Comments on: Intel and Novell take aim at Android with Moblin

Intel's Moblin operating system, a rival Linux distribution for mobile devices, is clearly aimed at Google's Android, but Microsoft's mobile plans may be collateral damage.

[Rolker]

The title of this article is "Intel and Novell take aim at Android with Moblin".
Some quotes from the article:
"Microsoft may win the short-term Netbook war, but it still needs a long-term, winning game plan for mobile"
"Such strategies stand in stark contrast to Microsoft, which persists in trying to monetize its mobile Windows platform."
"Small wonder, then, that Microsoft is losing the mobile battle. It's fighting with the wrong ammunition".
"the one player left out in the cold in all this activity is Microsoft."
Does Cnet enjoys bashing MS, just for the fun of it? Why to focus on MS when the title mentiones very clearly that Moblin is going against Android?
Unless I'm mistaken, Moblin is mainly aimed for netbooks and not smart phones, at least at the beginning: "Moblin plans to start at the Netbook layer of the stack, and then work its way down to the smaller mobile devices."
So, why do you feel that it is going to compete primarily with Windows Mobile or Android? It seems to me that it is going to compete primarily against Win 7 and Ubuntu, and not as much against mobile OSes.
But I might have got it wrong...

[dhavleak]

Excellent obversation Rolker.

I've commented on this many times in the past. Matt Asay is fine when he sticks to FOSS topics. However, he completely loses objectivity and focus whenever he brings MS into the picture. I've left precisely this comment for him in the past -- that he should recognize topics where he's unable to overcome his prejudices and stay away from them.

[forever4now]

I like the idea of Android for a netbook...if you add the electronics to support phone calls, location-based apps, etc. You would get a touch-optimized UI, have a super long battery life AND you could make/receive phone calls with a Bluetooth headset, while your netbook is in your purse/backpack.

If this functionality is added to Moblin, then it might be a decent contender, for the kind of netbook I am looking for, since it would also be able to run full desktop apps like OpenOffice, etc.

[jtjt145]

Micro$oft don't get - they still charge for their operating system, desktop or mobile, no difference.
What they don't get is the fact that the O/S is only just the vehicle where you drive your customers to where you really want to make money from them.
Does it make sense to charge for the vehicle? Not a bit - its a complementary service(or should be).
In the end the cost-free O/Ss will win out.

Arthur

[topgunb2]

ha ha ha, arthur you are so funny, microsoft still charge for their OS, well it made bill richest man in the world, he's certainly not complaining

[monkeyfun14]

A company actually trying to make profit? How dare they try to pay their mortgages or feed their children.


You write a OS consisting of millions of lines of code and tell me how much you enjoy not making a dime from it.

[JCPayne]

Mmmm. More like trying should they charge for the car and the breaks... The Breaks should come standard. It is obvious if you have a car you want the breaks to stop it. Microsoft doesn't get that... The operating system should be free.

[JCPayne]

"@by topgunb2 May 7, 2009 3:38 PM PDT
ha ha ha, arthur you are so funny, microsoft still charge for their OS, well it made bill richest man in the world, he's certainly not complaining"

Yeah the Rockefeller family was up there too... But their business model eventually passed....

[jspaleta]

Matt what are you talking about?

Ubuntu was NOT the first netbook linux OS. Xandros was pre-installed on Asus EEE machines well before Ubuntu.

Why is it that you seem to consistently misrepresent the history here with regard to Canonical..and everyone else...following what Xandros was able to accomplish with its Asus EEE pre-installs. Xandros/Asus created the consumer netbook market.

Why the revisionist history? You know better...or at least you should.

-jef

[Seaspray0]

I just want to exand on that, jspatela. Predating the popular wave of netbooks was the one laptop per child (OLPC) program. I beleive the OS on those was a modified version of linux called "Sugar". Do you think all the work that went into OLPC helped spark the netbook crave?

[jspaleta]

@Seaspray0

I do not doubt for a second that the work done to bring OLPC forward by everyone involved in that project.. including Red Hat engineering staff... was the genesis for the commercial netbook market. OLPC was probably the first Fedora remix.before the remix term was even fashionable to use.

