningrob]

@CreativeMalcolm Back in those days, there was no internet so all software was run locally. Today, much more of it is browser/cloud based so the OS matters much less. As long as the browser supports the latest standards and plugins, that will let users of these "net" devices do what they need.

[lightningrob]

Sorry, last post was response to @Vegaman_Dan, not @CreativeMalcolm.

[MarlonSHollis]

"You're right, and finally we can all go back to the late 80's / early 90's when we had a bunch of different operating systems that were all independant of each other and couldn't be used with other products."

I think Malcolm may have a point about the competition driving innovation, plus comparing the 1980s to today may not be useful. A major problem of that time period was that in the 1980s and 1990s we didn't have widespread adoption of the "Internet", nor did we have the Web as we have it today. The Web is a common platform cutting across all the silos today. I can access Gmail, Google Docs and other web-based services on a Mac, Windows, various mobile phones, etc. Platforms of those days truly were silos that didn't talk to to each other, and had no widespread standards-based way of interacting with each other. My impression is that these new nettop/netbook platforms will revolve around Web 2.0 or whatever the term is today, and designed to interact with services in the "cloud". To compare the 1980s Tower of Babel situation to the cornucopia of web-centered platforms on the horizon may not work.

[cosuna]

@Vegaman_Dan:

You are also missing the point. Market cohesion was built upon a Intel-Microsoft centered world, but one in which all the players were sync on lowering the cost of systems in ever increasing leaps. Take the US $3,005 original IBM PC price, which the average XP desktop system at $1,200. The price decrease has been monumental, mostly due to decrease on hardware parts. Software components have increase (e.g. full loaded Windows 95 costed approx. $209 while full loaded 7 costs $319---these are full cost, not upgrades as new machines demand new OS).

If Microsoft had gone the CD and DVD route and have charged a minimal cost per unit ($10 to $20) and had focused on perfecting the XP OS and bulding innovative apps, things would have been different.

The chose the BluRay and PS3 route into the high end market, but offered no "safe haven" for users not willing to go there. Also, the change to Vista demanded a change on the whole ecosystem (new monitor, new graphic card, new hard drive, more RAM, etc). So people opted out and stayed with the known and confortable.

So do we need a change? Probably not, but Microsoft did everything it can to force us into it.

My two (american unchanged since the 1909) cents.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I'll accept that we have differing view points and that all the commments made have merit.

Of course my opinion is more important than any of yours because I run a Mac. :) (hey now, just kidding!)

[reddish2]

Wow. Computing is starting to be exciting again. The 80s 90s was the time for the greatest innovation and contrary to what many seem to believe, monoculture has no advantage over a multicultural development but has instead many disadvantages. One of them is twarting innovation, and, also very important, is the disregard to true standards in order to maintain the monocultural monopoly.

I hope that thangs change...

[wirelesscaller]

Actually a lot of the how much MS has held them back is by design. If cheap hardware ran fast, smooth, and the cost difference for performance wasn't that noticible it'd be very hard to sell desktops and laptops that costs multiple times what a budget or entry level system would. Now compare an entry level single core atom, celeron, amd sempron, via, etc to a mid level dual core, noticeable difference. Let's face it they should put some version of resource friendly linux on entry level computers from Pupply, Slax, DSL, etc instead of even Moblin, Ubunutu remix, Xandros remix, etc. The problem is the collusion of the Oem with MS, after all their goal is not to sell less than $500 desktops if they don't have too, if people knew what to use for what system this would be 90% of the computer market with gaming and work computers rounding out the rest.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Intel currently provides chips for the majority of the OEM's out there. Some of those companies make operating systems as well. I wonder how long it will be before these operating agreements start to sour? Look at Apple and Google for example. That was a wonderful relationship when the iPhone came out. Now two years later, Google and Apple are both making claims of the other, calling each other liars, etc.

How long will it take for something similar to happen with Intel? Will there be conspiracies or suspicions that Intel is making their hardware perform better with their OS than with Linux, Windows. or OS X? That they are intentionally crippling it for others to make their own look better? Even if it isn't true, how will they dismiss such notions once they get started?

