
Netbooks 2.0, with ARM processors - dragonquest
http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20090427/1274/ttc-netbooks-2-0-another-pc-upheaval-on.html
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Anon84
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.

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SwellJoe
_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.

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jeffesp
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.

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rbanffy
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.

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mitjak
Hackintosh that fits in my _murse_. Sweet!

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sho
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.

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TweedHeads
I wonder if Ubuntu Netbook will run on ARMs

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

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

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

