More Ubuntu-Powered Pocket PCs Due By End of 2008
Looking for a Linux iPhone replacement? If you can hold out a few more months, you may be able to fill that gap with Ubuntu. Slowly but surely, the mobile version of the OS is making its way on to smaller and smaller computers.
Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, recently released Ubuntu MID Edition, a version of its Linux OS for mobile devices. The mobile OS provides the Ubuntu experience on handheld hardware running the Intel Atom chipset, and it was created in collaboration with Intel and the Moblin.org community.
So far, adoption has been slow. Right now, there’s only one piece of hardware that can run Ubuntu MID Edition: the Samsung Q1. But Canonical’s Gerry Carr tells PC Pro News that the company is working quickly to get the tiny OS running on other handheld hardware which meet the baseline specifications. Carr says Canonical is working with “several manufacturers” to get Ubuntu-powered MIDs in hands and pockets before the end of the year.
This news follows Canonical’s demonstration earlier this month of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, a version of Ubuntu specifically made for the “Netbook” market of Eee PCs and such. Both Netbook Remix and Ubuntu MID Edition are what most users would consider a fully capable OS, with out-of-the-box support for web browsing, e-mail, video and audio playback, chat, VoIP calls, contact management and games, plus other hardware-specific stuff like GPS.
The Ubuntu website says the MID Edition’s browser has full Ajax and JavaScript capability, but that Flash playback and Java would be available via customized builds with extra codecs installed — a model similar to the Netbook Remix build.
