ubuntu

Freescale Semiconductor is expected to launch new silicon for Netbooks--devices that it believes will come in below $200--at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.

The ARM chip architecture-based i.MX51 processor is designed to enable "low-power, gigahertz performance netbooks at sub-$200 price points," according to Freescale, formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm.

The definition of a Netbook seems to get redefined every month, as different companies push their distinct vision of the device. And Freescale is no different. While Freescale, like Intel, believes the Netbook is a companion device to the PC, it envisions devices … Read more

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Shane in Nevada Has a computer that continually drops off his wireless network. He's tried upgrading firmware and trying new wireless … Read more

"[Insert year here] is the year of the Linux desktop!" That has been the Linux community's refrain since at least 2001. Yet it never comes true.

I am an ardent open-source advocate, but I admit to perplexity as to why the Linux community so desperately wants its year on local systems. Who cares?

Now Netbooks are giving Linux desktop enthusiasts yet another reason to proclaim a year of the Linux desktop, despite the fact that four times as many Linux Netbook customers as Windows customers return these machines because they find Linux unfamiliar and cumbersome as a … Read more

Hewlett-Packard has opted to become the last of the major computer OEMs to ship an integrated Linux desktop. Beyond the standard OpenOffice and other Linux desktop fare, HP has thrown in a modified version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, though after reading through ZDNet's description I can't fathom why I or anyone else should care about this "value-added" HP-specific Firefox.

I'm glad to see Novell's Suse Linux find a home on HP's SMB-focused machines. But I wish we could just move on from these now routine fits and starts with the Linux desktop. … Read more

Reports have spread about a possible new operating system in use at Google, one its employees have been using to browse the Web.

There are all sorts of theories about what Google is up to (from a port of Android to the desktop to a new software-as-a-service infrastructure), but I like OStatic's synopsis and theory most:

Android ported to the PC--or even the 2006-era dream of a "Goobuntu" desktop--are, of course, possible, but if not overly costly for Google to undertake, would at least be major time investments. Those sorts of investments might pay off over time, … Read more

Canonical has announced that it will be developing a version of its Ubuntu Linux desktop operating system specifically for ARM's Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processor architectures.

ARM-based processors have traditionally been used in small devices such as mobile phones, but it emerged in October that ARM's technology would soon be used in Netbooks, the new breed of small, low-cost notebook PCs. Thursday's announcement builds on that revelation, as well as on Canonical's announcement in June that it would create Netbook-specific distributions of Ubuntu.

"The release of a full Ubuntu desktop distribution supporting latest ARM technology will … Read more

As I've noted before, there is more to open-source development than lines of code written, important though that activity is. There is, for example, the critical work done by Canonical, the company behind the ubiquitous Ubuntu Linux distribution, which tends to involve more ease-of-use development than core kernel development.

Canonical CEO and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth highlights this "secondary" development in an Ubuntu Open Week interview, reported by Ars Technica. Arguing that "Ubuntu and Canonical are making a very big difference in free software, and that has little to do with how many patches in the … Read more

On Monday, I noted that Ubuntu's revenue is rising significantly, and that this success is beginning to cut into Microsoft's OEM licensing business.

Tuesday there is a chorus of voices calling out that Canonical is not cash-flow positive, with CNET reporting that profits are years away.

Is this cause of optimism or concern?

On the positive side, CEO Mark Shuttleworth is able to run Canonical toward mass adoption, not mass monetization. This means he can avoid trade-offs that might help the Canonical business but hurt the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

On the negative side, it is profit and the … Read more

Ubuntu and Canonical, the Mark Shuttleworth-founded commercial entity that supports it, have done something that seemed improbable a few years back. They've emerged as a third Linux distribution to have commercial market momentum on a worldwide basis. Prior to Ubuntu, the distribution landscape consisted of commercial and community-supported versions from Red Hat and Novell's Suse--together with some regional and "flavor of the month" distros. (See my "The Scene at the Distro" from April 2006.)

Canonical and Shuttleworth have managed to make Ubuntu into a third commercial Linux distribution that's here to stay; "… Read more