Moblin
Screenshot of Moblin 2.1
Moblin, short for 'mobile Linux', was an open source operating system and application stack for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, nettops and embedded devices.[1] It has since been merged into the MeeGo project, and bears its name. Built around the Intel Atom processor, current builds are designed to minimize boot times and power consumption to create a netbook and MID-centric operating system. The netbook/desktop version of Moblin currently supports other chipsets based on the SSSE3 instruction set, such as the Core2 and some Celeron processors.
Commercial products built around Moblin 2 include a Foxconn netbook[2] and an InvenTech smartphone[3], both announced at Computex 2009. Acer has also announced the replacement of Linpus Linux with Moblin on their Acer Aspire One netbooks.[4][5] For its mobile Internet device class smartphone LG GW990, LG Electronics chose Moblin OS 2.1[6][7]. More recently, Dell began accepting orders for its Ubuntu Moblin Remix, a Canonical Ltd. project that builds Moblin using a more full-featured Ubuntu distribution as base [8]. Mandriva has started to offer Moblin's v2 version to all Mandriva distribution and netbook owners. [9]
At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010, MSI and Novell announced the upcoming availability of SUSE Moblin preloaded on the MSI U135 netbook. Following the recent release of Moblin version 2.1, this marks the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to sell a fully supported Intel Atom processor-based netbook running Moblin-based technology to consumers. It was demonstrated at both the MSI and Intel booths at the show.[10] In addition, Samsung showed four netbooks preloaded with SUSE Moblin.
At the Mobile World Congress in February 2010, it was announced that the Moblin project would be merging with Maemo to create the MeeGo mobile software platform.
Contents
[edit] History
Intel launched the Moblin.org site in July 2007 and significantly updated the site in April 2008 with the launch of the Intel Atom processor family at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. A custom software development kit (SDK) is available on the site. The Moblin 2 OS was specifically designed to run on an Intel Atom processor in a netbook.[11]
In April 2009 Intel turned Moblin over to the Linux Foundation.[12][13] Development is now overseen by the Moblin Steering Committee, currently consisting of Imad Sousou, Arjan van de Ven, Matthew Allum, and Rusty Lynch. Except for Matthew Allum, founder of Intel's recently acquired OpenedHand,[14] all committee members are Intel employees.[15][16][17]
[edit] Moblin 2
At the Linux Collaboration Summit in April 2009, Intel demonstrated that the Moblin 2 alpha release can load major components of the stack, including the graphics system, and start up in mere seconds.[18] On May 19 2009, Imad Sousou announced the release of Moblin v2.0 beta for Netbooks and Nettops for developer testing.[19] Moblin 2's Core distribution is based on recent builds of Fedora, but other distributions to announce future support for the core Moblin stack include Linpus[4] and Ubuntu.[20][21]
This second major release marked a shift from the Xfce desktop environment to a custom-built GNOME Mobile UI based on OpenedHand's Clutter, a key piece of the Maemo graphical environment, built around the X Window System. The new UI also includes an integrated Gecko web browser.[22]The Register was impressed by the interface but noted the presence of "quite a few apparent bugs" and described the beta release of Moblin 2 as "closer to an alpha than a beta." [23].
[edit] Major components
The Intel team has acknowledged that Moblin v2.0 is built using the openSUSE Build Service.[citation needed]
[edit] Applications
Moblin 2's interface is designed for netbook and nettops and built on open source graphics technology, such as Clutter, DRI2, and KMS, which are designed around toolbars and panels available at the top of the screen.
