Netbooks 2.0, with ARM processors | Hacker News Reader

Netbooks 2.0, with ARM processors

in.news.yahoo.com

13 pointsdragonquest11 comments

On the other hand, Apple already has a lot of experience with ARM processors. Add a 10" iPhone like multi touch screen and you're one your way.

Although the software giant declined to comment when asked if it is planning an operating system for the new netbooks, analysts say it could easily enter the market if it chose.

Analysts are idiots. Microsoft could bring Windows Mobile (the mobile OS that pretty much everyone, including Windows fans, agrees sucks) to Atom "easily". But could it bring Vista or Windows 7 or even XP? Probably not easily, and probably not cheaply enough for Microsoft to consider it worth doing, since it would cannibalize their higher margin full laptop and desktop license sales. Linux, on the other hand, can be on these devices easily, in the form of Android, or one of the netbook targeted full-featured distros. The innovator's dilemma strikes again.

I don't believe this is going to be a game changer for two reasons.

The first one is that the processor can't be that much of the total cost of a system. So these aren't going to be that much cheaper than a regular netbook unless they have a radical new form factor. If there is a new form factor, then it isn't really a netbook, is it?

The second is that it's all about software. Until we get to the point where everything is online, backward compatibility is still going to be very important and there are many things that people use that only run on windows. Or at least only on x86.

Almost nothing I run is x86-only. There are official builds of Ubuntu for SPARC and PPC and, now, for ARM, that bring me a full rich desktop experience with just about any computer I can lay my hands on.

I am home wherever I can run Gnome, Emacs, Subversion and Django. I see no reason, lack of commercial availability excepted, not to be running on ARM since long ago.

In fact, back in the late 90s, I had a MIPS-based IBM z-50 that ran NetBSD off a compact-flash card remarkably well. Due to its limited memory, I had do screen and ssh my way to other computers where I actually worked, but, anyway, having a completely silent portable Unix RISC workstation that ran for up to 10 hours on a single battery charge was a remarkable experience.

I think the logic is that these will be even less low-end... Cheaper CPU (plus no Windows license to pay for), smaller battery, less RAM, etc. If you're running Android you don't need as much as if you're running XP. Add that to the fact that prices have been hovering at $300 for a while which means there's probably a bit more padding these days anyway.

Not sure if that gets down to the $200 range, but I wouldn't be surprised to see $250 out the gate.

"Until we get to the point where everything is online"

They're netbooks. They're supposed to be used for online stuff. If you want to run Word, I would recommend a mini-laptop.

And anyway, you would be surprised at how many people basically use the web for everything these days.

I would say an even smaller device is actually the true "netbook" - what is sold today are, IMO, a variety of sub-notebooks, and are marketed as such. That's fine, but they're not "netbooks"!

Hackintosh that fits in my murse. Sweet!

I cannot believe anyone listens to a word Rob Enderle says after the SCO debacle. It irks me that he appears to have suffered no professsional consequences for his idiotic, misinformed pronouncements then - maybe we should have some kind of Ethical Pundit's Association for him to be drummed out of. I'd put a monkey throwing darts at a dartboard above his opportunistic nonsense.

However, the monkey does score occasionally, and by pure random chance I agree this time. When we're talking a sub-$500 device, taking off another hundred or so makes a huge difference. Current netbooks are nice toys but still too expensive; they are basically being bought as mini-laptops. A true "netbook" for $250 or so would be disruptive, I agree. That's the kind of price where the cell networks can start subsidizing the price and we enter a cellphone-style market, not a buget laptop market. Could be a big deal.

I wonder if Ubuntu Netbook will run on ARMs

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-netbook

Not in the version linked there, but Ubuntu does have an ARM version in the works:

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9527593286.html

There are already instructions on how to install the official ARM build on machines like the Nokia N-800/810.

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25...

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