It sounds like a character from Lord of the Rings doesn’t it? Moblin is an Intel-created open-source operating system for netbooks and, specifically, the kind of people who use them.
Moblin is just another distribution of Linux (based on Fedora), although it’s one that benefits from some unique tweaks and a newly designed user-interface. However, traditional applications take a back seat, and what some of you might expect are missing (there’s no GIMP or OpenOffice.org, for example). Moblin is based on the familiar GNOME/GTK desktop, like distros such as Ubuntu, but this is largely invisible because of the UI improvements.
Moblin is open source, and free of charge, so you can download and try it yourself. Like most of Intel’s mainstream processors, the Atom is essentially an x86 chip, so you should be able to run Moblin on any computer, or in a virtualised environment. However, its hardware support is deliberately limited to what is usually found in netbook computers.
The first beta of Moblin v2.0 has just been released, and I decided to take a play with it.
Initial reviews of it aren’t that impressive. Some of the bugs identified have been hardware configuration issues such as setting up wi-fi and an inability to click in text fields within a browser. Incidentally, and perhaps surprisingly, Moblin appears not to know that Google exists. You can setup Google Talk for chatting, but its browser suggests searching Yahoo! by default! It seems there is a lack of support for Google which would clearly be a drawback as the majority of on-line users are on Google applications.
Another aspect that completely caught me off-guard was the fact that Moblin comes with an email client. This makes little sense, as a netbook is considered as a secondary computer that is specifically designed for lightweight “on-line” use. Downloading emails to a computer negates this purpose entirely.
Having said all this, Moblin has its brighter side.
Moblin looks and feels terrific. Some say it’s at the Apple-like levels of attractiveness. Across the top of the screen is a range of icons representing various activities you can do. This is effectively a floating toolbar, because it disappears when you don’t need it. When the mouse runs over the toolbar, its icons jiggle about in a neat way. A typical desktop design in Apple and in most Linux distributions. This gives everything a fun feel, and reminds you that this is not a business-oriented OS. Moblin is for things you want to do, not things you have to do.
Once you select an icon, its program window pop-out beneath the toolbar. The program window might fill just half of the screen, such as with the Status Update tool by which you can post to Twitter, or it might fill the entire screen, as with the browser.
In my books, Moblin still has a long way to go. Competition for Google Chrome OS? I hope so. Because it brings the best out of the vendors. Check it out! |
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