New ARM based Netbook running on Ubuntu

[motang]

Well I am sucker for something that is new and that isn't the same old thing and this being a netbook (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39617753,00.htm) running on ARM got my attention and not to mention the price point is going to be around 199 to 250...hoping for 199. Plus the icing on the cake is it runs on my favorite OS, Ubuntu!

It's form factor and the design is just awesome, looks like a little paper back book.

I am sure to pick on up when it comes out middle of this year! ;)
How about you guys?

[PhoenixMaster00]

Looks interesting :p i quite like the P book (although i wont be telling people the P stands for purse...) The Pandora will be using ARM though so i may just get that even if it is not quite as powerful.

[motang]

P Book...nice...well the could stand for "pocket" that is if you have that big of a pocket! ;)

[amitabhishek]

Awesome! Looks much lighter than its Atom counterparts.

[b3n87]

Those are freakin' sweet. I have been waiting for a Netbook, because I knew something "bigger" would come along. Im definately keeping an eye on these ARM based netbooks.

So what exactly does the ARM architecture offer?

[PhoenixMaster00]

P Book...nice...well the could stand for "pocket" that is if you have that big of a pocket! ;)

Well i have some jeans with those side pockets... Could work. Or maybe there should an edition for us guys with a slightly more masculine name :p

[sloggerkhan]

Arm outperforms atom by miles at similar CPU freqs, however you are probably never going to see arm cpus faster than 2ghz because of architecture limitations

So depending on how these are implemented, you could be seeing something that performs better than an atom and offers a couple of days battery life.

[Bölvaður]

Im interested. Looking forward to this summer when it comes out ^^

[cmat]

Fan free operation is a bonus. They are essentially scaled up smart phone hardware. I'm impressed.

[thraxy]

Finally, they got the price right. I'd spend €200 on something like that. Sure beats the standard €600 netbooks I see everywhere. I like it :D

[red_Marvin]

I now understand why I didn't buy an eee class computer. I was subconsciously waiting for this! I hope it comes with an acceptable keyboard size though.

[motang]

Same here! I am anxiously waitng for this to come out.

[jomiolto]

I now understand why I didn't buy an eee class computer. I was subconsciously waiting for this! I hope it comes with an acceptable keyboard size though.

Yeah, I was just thinking that too :p *drools*

Seriously, these are exactly what I've been looking for -- small size, low price, long battery life and no fans or other mechanical parts. For me the performance will not be an issue, since most of the things I do are quite light (400MHz Celeron from late 90's is okay for me).

I can't wait for these to get out...

[gn2]

Very nice, I like it a lot.

[gnomeuser]

Completely silent portable computing with long battery life and it does Linux + HD playback.

How much do you want to bet I can't get that in Denmark ever.. we never get netbooks with Linux anymore. It's sad, I keep writing companies and they all say that nobody has the interest in selling them here.

[eantoranz]

When are these beauties based on ARM going to show up for anyone to buy? And has anyone made a review of GNU/Linux distros running on them?

[joey-elijah]

When are these beauties based on ARM going to show up for anyone to buy? And has anyone made a review of GNU/Linux distros running on them?

They're going to start emerging around xmas time probably.

I'm sure they would've been here sooner had the lure of Android not tempted them to really polish them up!

My next netbook will be an ARM one, for sure. Super long battery life, flalwess HD playback, linux-loving... Ahh geek-bliss!

[s3a]

Is "ARM" the CPU's architecture? If so, I've only seen that in Debian (not Ubuntu) but I'm sure there's something I'm missing since the video even mentioned Ubuntu.

[joey-elijah]

Is "ARM" the CPU's architecture? If so, I've only seen that in Debian (not Ubuntu) but I'm sure there's something I'm missing since the video even mentioned Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has had an official ARM port/version since Jaunty.

[ve4cib]

This (http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/) has been floating around for a while (pre-orders up since March, but just started shipping very recently).

It's a netbook/tablet (with a detachable screen) running off an ARM processor, but the big difference internally is that everything (including storage, wi-fi, and bluetooth, among others) is all done via USB making it (in theory) easy to upgrade/modify.

Not sure how well it will run Ubuntu, but it'll be interesting to try it out. At the very least I'll probably try running a fairly minimal version Debian on it.

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

[s3a]

What would interest me is a netbook that's the size of a playstation portable or a size that would fit in large jean/sweater pockets without showing a big bump.

[ve4cib]

The problem with something that small would be making a keyboard that's large enough to be used like a standard keyboard. If I'm using a netbook I don't want to have to thumb-type; I want a full QWERTY that I can use two-handed, fingers on home-row, etc...

For something the size you're talking about you might want to check out the Nokia N800, N810, and N900. They're internet tablets (the 900 is also a phone), so they're pocket-sized, but designed more for use as a portable web-browsing device. They also run Maemo (Nokia's Debian-based OS)

[Frak]

Want

[s3a]

The problem with something that small would be making a keyboard that's large enough to be used like a standard keyboard. If I'm using a netbook I don't want to have to thumb-type; I want a full QWERTY that I can use two-handed, fingers on home-row, etc...

