Mandriva 2010 with Moblin Desktop Environment

It’s been a busy few days on the netbook operating system front. While the vast majority of netbooks still ship with Windows, Google is about to launch a competing operating system, and the company might just have the name recognition and industry pull to make a serious dent in Microsoft’s market share. And while few netbooks still ship with Linux preloaded, there are plenty of options for users looking to replace Windows with a Linux-based OS of their choice. Here’s a roundup of news related to a few of those operating systems.

Google Chrome OS

Google could be ready to introduce a public beta version of its Chrome operating system for netbooks as early as next week. TechCrunch is reporting that a “reliable source” says Chrome OS should be ready for download within a week. I’m going to file this in the rumor category for now, but Google did say that a public beta would be available before the end of 2009 with a full release expected in early 2010.

We probably won’t see any actual netbooks running the OS for at least a few more months, but thanks to the magic of leaks, we already know a lot more about Chrome OS than we did a few months ago. At least we think we do. For instance, while the operating system will be built around a web browser and web-based services, it will have the ability to mount hard drives and let you access local files.

Mandriva 2010

The folks at Mandriva have just released Mandrive 2010 Linux which includes several netbook-friendly features. First, it’s compatible with the hardware for every currently available Asus Eee PC, which means that the audio, WiFi, sleep and resume, and other features should all work out of the box. Mandriva 2010 is also compatible with a number of other Intel Atom powered computers such as several Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind models.

Mandriva 2010 also supports two netbook-friendly user interfaces. In addition to choosing from the GNOME and KDE desktop environments, users can choose to use the Moblin or Sugar environments. There’s also a tool that lets you copy the Mandriva installer to a USB flash drive to install on a computer that doesn’t have an optical disc drive.

OpenSUSE 11.2

The team behind the OpenSUSE Linux distribution just launched OpenSUSE 11.2. And among other improvements, the new operating system includes a few netbook-friendly features including the ability to boot the openSUSE ISO from a USB stick. The operating system also includes new drivers designed to support a “wider range of netbooks.”

JoliCloud

The folks at JoliCloud are hard at work developing an operating system designed specifically for netbooks. It’s designed to integrate closely with web-based applications like Gmail and Google Docs as well as social software such as Twitter and Facebook. The OS is based on Linux, and this week the Jolicloud team updated its netbook compatibility list to include a number of additional models including the Acer Aspire One D150, the LG X110 and X120, Samsung NC10, Toshiba NB200, Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2, and HP Mini 110 and Mini 5101. For a complete list, visit the Jolicloud netbook compatibility page.

The Emtec Gdium Liberty netbook is set to go on sale in France at the Paris Fair this week for €349.

While most netbooks available today feature Intel Atom processors, 160GB hard drives, and Windows XP, there are a few companies thinking outside the box. And few of them are further outside the box than Emtec. The Gdium Liberty netbook eschews the Intel Atom processor for a MIPS-based 900MHz Loongson processor. And instead of Windows XP, the laptop comes with a custom version of Mandriva Linux with a series of widgets to give you quick access to information on your desktop or from the web.

Perhaps the most unusual thing about the Emtec Gdium Liberty is that while most netbooks use either a hard drive or cheap solid state disk with flash storage, the Gdium’s operating system runs from a removable USB flash drive. The idea is that multiple people can use the same computer, but carry their entire operating environment around with them in their pockets.

I got a chance to catch up with the folks behind the Gdium Liberty at CES. You can check out a video overview of the interface and an interview with one of the engineers behind the laptop after the break.

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Mandriva was one of the first Linux distributions to attempt to build support for netbook hardware into the standard operating system. Instead of downloading and installing a custom version of Mandriva for an Eee PC, for example, for the past year you’ve been able to install the standard version of Mandriva Linux on Eee PC netbooks and expect most of the hardware to be supported.

Now the latest version of Mandriva adds support for aditional netbooks including the Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind, and several other mini-laptops with Intel Atom processors. Additionally, Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring RC2 works with every existing Asus Eee PC model. Of course, Asus keeps putting out new models to keep Mandriva and others on their toes. But if you download now there’s a good chance that the latest Mandriva release candidate will work on your computer.

Mandriva 2009 also ships with new software including the Songbird music player and the latest versions of OpenOffice.org and  VirtualBox. Sugar OS desktop designed for the OLPC project. All you have to do is install the task-sugar metapackage.

via OSnews

I got a chance to play with the Emtec Gdium for a few minutes last night at the ShowStoppers event in Vegas. And I have to say, it’s a nice looking little netbook with a unique design and a unique operating system. It’s launching first in Europe, and should be available in the US sometime around the second quarter of 2009.

I’ve discussed the Gdium before, but here’s a recap of the things that make this netbook unique.

1. It has no hard drive or SSD. Instead, the operating system, program files, and any documents or other user data are all stored on a removable USB flash drive called a G-Key. They come in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB sizes, and the idea is that you can have one computer and multiple G-keys, which makes this netbook ideal for schools, businesses, or any institution that may want to allow multiple people to use the same computer.
2. The netbook uses a 900MHz MIPS-based Loongson processor, which means it ain’t going to run Windows anytime soon.
3. The Gdium runs a custom version of Mandriva Linux which includes user-customizable widgets that can draw data from the internet including weather forecasts, email notifications, and RSS news feeds.