But that being said I put the OLPC project in a separate category as its by definition not a commercial enterprise. Its different, its special, and has the potential for still far wider impact than mere commercialization of a new device form factor. I don't want to lump it in with the Dell's and HP's and Acer's of the world..because its not a fair comparison. Dell and HP and Acer are just trying to sell pieces of metal and plastic in select locations of the planet... OLPC is trying to be an ubiquitous global education platform that every single child can pick up and use.

From a commercial consumer product standpoint... Xandros/Asus were the first to come out with a retail product and really bring the issue forward and attack the demand perception created by the birth of the OLPC XO. It doesn't take anything away from OLPC to say that as the OLPC is not a retail consumer product and it was never meant to be one.

The work that has gone into OLPC is going to bear fruit for years I think. Some of it weird fruit to be sure. I think you'll see the concepts originally brought forward as core elements in the Sugar interface being worked with as part of GNOME 3.0 for example. The mesh networking tech which was central to the OLPC collaborative networking is another thing to watch mature outside of OLPC. Sugar itself is now available as an interface choice in Fedora right now (and I think in Ubuntu as well)

-jef

[kwhsy82]

It's pretty straightforward (and I doubt very popular in Redmond) -- this puts price pressure on Microsoft on netbooks. I doubt Microsoft loves their "partner" Intel doing this. Intel has relationships and money to do this.

If it turns out Moblin beats Android and Windows, Google will be quite happy. The browser won't be IE. Things like "Live" won't be built in. Etc.

Also, I doubt that Android was designed for netbooks unless Google was really prescient. So if they "only" do well in cell phones, fine. With Novell describing this thing as "someday" a cell phone thing, it's probably only like 5th on Google competitive list, anyway, at best. Look at how long it took Android to start showing up. And how much clout does Intel have currently in the cell phone space? Or how much resources does Novell have? Finely, if it's this OS instead of Apple's and Microsoft's, again, Google will be happy.

I think Intel just wants the sub $300 or $200 netbook. If Windows is $25 to the hardware vendor, it's probably $40 at retail (since both the vendor and the retailer mark things up). At $200, that's 20%. That's the basic issue here: lower priced devices and more money to Intel not MSFT.

[bluemist9999]

Much as I'd love to see Linux triumph in the netbook market, won't Moblin have the same problem that other Linux distros have there? Namely that most non-techie people will want Windows because they're used to it?

On cell phones, Linux has a better chance, because not many people expect to run Windows applications on their phone (see: iPhone, Blackberry, plus countless other non-Windows Mobile cell phones).

[Maccess]

Making an OS isn't Google's business. Android was something Google felt it needed to do to up the bar for Mobile OSs.

If Moblin drives sales of better netbooks, Google is still likely to benefit.

[kgsbca]

the OS in a netbook is not as important as the OS in a phone. Up until Android came out, the only OS options for smartphones were the ones that the phone mfr offered. You can install linux or windows on any netbook, and having a different linux variant isn't that big of a deal. I can see that Intel would like this, but what's in it for Novell? How do they make money off this? and who will really care?

[clumpkin]

If Intel/Novel are using a Linux kernel for Moblin then if/when it proves it has features beneficial to a netbook Google, Canonical, et al will be able to incorporate the best bits into their offerings. I suspect Intel is doing this to make sure there are good drivers in Linux for their hardware to keep the influx of ARM based netbooks from flourishing.

[jabailo]

Ubuntu is winning the Netbook war.

I was looking at the Dell mini 9 purchase page and I noticed that whereas they used to have one Ubuntu option and 3 XP options, they now added two more Ubuntu buttons.

Obviously people are screaming for Linux options.

Now Moblin...the perfect distro for me a long time Novell/openSuse user!

(BTW -- I bought the Dell mini 9 two months ago...with Ubuntu and it's the best money I've ever spent on technology in a long, long time! )

[Seaspray0]

I don't think the war is over yet, nor do I want to see either one win quickly (I like the idea of having a choice). I'm glad you posted on how happy you were with it. There are some regulars around here that have consistently refered to netbooks as "cheap pieces of c**p". Maybe they will read your post and finally understand that a good value doesn't have to mean a high price.