For something the size you're talking about you might want to check out the Nokia N800, N810, and N900. They're internet tablets (the 900 is also a phone), so they're pocket-sized, but designed more for use as a portable web-browsing device. They also run Maemo (Nokia's Debian-based OS)

Isn't there some tiny device with specs that could handle (and of course run) a standard Debian or Ubuntu installation? I'm thinking of something tha'ts small but has the same (or similar) specs to an arm netbook or smartbook (I think that's their name) and that costs around $100. What I want is a device that could run an office suite, check the internet, use msn, and use other software like kmplot. Basically I want a computer acting like a portable device instead of a portable device acting like a computer if you know what I mean. If something of the sort exists, please point me to at least one example :).

[zmjjmz]

I already spent most of my provisions for this sort of thing on my Dell Mini 9 :(
These look awesome though, I still really want one.

[chris200x9]

did not know ubuntu had an ARM port I want to sell my macbook cd for one, ubuntu makes it sweeter thought I'd have to do a gentoo... now only if arch got an arm port :)

[shane2peru]

This is kind of an old thread, but I wanted to resurrect it. With the reading and searching I have done, I think I understood that ARM worked fine for email, web etc. but I think the drawback was getting OpenOffice to work on it. Perhaps that is an old hurdle and has been overcome, but I would like to know if it has. Also they had said they were going to be out by Christmas time, and we are starting to get close and I haven't seen anything as of yet. Are these out? Are they delayed?

Shane

[Swagman]

I'm not bothered if Open Office doesn't work on it. I think I may have used OO just twice in the last year on this full sized desktop.

Netbooks are NOT meant for serious computing at all.

Just surfing the net.. Play a few Ch00ns... and getting your emails, which you can actually get on your mobile phones these days. but it's nicer to have the bigger screen and keyboard.

[motang]

I am ok if OpenOffice won't work on it, as there are lighter alternative for it. But it basically a web surfing machine and email machine (or that is what I would use it for).


Also they had said they were going to be out by Christmas time, and we are starting to get close and I haven't seen anything as of yet. Are these out? Are they delayed?

I know that is what I am wondering myself as I would like to get one but I haven't heard anything about them being out.

[Wonderbird]

I am really looking forward to these myself. I am quite happy running Fedora on my Acer Aspire One 10" with 7 1/2 hr battery life... (When I first installed Ubuntu one version did not like the ethernet and the other did not like the wireless and Fedora worked fine with both and I was curious about it anyway...)
What I REALLY would like to see is a screen resolution of 1024x768 or better (I HATE the way our govt allows Intel AND Microsoft to dictate to OEMs what they are allowed to put in a "netbook.")
Combine this with 8hr+ battery life and a keyboard you can touch type on for a less than $300 price point and I'm sold...
Or I might be tempted with a "mobile internet device" that gives me the functionality of my present netbook and can slip in a pocket instead of carrying around in a case...

[johnb820]

I'm waiting for that MIPS based netbook running with ubuntu. Finally I could put that education of mine to good use.

[motang]

I sure hope they will be out soon!

[szantaii]

Is there any news about ARM based netbooks, recently called smartbook? I'm being curious, since I'm waiting for this kind of hardware since January when I saw an ARM based Pegatron netbook on video from Computex.
Does anybody have any kind of information of these kind of netbooks/smartbooks? I'd like to see some, and some tests as well.

[shane2peru]

OK, here are a few links I stumbled across, that don't seem terribly outdated:

http://smartbookblog.com/


http://www.meetsmartbook.com/index.php

http://buysmartbook.com/ <-- ok, this one is kind of dumb, and looks more like a search engine replacement thing.

No don't have a nuclear meltdown of excitement before you get there, they are still not out. However the blog one seems to be keeping up with the development of them. Looks like we will be waiting till mid 2010. :( Well perhaps some will wait, others will have to suffice the need some other way.

Shane

[motang]

Is there any news about ARM based netbooks, recently called smartbook? I'm being curious, since I'm waiting for this kind of hardware since January when I saw an ARM based Pegatron netbook on video from Computex.
Does anybody have any kind of information of these kind of netbooks/smartbooks? I'd like to see some, and some tests as well.
Not that I know of. :(

[hobo14]

Slightly annoyingly, this thread now seems to be duplicating a thread I started (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1253328) specifically for the current topic. :p

[andras artois]

Those are freakin' sweet. I have been waiting for a Netbook, because I knew something "bigger" would come along. Im definately keeping an eye on these ARM based netbooks.

So what exactly does the ARM architecture offer?

It kicks the poop out of the Intel atom processors for performance to size, cooling and cost.

I believe that pushing forwards with this will lead to better processor's everywhere. PC's will have processors with the same clock and performance as current ones but without all the fan/water assisting cooling.

This could then lead to processors considerably better with cooling. Obviously the architecture's going to have to change for desktop PC's and most likely laptops as well but for portable devices such as smart phones, netbooks and tablets this is going to make things a whole lot better.

I'll be holding out for an ARM netbook...

EDIT: Sorry for bringing up a dead thread. Was doing a search and didn't realise how old this was...