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This isn't about Android being useful or needed. It's about cornering the market and monetising an open source project as best as they can. It's about maximising profit.
Now look at the bigger picture. If this runs on netbooks using Intel chips, then it'll run on just about any Intel chip. The potential of Android as a vehicle for driving search, advertising and software retail profits is huge!
Think about it. Android apps run in a Java virtual machine. That means you can run the same applications on your desktop that you run on your phone and vice versa ... seamlessly. Can the iPhone or any other smart phone OS pull the same trick? Not even other Linux based smart phone OSs can currently do that.
If Google pull this off they'll basically have unified all three of the major personal computing platforms available in 2010. They'll have a product with genuinely unique abilities.
And basically the article says nothing different: It makes no sense, yet. But those who have eyes see ;)
You can very easy install a realtime kernel in linux, with very little hassle.
it'll be interesting to see where this goes and doesn't go.
The issue then becomes size and processing power. When people are not on the move, they will probably want to have a bigger screen, a keyboard/mouse and more processing power.
Users who already have an Android smartphone and have 100% of their needs satisfied with it, will probably be comfortable with an Android netbook/notebook. Why would they want to deal with a different OS, viruses, spyware, disk defragmentation, shorter battery life, slower operational speed, higher hardware & OS costs, etc., just to have Windows?
I think the future for Android netbooks/notebooks will be VERY bright! Perhaps, in the short term, it could dual boot to something like Ubuntu, if/when a full OS is required (e.g. OpenOffice).
Yes, you will always be getting people saying that I need it to run PhotoShop etc.. no problems, Adobe either port it over or say, "Sorry you need a more powerful PC"
Bring me a lean, fast, basic OS that I can use to access the web and do some basic office stuff on, and I'l be happy. Oh, and smaller footprint OS also mean lower power consumption.
The advantage of the ARM laptops will be following:
- Much longer battery life, probably 15-20 hours with the correct screen technology (Pixel Qi)
- Cheaper then Intel Atom netbooks. Probably starting below $200, pointing towards $100 per laptop for the cheapest entry level 7" models.
- Instant-on and some faster nearly instant loading applications. Better and faster integration of certain tasks such as waking up on HSDPA on incoming IM, VOIP, Email calls and other pings.
So look for it this year. $100 and $200 Google Android ARM Cortex laptops with 20 hour battery life and a sunlight readable LED backlit screen.
Google has also said they are porting all the Google Chrome features to ARM based Android OS. This could provide a totally completely smooth browsing experience on ARM, and what else do you really need. IM, VOIP and stuff like that are just details and those most certainly will work perfectly well integrated even with possible LED lights on the border of the device dedicated to alerting about "incoming email" "incoming IM message" "RSS feed updated" and other types of customized pings.
ARM has also said they are totally working with the Ubuntu people right now to have a perfect Ubuntu port available for ARM Cortex very very soon. Aleady there are more than 5000 available Linux applications compiled for ARM platforms.
So basically I think it's most likely that the Google OS we have all be waiting for is Google Android and it is embedded much more than it will be on X86. Android embedded is also good to fight global warming. We need that all our laptops use the minimum of power, less than 1W in use, and only ARM can achieve that with also complete instant on resume from RAM with absolute zero power consumption in standby mode.
If I may, I also posted a bunch of videos showing existing Chinese designs for ARM and MIPS based laptops at http://techvideoblog.com/category/laptops/ - I can't wait to see Google Android working on one of those real existing $100 laptops.
But will be carriers playing along with these netbooks ? For now, in a typical country on average 80% of all phones are sold in carrier stores. Will we be able to buy these netbooks in operator stores like Verizon ? How will the carriers react to all these developments ? How will their business models, particularly pricing look like ? Or will these devices be sold elsewhere ? Imo that's a set of major issues we will hear a lot about this year. Needless to say, they will have a lot of significance for startups, too.
It doesn't take much for laptop / netbook manufacturers to include a 3g/3.5g radio on a chip in their laptop and let you just drop in a SIM for your selected carrier. But it makes more sense to do these bundled deals for now as of course all carriers prefer contact lock-in to guarantee a revenue stream.
how i can download and install the android to my eeepc, and there is way for my palm os and the se p910 smartphone?
Yes, there's been some talk about carriers selling, even subsidizing (under contracts) netbooks:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Expect-Wirel...
Rise of the Netbook
Funny, when you tell that to someone, who is the Eclipse CDT Lead and works for Wind River. :)
However, I also agree that Android is not really about Linux. Currently the Linux kernel has the broadest range of hardware support, broadest range of features, and acceptable licensing conditions for corporations. This made it an ideal kernel candidate for the Android platform.
On the other hand Android only uses the parts of the Linux userland that made sense for their purpose. They did not try to replicate a regular GNU/Linux system on a mobile phone. They were not shy to break the "unwritten rules" of how you create a "Linux Phone".
