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Linux makes headway in netbooks, smartphones
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Netbooks, like this Dell model, also come in Linux (Dell)
So many stories about open source Linux becoming “mainstream” appear every year at Linux events that’s it’s become a cliché among technology reporters.
Yet as OpenSource World opened yesterday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Linux advocates pointed to two important inroads the open source operating system is making against the dominant Windows platform: netbooks and smartphones.
Netbooks, the cheaper, smaller, simpler alternative to notebook computers are the computer industry’s latest success story. IDC reports 10 million netbooks were sold in 2008 and that sales may double this year and increase by another 25 percent in 2010.
Advocates of Linux argue that it is the ideal OS for netbooks in that, because it is free and open source, it can make netbooks cheaper still.
“Now we have this really cheap device, and paying $200 or so for a copy of Windows or a copy of Office to put on this $200 device kind of kills the model,” argued Stormy Peters, executive director of the Gnome Foundation, who appeared on a panel discussion Wednesday titled “"The State of Installed Desktops and Netbooks 2009."
The Gnome Foundation manages the Gnome project, the open source platform for creating the user interface that people see when they turn on their Linux-powered computer. More than they have with traditional notebooks and desktop computers, manufacturers are offering a Linux alternative to computers that run the Microsoft Windows XP OS.
Netbook manufacturers, including Acer, Ausus, Dell, HP and others, sell the Windows XP versions alongside their Linux versions on their Web sites and in stores. At HP.com, an HP Mini 110 Mi Edition running Linux appears on the same search results page as the Mini 110 XP Edition running Windows. The Linux model sells for $279.99, $50 less than the Windows version.
The netbook came about as computer makers were trying to design a portable computer for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, an industry collaboration to develop a $100 laptop to bring computing power to children in developing countries, Peters explained. OLPC didn’t quite hit the $100 mark, but even at $200 it found a product to sell to bargain hunting consumers in developed countries.
Offering a Linux alternative to Windows netbooks can keep the machines affordable, she added. The Gnome user interface on a Linux netbook is designed to be intuitive and quickly mastered by someone used to the Windows experience.
“I think the Windows XP experience will be so painful that it will be much easier to adjust to Linux,” Peters said. “It uses the real estate on the screen better and you can find what you’re looking for easier.”
Linux has gained ground in the smartphone space, too, especially with the introduction of Android, the Linux-based mobile platform offered by Google. Also, Linux developers have opportunities to develop native applications for smartphones that run better than mobile applications run through the devices’ Web browsers.
With e-mail, calendar, photos, Facebook, Twitter and other applications delivered through the mobile browser, it often can’t deliver, Peters argued. “I think making all our applications flow through the browser is really slowing things up.”
That’s why developers are coming up with native applications for netbooks or smartphones, which offer customers more choices.
“That way we’ll get to see what users like best in different situations,” Peters said.
Open Source World, produced by IDG Expo and running concurrently with the Next Generation Data Center and CloudWorld conferences, concludes today.
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