EEEBUNTU 3.0 REVIEW (Base and Standard Editions)

Learn why we consider the EEEbuntu as the best Linux distro for netbooks. EEEbuntu works out of box and everything works!

Slashtop coming to SONY and Acer netbooks – Just another Instant-on OS

Slashtop is yet another custom Linux distro that promises to load in 10-15 seconds. However, unlike Ubuntu, which is a full-featured Linux distro, the Slashtop does not come with a lot of apps on board. It just comes with the basic programs like firefox and pidgin.

Acer and Sony are not the first ones to adopt the Slashtop OS. Before them, Lenovo has also licensed their software for their desktop PCs. That said, Acer and Sony are not bringing the Slashtop OS to their respective netbooks. Acer is going to put it in their nettops and Sony will be putting it in their VAIO NW notebook line.

When it comes to speed in Linux distros, I personally find the Ubuntu 9.04 NBR quick enough. I do not mind waiting for extra 10 seconds if those extra 10 seconds can give me a full-featured OS instead of a stripped one.

SmartQ 7 – a super sleek Internet tablet

The SmartQ 7 runs an unspecified Linux distro with specs that include WiFi, a USB-host mode, stereo speakers and claims to have 2 days of battery life (considering you run only music on it). It has 7-inch display with just WVGA resolution. I do not know what the folks at SmartQ thinking when equipping this super sleek device with such low resolution. The standard resolution for the MIDs and netbooks is 1024 x 600, which makes everything very enjoyable and usable.

With so many Windows Mobile phones now coming with WVGA displays, it makes perfect sense to equip the MIDs with higher resolution than the phones to give them an obvious benefit.

After EEEbuntu, here comes another Linux distro for netbooks – KDE netbook version

After the great success of EEEbuntu and other custom linux distros for netbooks, KDE has announced that they will also produce a distro for netbooks. Netbooks, no doubt are one of the hottest selling tech-products in the market. However, KDE is not going to make a custom distro just by re-skinning the interface of the original distro.

We aren’t making an interface for a “smaller laptop” or a “larger handheld”; the interface is for a netbook, which has a unique set of use cases and should have a unique, if familiar, user interface. To our knowledge, nobody is really doing this yet. We feel that just as Apple made popular an interface style on handhelds that is for handhelds with their iPhone/iPod touch interface, netbooks deserve a similar treatment.

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Canonical to Microsoft “Let’s do it on real facts!” – Folks at Ubuntu not happy

Last week, B. Lebanc at Microsoft made a post about “Windows on Netbook PCs: A Year in Review” (link), where he mentioned how the netbook scene has changed from the past couple of years. He mentions,

Not only are people overwhelmingly buying Windows, but those that try Linux are often returning it. Both MSI – a leading netbook PC OEM – and Canonical – the vendor supporting the commercial distribution of Ubuntu Linux – stated publicly they saw Linux return rates 4 times higher than Windows. Why such a disparity? Because users simply expect the Windows experience.

Ouch! Linux fans are not going to like this. Folks at Canonical disagree with the Microsoft and say that the return rate is actually similar to that of Windows based netbooks. According to them, it is the quality and out-of-box experience matters the most and is responsible for the returns.

Whatever Microsoft says, they have to admit one thing that the future is very bright for Linux. Ubuntu can run on ARM processors which consume nearly 1/10th (in some cases) of what the Atom consumes.
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