Best Regards,
Gergely
To take a different twist on the subject, Android is more about a Java platform than a Linux platform. Chrome on the other hand is really about JavaScript. Chrome and Android don't mix, and I have a feeling neither do their developers. They're spreading different messages.
As you'll see in my blog, my bet is on WebKit (which is the foundation of Chrome but with an upcoming JavaScript VM that's as good as or better than Google's V8 VM) for netbooks. You can do that with a plain vanilla Linux platform. You don't need Android.
It is a capable platform where people seem to developing capable applications. And as long as the browser is up to snuff, why not have such a device as your primary device. I am not sure most computer users need "full powered apps". Usually full powered means specialized. I can't say I have really taken advantage of my MacBook Pro Dual Core with 4GB of RAM.
Maybe these netbooks and phones evolve into communication/media devices which become most users primary devices.
Is the time now? No.
Is the time soon? Yes.
As you say Gergely I've also got the impression that Google is pretty pragmatical in picking what they think they need. To support your argument further I hear that in some respects Chrome/WebKit has become more important to Google than Android. Still, as far as I'm aware Google looks on all of them as projects going in the same direction as we commented on before. http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/17/android-round...
I run Debian on a Netbook and can't think of any need Android would feed better than Debian does for that.
Whent it comes to phones, this is a nother story : I still wait for a satisfying fully featured, Free OS based, phone (and look closely to the next coming Android phones of course)
Argh, that's a bit quick... Proprietary software has already shown how choatic it may be...
Don't get me wrong. I agree with the scenario of "open" unified approach to desktop, mobile and web with app marketplace tie in as potentially a big thing.
In fact, I think that it's the number one reason that Apple and Google are destined to become "frienemies" in the year ahead (check out The Chess Masters: Apple versus Google - http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/03/the-... - for more on that topic).
But a lot can happen between now and 2010 to render this topic irrelevant...or a game changer. It's just not news right now, IMHO.
However as we wrote you can find a lot instructions in the Google Android Porting Group, particularly here: http://groups.google.com/group/android-porting/...
http://amazonbest.blogspot.com/
If android is available for netbook in 2009 then we just wait Microsoft were surrounded by the opensource software opensource.
Could be the end of Microsoft in netbook market?
http://www.kogan.com.au/shop/android-powered-ko...
Disclaimer: no relationship with Kogan except for having one on order.. ;-)
I'd love to see this done on an Acer Aspire One, if a how-to was written I'd do it in a second.
I think before Android can be taken seriously as a full-fledged netbook OS, however, it needs a full browser at least. Android doesn't have any way to word process or view PDFs, etc. I'd also think that it would need a more robust media player and file browser. If it had a full web browser (Chrome with Flash, obviously) you could use Google Docs or similar services for an office suite and online music and video services could replace most of what a media player would be used for. With even one of the simple file explorers in the Marketplace (I like OI File Manager) and a full browser, I'd be more than happy to use Android full-time on my netbook.
1: Run a full browser with no compromises. Must run javascript an common externtions and plugins.
2. Must support RDP, VNC and Citrix remore desktop connections
3. Boot in less than 30 seconds, and suspend and resume almost instantly.
This would pull me away from a full laptop
There are certain things I have to "not do" on Android right now, that cause me to switch over to my desktop or my Samsung Q1 Ultra (with Ubuntu UMPC, don't worry, I haven't gone over to the darkside). These are all things I find annoying when I can't do them on my phone, but that I would find to be absolutely necessary on a netbook (or desktop). These are:
1) Google Reader - add/edit tags for an article, add subscriptions, change subscription settings. Also, there are some "UI shortcomings" on the Android version: lack of shortcuts, lack of "total article count" at the top of the article list.
2) Gmail - add/edit filters and labels, "filter messages like this", "send as" one of my other registered email addresses.
3) Google Docs - last I checked, Android doesn't support full read/write of Google Docs. I'm also not sure if it will fully display PDFs, Word, and Excel documents. What I would want is all of that, plus some ability to sync the various Android notes and tasks/to-do lists into some level of Google App (there's a new tasks/todo feature in Gmail or Google Calendar, so that's one option, and then just adding plain text and rich text support to Google Docs would probably handle the rest, along with a sync utility for the Android notepad and todo apps).
4) I haven't been able to get VNC Viewer and SSH (connectbot) to work together. This would be a "novelty" on my phone, but a necessity on a netbook or tablet. Further, on a netbook, I'm going to want to export my display some how (manipulate the netbook from my desktop) -- I do this on my Samsung, for example. But I mainly run the VNC server on my samsung because the software for mirroring the display out to the external VGA port is kind of broken (what it does: want to step down to 800x600 resolution; what it should do: display the 1024x600 screen with letter boxing on the 1024x768 screen).
