ARM netbooks, current situation

[rottentree]

no fans

How come?

[langelgjm]

No fans usually means thinner, less waste heat meaning lower power consumption, quieter, etc.

Here's a promising article. Still can't buy it, though!

[say2sky]

ARM cortex A8 is good enough for handheld device.

4-6" size device with keyboard and running an open source debian/ubuntu should have huge market.

waiting for this kind of device.

[pierro78]

actually such a handheld exists (5" screen clamshell Sharp Netwalker Z1) but I've read on oesf (user jiba) that it's no so great, notably because it misses graphics drivers which would speed it up ...

[say2sky]

I also have noticed that many ARM devices don't have 2D/3D acceleration driver for linux.

Next ubuntu verson Lucid will support ARM v7( Cortex A8 )I wonder if suitable driver will be included. Ubuntu seems have special kernel version for i.MX515 ARM cpu.

[1337]

Great topic some good informations here about ARM based netbooks . Hopefully vendors will start making them for the mass market.

[chappajar]

I'm hanging out for a decent ARM based netbook, that will be cheap, and last all day. I know there's a few ultra-low end ones around with about the same processing power as a decent calculator, but I'm looking for something a little better, maybe with a Tegra, Snapdragon, or top end Freescale processor.

The following from Engadget look promising:


Pegatron/Freescale/Ubuntu

Asus/Snapdragon/Android

This one probably not enough IMO

Pegatron/Tegra/Android

Mobinova/Tegra/Android

HP/Snapdragon/Android

Lenovo/Snapdragon/Skylight(Linux) - too expensive

Lenovo?/Snapdragon/Android

And of course now that we know Google is happy to sell hardware, it may be worth waiting for the Google netbook

EDIT:

Compaq/Snapdragon/Android

Samsung/Snapdragon/Chrome

ASUS/Snapdragon/Android

An update on the HP/SnapDragon/Android one from above: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/20/h...icial-webpage/

[P4man]

I dont think the reason we still cant buy these is hardware; I think its a combination:

- OS support.
Android is barely ready for netbook form factors (larger screens and keyboards and touchpads). Moblin (now Meego) isnt there yet. Ubuntu is kind of new on ARM. ChromeOS isnt there yet. WindowsCE, well. hah. Most OEMs seem to go for Android, but the last time I saw a demo of android on netbook form factor, it seemed there was still a lot of work to be done on the GUI side.

- Flash.
Apple may have the guts to ignore flash, but no other OEM seems that daring.

- Intel.
I cant imagine intel is not leaning very hard on OEMs to not release ARM based netbooks as this opens the floodgates for competition with Atom, and eventually even higherend x86 chips. Its almost like intel drew a line in the sand: ARM based phones and tablets are okay, netbooks are not.

Anyway, Im pretty confident these things will arrive en masse this year, and Im quite looking forward to buying one myself. Something with a 12" touch screen if possible, thank you

[chappajar]

I was confident they'd be out last year

There are some Android TVs/settop-boxes coming out, so I think they've probably got Android sorted for screens larger than phone.
Google might release a netbook (or tablet )when they release Chrome OS. I don't want Chrome (I don't have internet access everywhere) but I'll bet Google get the hardware right, so I could install Ubuntu or similar on it.

[P4man]

There are some Android TVs/settop-boxes coming out, so I think they've probably got Android sorted for screens larger than phone.

There is also keyboard/mouse(touchpad) and other GUI stuff to adapt. For instance, i just saw this preview of a $65 (!) android "netbook" that apparently is on sale already in mediamarkt (for €150):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5WrNb4hXCc

Notice how the onscreen keyboard pops up while typing and similar issues. Maybe they are solved now, but if so, they havent been for very long me thinks.

heads off to mediamarkt now to see if they actually have one of these