It's a very tricky line indeed for Intel to be walking. The EU will likely get involved as well and decide to sue them for billions for whatever reason they want to make up at the time.

Should be interesting to watch and see how it plays out.

[bigpicture]

Vegaman_Dan you don't appear to know a lot about anything. What is anti-trust? Do you know? There is no anti-trust issues with Intel producing an OS because there are plenty of other OS producers including the dominant MS. There would be anti-trust issues if Intel coerced the OEMs with something like, "I won't supply you with CPUs unless you install the Moblin OS". Thats the kind of scenario that the EU is currently dealing with, something that is not in the best interests of the consumer. Believe it or not the EU government is not yet owned by the corporations like it is in the US. A different mindset there about the question of who "we the people" really is, it is a practice not just verbal diarrhea.

Also "I'm sorry Malcolm, but I think you're missing the point here" he is not missing the point at all, there is nothing wrong with a whole variety of OSes so long as they are compatible with the hardware and run standardized applications and file formats. This can only benefit the consumer price/performance/feature/technology advancement wise. It is the MS monopoly/price gouging that has held everything back. Is there not an endless variety of automobiles, yet they have certain standard things in common that makes their differences palatable to the consumer and relatively unnoticable to the drivers.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Thebigpicture:

You apparently ... ah... missed 'thebigpicture'. I didn't mention antitrust at all. :)

I was just bringing up situations that have existed in the past and suggested that Intel needs to be careful to avoid showing any sort of favortism. It's the sort of thing that has gotten CPU chipset makers into trouble in the past (click on CNET's search bar and see for yoruself). The relationship that Apple and Google have which has turned rather sour of late is a prime example of why they need to be careful to avoid this sort of issue. Add the EU in there and you have a recipe for disaster.

The rest of all that diatribe you posted was purely on your own. You're making a lot of assumptions that simply aren't there.

[cosuna]

Excellent article.

With this quote: "But with XP on its way out, Microsoft has faced a challenge switching to a version of Windows 7 cheap enough for the low-cost Netbook and nettop market but pricey enough to still turn a profit." you have managed to say something others have been unwilling or unable to say so far.

Microsoft has invested quite a lot of money on Windows 7, but contrary to Vista--which was released on burgeoning economy and its predecessor (XP) had excellent user ratings-- is release in a slump market, with the Vista aftermath, and with no new features worth the upgrade, and with a learning curve much steeper than Vista (due to the new taskbar and ribbon oriented basic apps).

It is hard to say how many of the new buyers are gonna be radical enough to take a plunge on Windows 7, and how much of that same "plungers market" will prefer Moblin or Chrome OS, that is, take the extremist approach.

Maybe the mayority will be "risk-averse" conservative and cost-conscious users who will almost automatically choose XP against any of the "riskier" alternatives.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Your comments are spoken truly as as person who has not tried the product. Let's wait a year and see if your comments still stand. I expect Win7 to be a game changer, as does the media. Heck, even Apple pundits see merit in the product.

[kojacked]

"and with no new features worth the upgrade, and with a learning curve much steeper than Vista". Those two statements appear to be in conflict. I agree with Dan's assessment of your opinion.

[ballmerisanape]

If I made a Mobile OS.. it would compete with Win Mobile....

[forever4now]

Intel could build a lot of momentum with Moblin, if it positions it as a state-of-the-art, web app platform (like Chrome OS). Firefox currently supports HTML5 functionality (and soon WebGL), so web developers can already start to develop some pretty sophisticated HTML5 apps.

Such an approach would be attractive to developers, because any effort they put in to HTML5 web apps for Moblin could be transfered to many/most smartphones (which appear to be converging on WebKit, as their "native" rendering engine).

[AppleSuxLeo]

Sounds too much like Goblin...Epic Fail.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Also "OLGA" is too hard to understand.

[BenzTech]

Silverlight 3 on a Linux platform?? I can finally watch Netflix Watch Instantly?? Hooray!!

[X-C3PO]

Only need to try to guess it's life......