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TwitterGot A Netbook? Would You Like An Operating System With That?
Google Android is making some in roads into the operating system industry with its Android offering. Designed to be a light weight operating system for mobile devices it looks like Google has its sights set further than just conquering mobile phones. A recent announcement from Acer (June 2009) has indicated it will feature the Android operating system in its Aspire One range of netbooks.
Google Android is an open source operating system, is customisable, and designed specifically for mobile devices. Its killer feature is that it is free – a smart move from Google. As well as an operating system Android also delivers a number of mobile applications, some clever middleware connecting various bits up, and a software development kit.
This makes a lot of sense, one of the core features of a Netbook is Internet connectivity and Google could be well placed with its Chrome and Google Apps potentially offering a life line for using applications from the internet. Making the software development kit freely available opens opportunities for a vast array of applications to be on offer.
With various proprietary Linux flavours, a custom Windows XP Home offering, the soon to be Windows 7, Moblin and now Android it looks like the battle plans are being drawn up in the Netbook states. The one surprisingly quiet player is of course Symbian.
How long before we hear of Symbian for Netbooks or Microsoft Windows Mobile for Netbooks?
I tried the original OS for my Asus Eee, changed to Ubuntu but couldn’t get everything working, tried Ubuntu Eee which wasn’t working for me either. Ended up back with XP.
Thinking of trying Android out on my Nokia N800 NIT but would love to get it working on my Eee too – even if just for the hell of it.
The idea of next generation netbooks running a mobile operating system will definitely get some attention in the coming months. Multi-tasking operating systems like windows mobile could probably do a good job of facilitating such devices. However, there has been this cycle of bigger, smaller, hybrid that usually ends up with all of the profitability being int he “smaller is better” market. People just want one device that can do everything and that is a pipe dream for now. Even if you could get all of the technology into a small phone-like device, the screen is simply too small for any extended use. We will see.