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Mandriva 2009 was released a few days ago, and I just finished installing it on my Asus Eee PC 1000H. The latest version of this open source operating system comes with KDE 4.1, and up to date software including OpenOffice 3.0 (although for some reason it includes GIMP 2.4.7, even though GIMP 2.6.1 was released a week or two ago and OpenOffice.org 3.0 isn’t officially due out until today).

One of the other exciting changes in Mandriva 2009 is improved support for netbooks. Mandriva was one of the first Linux distributions to add out of the box support for the Eee PC 701 earlier this year. Mandriva 2009 supports additionaal Eee PC models as well as other netbooks. In the official product announcement, Mandriva claims that the new version will auto-detect low-resource systems or netbooks and install a GNOME desktop instead of the more resource-hungry KDE. But either I did something wrong or Mandriva 2009 doesn’t recognize the Eee PC 1000H as a low resource device. Either way, I wound up with a KDE desktop when running from the LiveCD and it stuck around after I installed the operating system.

Overall, I have to say I’m fairly impressed. This is my first experience with Mandriva, and while I’ve read that the install process in the past has been a bit tricky, Mandriva 2009 was a breeze to install. There are very few questions to answer and the whole installation took just a few minutes.

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For the last few days I’ve been puzzled by a press release announcing that Mandriva had launched a new version of its Linux distribution specifically tailored for netbooks. Puzzled because for the life of me, I couldn’t find a download link. But after doing a little more digging (and waiting for Mandriva to post a more thorough release on its own site), I think I’ve figured out why I can’t download Mandriva Mini and slap it on my Eee PC 1000H. I’m not supposed to.

Mandriva Mini is a customized version of Mandriva Linux that the company is targeting at computer makers looking for an operating system to install on netbooks. It’s not really geared at end users (unless you count the fact that end users will ultimately the folks who umm… use the software in the end). Thus, no download link. But you will soon be able to pick up a netbook with Mandriva Mini pre-installed. The first netbook expected to run the operating system is the Emtec Gdium.

So what sets Mandriva Mini apart from other versions of Mandriva? First, it’s designed to provide fast boot times on supported hardware. Like 10 to 40 second boot times. It also offers power management features to prolong batteyr life, ships with major mulltimedia codecs, and supports various forms of internet connectivity including WiFi and 3G connections.

Like Linpus Linux Lite, Asus’s custom version of Xandros, and Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Mandriva Mini also has a custom interface designed to make it easier to launch programs and perform other tasks on a computer with a small screen. I found the picture of Mandriva Mini posted above at French site Clubic.

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The current crop of Eee PC killers all look an awful lot like, well, Eee PCs. They have Intel Atom processors, sizeable hard drives or solid state disks, and 9 to 10 inch displays. At first glance, the Emtec Gdium looks just like all the rest. But there are two major things that set it apart. First, it uses a MIPS-based 900MHz Loongson CPU. Second, it has no hard drive or solid state disk. Instead, it comes with a 16GB USB flash disk with the operating system preinstalled. This way you can take your disk from computer to computer while keeping your OS, files, and applications intact.

Eee PC News.de’s Sascha Pallenberg got a chance to play with a pre-production unit at the iFA show this week. And he liked it. A lot. First off, the customized Mandriva operating system is a bit of a cross between the easy mode interface you’d find on an Eee PC and a typical Gnome desktop. The desktop features a program launcher on the left that gives you easy access to frequently used programs. But it’s surrounded by widgets with RSS feeds for items like news, mail, weather, and comics. There’s also a bar across the top of the screen that you can click on to access your program and settings menus and shortcuts.

In addition to foregoing onboard storage, Emtec seems to have made a few other unusual design choices. The speakers are to the right and left of the trackpad instead of under the case or on the display. That means there’s a good chance you’ll be covering them with your hands as you type. But it also probably means that the Gdium speakers will be a bit louder than the nearly silent speakers on the Asus Eee PC 1000H. The power button also seems to be on the screen, which is unconventional, but not necessarily a bad place for a power button.

Check out Sascha’s overview video after the jump.

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The next full release of Debian Linux will include full support for early Asus Eee PC models including the Eee PC 701 and Eee PC 900. That means ethernet and wireless should work without any patches.

The DebianEeePC team has also been releasing patches for other Eee PC models like there’s no tomorrow. You can now find ethernet drivers for the Eee PC 901, 1000, and 1000H and wireless drivers should be available soon as well.

Debian isn’t the first Linux distro to add out of the box support for the Eee PC. You can also install the latest version of Mandriva on most older Eee PCs and expect everything to work without tweaking a thing.

The folks behind Mandriva Linux already added support for the Eee PC 700/701 series to their 2008.1 release which was released in April. That means you can install Mandriva on an Eee PC from a CD or from a flash drive and it will work out of the box, no modifications necessary. That means the Fn keys, the WiFi, and the graphics should all just work.