Moblin vs Linpus vs Ubuntu

[slowfox]

I spent a bit of time yesterday playing with Moblin on the netbook.

After a bit of bemusement, I started to get to grips with it - running off a USB drive, rather than actually installed proper, it seemed sufficiently speedy, although the downloadable image doesn't seem to include a word processor, which was a bit of a surprise omission.

Anyway, it's a Linux (of course) distro specifically designed to cater for netbooks (and other Mobile Internet Devices), sponsored by Intel, which seems a little surprising, given how closely tied Intel seem to be to Microsoft.

The netbook had, briefly, been running Ubuntu's netbook remix: that seemed a little sluggish, but I've since added 1GB of RAM to the beast, so perhaps should reinvestigate that option before writing it off completely. The Ubuntu remix did have multiple user management by default, whereas both Linpus and Moblin launch you straight into the user desktop.

Compared to the gloss of Ubuntu and the slick UI with Moblin, Linpus (and here I'm talking about the de-Fisher Priced proper-XFCE-desktop, rather than Acer's awful 'interface') feels old fashioned and rather slow.

Overall, then, I liked Moblin, a discovery which seems to be counter to the general vibe I'd picked up from the Internetz, but I won't really be able to come to a conclusion proper until I've done a full install to disk, and tried the software management and such.

Comments

[ex_simon644]

Moblin? Nearly as bad a name as Linpus!

I remember reading an interview somewhere that explained why there is no word processor in Moblin. I seem to recall something to do with the aims of the project and what devices it is aimed at as being the reason. Basically a promotion of web services for the job.

[slowfox]

Actually, given that it's targeted at Mobile Internet Devices and stuff of that ilk, yes, I suppose the omission of a Word Processor makes sense. And I can still add AbiWord once it's all installed properly, so no real problem.

Promoting web services for the job is all well and good, until you're stuck on a train with no WiFi, and then it's a rather sub-optimal solution ;-P

[ex_simon644]

I guess that that is where Google gears comes in. Not that I think that that is a fully comfortable fit with a Linux environment (with regard to open vs. closed software).

[ex_simon644]

The Register have a small piece on possible distributions to use: The best netbook-friendly Linux distros

[slowfox]

Ooh - thanks for that link! Must confess, I'd liked the idea of trying Android, but reading the article, it looks like the netbook would largely be subfunctional were I to try that route just now. But it's an interesting idea.

One of the commenters is running BSD on their netbook, and a couple of recommendations for Mandriva Mini, which I will investigate (I've always found Mandrake/Mandriva to be a pretty good distro, in terms of things working straight out of the box).

[slowfox]

True - although Chrome (still my default browser) is open source, and oddly enough, in Chromium variant, is the browser that's shipped with Moblin.