Jolicloud: No GMA 500 support – get Ubuntu 9.10 instead!

Jolicloud OS consistency with lots of new netbooks have been posted on the website. But there is no support for GMA 500 graphics powered netbooks.

Instead of going with Jolicloud, we would recommend our readers to go for something like Ubuntu 9.10 OS (review) or UBUNTU NBR for which GMA 500 drivers are already available.

Presenting Fedora Mini – Lightweight Linux for netbooks

Following the path of Ubuntu, which released Ubuntu NBR few months back, Fedora has also come up with special version customized to netbook environment.

The Fedora Mini SIG is a group of Fedora contributors that are interested in Fedora on small devices. Initially aimed at supporting NetBooks, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), it could over time be expanded to also cover things such as Set Top Boxes (STBs).

Right now, it supports EEE PCs, Aspire One and Dell Mini 9

It is not available for public download at the moment. However, if you are using Fedora 12 (alpha) at the moment, you can test it by typing yum groupinstall “Moblin Desktop Environment” and re-login.

Note: Netbooks with GMA 500 chipset are NOT supported at the moment, although it may be supported in the future, but not for now.

Sharp PC-Z1 MID/Smartbook – Not that impressive after all – Quick Look

At the IFA, Sharp unveiled a small Smartbook that is much smaller than the regular netbooks that we usually see in the market. The Sharp PC-Z1 is very small, even more compact than the now obsolete, EEE 701. Not only its dimensions are smaller than the EEE 701, but it’s much lighter too (just 400gm).

Hardware-wise, the Sharp PC-Z1 does not has good keyboard. Well, you cannot have a compact device with touch-type-able keyboard. Can you? Moving ahead, the screen is great. It packs a lot of pixels (1024×600) into its 5-inch display, which is at par with the Fujitsu U810/U1010 that was released a couple of years back. However, unlike Fujitsu, this does not run Vista or Windows XP. In fact, it cannot even run one even if you wish to as it is not an x86 device.

Ubuntu is there to save us, but given the unpleasant fact that it took 10 seconds just to launch Firefox, it is disheartening for many of us. Openoffice writer took 40 seconds to load! So, although you will be able to enjoy great battery life (Sharp claims 10 hours), you will have to adapt yourself to slow performance.

It will be on sale in Japan later this month for the price of 350 Euros.

Commentary: From the looks of it, I’m sure, it is gratifying, but once you start using the device, it is then you realize the mistake you did when buying such a slow piece of hardware. I confess, I’ll call this device a pass

Why is Linux unable to take off? – How can Windows 7 affect Linux?

This is a topic that has been discussed trillion times on the Internet. Now, with Windows 7′s release right round the corner, it is important to know where the Linux OS goes from here.

ASUS was the first manufacture that revolutionized the world of netbooks. Their first netbook, known as EEE 701 ran Xandros OS, which is a Linux-based OS. The company was able to maintain low price for it as the Linux OS is free of charge, which helps the company to reduce the price of their netbooks.

Click on read more to read the full article!

EEEBUNTU/UBUNTU – How to get the title bars back?

It is a common problem in Ubuntu that if you install Compiz, you will sometimes loose the title bars. Users often get very frustrated as there is very few information online on how to get them back. Anyway, after some hours of research, I was finally able to get them back. Here is how to do it:

First get Emerald. Get it by typing this in the terminal

sudo apt-get install emerald

Then, go to system>preferences>startup applications and add the following in the list: (without ‘ ‘)

1. Use name as ‘compiz’ and command as ‘compiz –replace’
2. Add another startup application by using name as ‘emerald’ and command as ‘emerald –replace’

Restart computer and you should get your title bar back! Now, I am running Compiz without any problems on ASUS EEE 701.

Dell not perturbed about their Linux-netbook returns

Few months back, Microsoft said that netbooks running Linux have experienced higher number of netbook returns as compared to the netbooks running Windows OS and most (~96%) of the netbooks in the world run Windows OS . Dell, however thinks that it is not the whole truth. According to the Dell, the number of Linux-netbook returns are same as those for Windows netbooks, atleast for Dell netbooks. In fact, they are quite pleased with the stability and soundness of their Linux netbooks.

Here is the remark made was a Dell official, which is contradictory to many said in the past. Todd Finch, Dell senior product manager, says that ‘this is false, calling it a “non-issue” and that “they are making something of nothing” in response to Microsoft’s claims. He says they see about the same in return rates’.

That said, the demand for Linux netbooks is no-where as Windows netbooks. Reason is pretty simple: people do not much about Linux and their advantages over the Windows-based operating systems. Fortuntaely, Dell has realized this fact and now they are going to be little more aggressive in advertising Linux.

“If you take my marketing budget, add it to Ubuntu and Red Hat’s marketing budget it’s not even a rounding error for Microsoft. For us to generate the market awareness to say: ‘I want Linux on a netbook’ is going to be incredibly hard because we don’t have the tools to do that,” Brockmeier said.

Canonical working on a new interface for Ubuntu Netbook Remix version

Folks at Ubuntu seem to be very busy these days. Just few hours ago, we posted about Kubuntu Netbook version and now, we have some more fresh Ubuntu news. Canonical, the creators of Ubuntu OS are working diligently on a redesigned version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix. It will be bundled with the release of Ubuntu’s upcoming OS – Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala which will be launched in the month of October.

New Features:-

• toolbars located on the side were eliminated
• places menu has been integrated with the right-side panel
• slightly refined color scheme
• easier addition of program shortcuts to your Favorites area
• sleek GUI

Click on read more to see screenshots of the new interface!

Ubuntu and Moblin to work together

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu will be demonstrating Netbook Remix version of the Moblin Linux at the Computex, 2009. Not only that, Canonical is in talks with Intel, where it would providing Canonical with the beta code.

So, first we had the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and now, we will soon have Moblin Netbook Remix to play with!

Dell: We do not care about Linux Enthusiasts

Although Canonical released the Ubuntu 9.04 nearly a month back, we were still waiting to hear something about updating the Linux netbooks from Dell to the latest version. Now, the news has come that they won’t be offering the newer version to the users. Why?

“We are trying to stay on a 12-month cadence to keep costs down, and build a stable platform,”

“A mainstream user does not care if it’s [Ubuntu Linux] 8.04 or 8.10 or 9.04 (he/she does not know what those are)—she just wants it to work right and be stable/safe…Most of the Linux enthusiasts would not like to be so far behind (i.e., 8.04 vs. 9.04), but they are not our primary target audience for the [operating system] image.”

“In addition to 8.04, we chose to control our updates (via our own update repository—similar to MS update). We go the extra mile in double qualifying all updates (that one would see in stock 8.10 and 9.04) and only publish those that are rock-stable. We will [put in] select features over the course of the year that make sense for the product, like wireless improvements,”

Whatever Dell says, but noone is stopping you to install the latest version of Ubuntu. It is better and faster than the previous versions of Ubuntu. So, why not give it a try?

Ubuntu 9.04 Review

Fit PC 2 nettop launched

The Fit PC 2 nettop has been launched, which sports an Atom processor running 1GB of RAM, your-choice-of-hdd, wifi and even HDMI out. For OS, you have the choice of running XP or Ubuntu on it. It even packs micro-SD for expansion. It retails for $245, which is a pretty normal price for a nettop.