Moblin 2.0 for Netbooks

[Ben Tex]

The Moblin 2.0 Beta is here and looks cool. I'm about to jump in line.

[devo]

That looks cool! I think Fox was talking about the Intel version over here.

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21953

[Fox]

I haven't tried the latest Moblin update, but I will once I'm back in Canada (I'm in Spain at the moment, con PowerBook, sans netbook). I read about the new version with mixed interest. I'm hoping wireless gives an automatic connection now with my Wind (didn't work with alpha). On the other hand, I don't do IM or facebook or any of that kind of stuff, so the new interface looks like a setback rather than an advancement to me. Perhaps some of that interface can be easily removed.

For simple interfaces that fit me better, I like the xPUD implementation of Moblin. Fast boot, wireless out of the box, simple interface that doesn't emphasize live communication. I'm hoping that the author of this distro adds an email application to it because right now there is no mechanism for adding programs and there isn't an email program installed with the xPUD distro.

Fans of fast, lightweight distros for netbooks might also want to give the latest version of Puppy Linux a try. Version 4.2.1 just came out, and while it's a bug fix, one of the bugs relates to wireless. I tried it a month ago, couldn't get wireless to connect out of the box, and then lost interest. But maybe it works now.

The lightweight distro I'm using at the moment on my netbook is #!CrunchBang Linux. Nice interface and pretty responsive, but startup time is no better than vanilla Ubuntu. (CB is based on Ubuntu.) What I really want is something that starts up in 10-20 sec and is quick and responsive for checking internet and mail. If one of these distros meets those criteria I will install it on my netbook and that's what I'd use most of the time. Moblin is probably the way to go for this.
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