A Windows-Mac Alternative: Moblin by Linux October 14, 2009
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : Computers, First Look/Reviews, IDF , trackback
RUN! IT’S A MOBLIN!
Alright, so chances are, if you’ve used a computer in the past few years, you’ve heard of the basic factions of operating systems – Mac, and Windows. Chances are you’ve used both over the years. But, there is a third major OS – Linux, which I for one, and I’m guessing that many of you as well, haven’t had a chance to use. Now, unlike the Mac or Windows, Linux comes in tons of varieties. But the one I’ll be focusing on here is Moblin, which Intel is involved in, and we had the chance to see at IDF this year.
Moblin is designed specifically built for netbooks running Intel’s Atom processor. Right now, only a handful of systems are fully supported, mine not being one of them, so not everything worked perfectly. Also, hesitant to sacrifice my computer to Moblin just yet, I only ran it off a flash drive, which may have accounted for some of my issues.
First off, I’d like to talk about the main page – the myzone. As you can see in the screenshot above, it’ll show you your calendar, social network updates (right now: twitter and last.fm), and in the middle, recently viewed files, sites, and media. It’s basically your home base.
Next is the status tab, which lets you update your statuses on twitter, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, etc. The people tab is your IM window/Contact list. From here, you can IM friends, email, video chat (which actually worked, surprisingly).
Moblin has a built in browser, but has support for other applications as well, including Firefox. Moblin has an application database of free, combatible Apps in an Application called Moblin Garage, which was just added in the 2.1 update, still in beta
I wasn’t able to try out media so well, since it refused to work on my netbook – whether due to imcombatibility or flash drive issues, I have yet to discover.
Pasteboard is the next tool in the userbar (for lack of a better term). It’s copy and paste on steroids basically. Remembers history for copy/paste. Finally there’s the application tab, which has the rest of the, well, applications, which include a Word Processor (which is fine for taking notes), some built in games, (yes, there is Solitaire and Minesweeper), IMing, File Browser (like Finder/Explorer on Mac/Windows), among others. Basically everything you need for a quick, light, computing experience.
Last, there’s Zone, kinda like Spaces on a Mac, which allows you to have multiple applications open while keeping them organized.
So, overall – Moblin. It’s fun, light, and interesting. Nice to use. But I’m still gonna recomend, at least for casual users, NOT to install it just yet. There are still some issues to be worked out, and while nice, consider whether you’d REALLY like to wipe out Windows just for it. And as of right now, I haven’t managed to find a way to dual boot Windows with Linux yet, but if it’s possible, then its a whole different story.
BUT – Moblin is cool and fun to use. And if you’d REALLY like to try it out, tune in later this week – I’ll be posting a how-to on using Moblin on your computer without wiping it out. Not for the meek, but for those who simply MUST try it, it’ll be there soon.
Anyone out there use Moblin already? What’re you thoughts? Sound off in the comments.
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