Topic: Smartbooks

[Nemesis]

Link to 1st article

Glen Burchers, consumer marketing director at Freescale Semiconductor Inc., says those features could include all-day battery life, instant-on capability and "persistent connectivity," and specs such as an ARM-based chip core, a Linux OS version like Google Inc.'s Android, and, most importantly to consumers, a price point significantly lower than today's netbooks.

"We fully expect $199 devices with 8.9-inch screens, Wi-Fi, full-sized keyboard, 8-hour battery life, 512MB of RAM and 4-8 Gigabytes of [solid-state] storage by the end of the year," Burchers said.

2nd article

Microsoft's mainstream Windows operating systems are designed to run on the x86 instruction set used by Intel, and AMD and won't run on the ARM-based processors used in the new machines. The company has no plans to port a PC version of Windows over to the ARM core, said Steve Guggenheimer, who runs Microsoft's original equipment manufacturer division, in an interview at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Microsoft does offer a version of Windows Mobile that is compatible with ARM chips but doesn't have plans to develop that for the technically more capable environment of a smartbook, he added.

I've been hearing of these for a while.  Cheap and long battery lives.  Sounds good to me for the use I would have for them or for a netbook.

[SkyFlyer]

Linux can be compiled to run on ARM.

Also, if you were able to produce a powerful enough arm chip, you could just virtualize windows on top.

[Nemesis]

Linux can be compiled to run on ARM.

Also, if you were able to produce a powerful enough arm chip, you could just virtualize windows on top.

Debian is complied for ARM among other chip and has large repositories of precompiled software for it.

[SkyFlyer]

Linux can be compiled to run on ARM.

Also, if you were able to produce a powerful enough arm chip, you could just virtualize windows on top.

Debian is complied for ARM among other chip and has large repositories of precompiled software for it.

Yup, I know, I run debian on my laptop.

[Nemesis]

Yup, I know, I run debian on my laptop.

I myself use a version of Linux Mint (KDE) which is a derivative of Ubuntu which is itself derived from Debian.  It is my primary desktop and the newest KDE version is on my laptop to experiment with (but currently loaned to my youngest sister).

[SkyFlyer]

I've seen a few screenies of linux mint... it looks nice but I don't see why I should switch from debian.

[Nemesis]

I've seen a few screenies of linux mint... it looks nice but I don't see why I should switch from debian.

I don't say you should.  Each has its advantages.

[SkyFlyer]

I've seen a few screenies of linux mint... it looks nice but I don't see why I should switch from debian.

I don't say you should.  Each has its advantages.

Do you know how mint is compatibility wise when it comes to tablets?

[Nemesis]

Do you know how mint is compatibility wise when it comes to tablets?

Not a clue.  I've never been interested in tablets so I haven't paid much attention to them.

[Tulwar]

I'm thinking about buying one, myself.  It would be nice to have a little machine for storing my field manuals and parts catalogs.  I'm  not willing to part with three and a half bills, just now.  I'd like to load it with as little software running in the background, so I wouldn't have to wait all day to open a pdf file.

[SkyFlyer]

Do you know how mint is compatibility wise when it comes to tablets?

Not a clue.  I've never been interested in tablets so I haven't paid much attention to them.

Makes taking notes in school quite easy. I also get 6-8 hours with the extended battery (more than enough time for all of my classes).