Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Thursday 29 January 2009, 12:28 PM
Intel's Moblin 2 Atom Linux distro goes alpha
A key feature of the new version is "Fastboot", which is pretty much what it says on the tin. The Project promises "unprecedented speed for a general purpose Linux". Also included is the new ConnMan connectivity manager and the new Moblin Image Creator and installation tool.
The UI is "under heavy development" and the final version "will not be based on XFCE", apparently. 3D performance is also "known to be slow". The required specs for Moblin 2 appear to include the Atom or a Core 2 Duo processor - I wonder if the half-Intel-half-nVidia Ion platform will be supported, come the final version...
PreviousComments on this post
Hi David. I (selfishly) wonder about the VIA CPU and associated chips as well... but I think that would be too much generosity to expect.
jw
Sorry Jamie but Moblin only works on Intel graphics however it does apparently recognise Broadcom wireless network adaptors.
I'm downloading a live version just now to try out.
Moley - I'm not surprised, in fact I would have been surprised if it had been otherwise. But I am glad to hear that you are downloading it, and I am anxious to hear from you how it works. Not least because I just saw an offer for a Lenovo S10e, like yours, at a good price here... maybe I can convince my partner that she really needs a netbook and she just doesn't realize it...
jw
I do like my Lenovo S10e but I'm disappointed to see that the best price is now lower still than when I purchased it only about 10 days ago.
I haven't been able to get the Broadcom Wireless working in Ubuntu yet, but that may be partly down to my lack of skill with the more technical input required to resolve this problem.
With regards to Moblin, I guess it's still an Alpha with features and drivers missing but it does have potential. However, neither my broadcom wireless adapter nor my Broadband ethernet connection work nor, in fact, does the Bluetooth which I guess is Broadcom too. That even though the Moblin site suggested that Broadcom is supported.
Booting from the live CD is really pretty slow, there is the possibility of running it from a USB device which would likely be a bit quicker, but I haven't quite got my head around that one yet. The image downloaded requires to be transferred to the USB by dd. I used ISO Recorder V2 RC1 in XP to write the CD from the downloaded file (an image).
Whilst Moblin is quite attractive and will probably develop well, it is a work in progress, but stable nonetheless. No power management yet so the fan runs full speed all the time. The screen is really excellent. However, since there is no Internet connection, I couldn't download any additional software, etc.
As for Windows 7, I'm still liking it.
David - Sorry, we didn't intend to hijack the comments on your article for what turned into a not-very-directly-related discussion. To get back to the original topic, have you seen or heard any kind of schedule for when Moblin will work its way through alpha, beta and to release? I just read the release announcement that you linked again, and I don't see anything there.
jw
No worries - hijack away! It;s a good discussion. No, I don't yet know the Moblin 2 roadmap, but I'll see what I can find out.
