Linux

Timed perfectly with the deluge of mini-notebook news coming out of Computex, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, announced its new operating system: Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Set to arrive preinstalled on mini-notebooks later this year, the Ubuntu Netbook Remix will feature some of our open-source faves such as Firefox 3, Thunderbird, Pidgin, OpenOffice, Rhythmbox, FBReader, Lifrea, and F-spot.

We sat down for a conversation with Gerry Carr, marketing manager at Canonical, to discuss the new Atom-powered OS that’s designed to make Ubuntu the face of the mini-notebook space.

What is Ubuntu Netbook Remix and how does it differ from other Linux distributions?
It’s not a distribution. Those are products with daily builds for end users to get the ISO and put on any PC. This isn’t. We’re calling it a remix, so basically it takes the core elements built into the desktop edition and it’s optimized for the Intel Atom processor. It’s built for small-factor machines and is fast-on, fast-off. It’s all about getting on the Web quickly, as that’s the primary user experience on these machines. It’s built equally for touch as it is for mass driven.

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Earlier this morning, Verizon Wireless announced that it has joined the LiMo Foundation, and that it has taken a seat on the board of directors. LiMo was created in 2007 by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone with the goal of creating an open mobile Linux platform for mobile consumer electronics.

In late November, Verizon Wireless announced that its network would be open to qualified handsets and other consumer electronics that met its standards. Then in March of this year, the FCC revealed that Verizon Wireless had won the coveted C-block of the 700MHz spectrum, which by law, is required to remain an open network. Given the tensions between Verizon Wireless and Google, it doesn’t shock us that the carrier has chosen LiMo, first, over Google’s Android platform in its quest for openness. Here are the highlights from today’s press conference.

• LiMo will become the preferred OS for Verizon Wireless’ handsets, starting with lower end feature phones and scaling up to smart phones later.

• The first LiMo-based devices will take “many months” to develop, and they will debut in 2009.

• Verizon Wireless will be dedicating resources to this initiative above and beyond what the carrier already does for OSes like Brew, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry, and during the call it was explained that this would require that Verizon hire more talent that has an expertise in open-source software (which is a good sign).

• Android isn’t off the table by any stretch, but it seems that at least for the immediate future LiMo will be the platform of choice for devices Verizon Wireless itself rolls out, while Android will be more of a back door offering through the carrier’s separate Any Apps, Any Device initiative. Although that could change if there’s enough demand.

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