5) The built-in IM client doesn't allow you to use non-Google Jabber accounts, nor IRC. I would want both of those handled. And I'm not sure the UI is ideal for managing multiple conversations. Further, I would want to be able to log conversations to plain text files on an SD card or something.
6) SyncML client for Calendar data. Funambol gives you SyncML client for contacts, but that doesn't help me with my work calendar server :-)
If those things got handled, I'd be interested in an Android netbook. And that's not a huge/insurmountable list.
Ideally, if they were to put it on a convertible/tablet netbook (like the Fujitsu U820), 7-8.9 screen (has to fit in my Maxpedition Colossus gear bag), at least an 800×480 resolution, at least one SDHC card slot, at least 1 USB Host port (external keyboard/mouse, hopefully OTG support), with an supported internal 3G option (such as a usable PCI-Express Mini card slot, with available antenna), and obviously wifi, I'd buy it. Bonus if it can charge and share its data via a USB client port.
..and why cannot windows mobile OS be ported on the asus eeepc?
what happens if MS also decides so? asus is already selling these notebooks with win xp preinstalled (of course linux also)
We will have an Android for the desktop in the next year
If the port Gcc ... and OpenOffice and Games will become
one of the main Linux Distributions during 2009.
http://www.infocelular.com
Thanks
I can't see anything I would do with an Android based Netbook that I could not do with a Debian based one.
Netbooks with excellent Free OS already exist, Phones with excellent Free OS don't. And I am quite sure everybody in the OHA knows that.
Best of all, Apple has the style and edge that made evryone droolin for an iphone. Just admit. Apple is the best.
Go MAC!!!
Oh I can't wait!
Best of all, Apple has the style and edge that made evryone droolin for an iphone. Just admit. Apple is the best.
Go MAC!!!---------------------
whoever you are you are def. a fanboy and one of the reasons people get sick of apple.
as a veteran of the industry i can assure you that you are neither experienced.. are know anything about business..
proprietary formats are always the downfall of a company. it may take some time but a completely closed system will always f you aver in the end.
competition promotes change, change promotes new devices and technology being released into the market. witch in the end benefits us all. so saying that sticking with one company and never looking outside the box is a goo idea is totally retarded. if that was the way everything worked and should work why aren't you a windows fan boy.....
don't bury your head in the apple whole.. there not as good as you think...
the i phone is very limited in what it has going for it.. its a p.o.s. in my opinion.
yes the g.u.i. is wonderful.. but the hardware sucks.. shoddy and low quality 3g chip set.
crappy camera. no video. oh and did i mention the one reason the i phone will get raped in the business world by the blackberry... you cant take out the battery... really... the best.... wtf.
oh and dont get me into pcs and laptops... about 2 months ago my neighbors acer aspire gpu too a crap.. so you know what i did... bought a mxm mark 3 8600gt and changed it.. not all laptops cant do that but your for damn sure you cant do it on any apple...
oh ya... my hp 6910p work laptop.. has air vents on the bottom and and side. the big and breath well... i wouldn't go calling that a feature... but uhhhh..... go to the apple store...... that style that getting you all hot and bothered about apple ... caused them to make a laptop with shitty cooling that burns your damn legs off ...
windows is not the best....apple is not the best .... linux unix and the other 10 million open source distros are not the answer...
the answer comes from a calculated decision an what your main applications for a system are and weighing the pros and cons...of your different choices...
now i hate to rant on apple. because they have there plus points..
but as most of the rest of the posters seem to to be quite educated and there is obviously some industry techs in here...... it is insulting when you have some b.s. thrown out from a 15 year old apple fanboy in the middle of a grown up conversation...
you need to grow up... learn a little ... maybe even go to college... and when you do... come back and talk useful.
btw not a mac hater... typing this on a power book g4 and i have a i phone 3g in my pocket.
ryan03rr
Sorry about the caps.
Google have shown that they can answer just about all of the tech challenges mentioned above but the crucial difference, (and it only has to be a slight initial difference to lead to long term dominance) is that they have a proven monetisation that the others don't have.
Time to short Microsoft....
Ronnie
Here is a "eeedroid : android on asus eeepc701"' 's video tutorial and fresh software to download
test it a:
http://digg.com/gadgets
/Android_netbooks_on_their_way_likely_by_2010?t=23304073#c23304073
http://www.newlc.com/en/android-everywhere-phon...
Marshal,
Hack msn, hack games, ...
Everything is defined by price. If such device would cost me less then $100 I would take 3 for everybody in my family.
1. I have 2.3 Core Two Dual PC at home running Windows 7 RC. It is good! It is my primary PC we do everything on it.
2. I have 3.2 Ghz single core 5 years old PC running Ubuntu. I don't really need this computer. It has weak video card. I would rather install Windows on it, buts since it was infected all the time I decided to install Ubuntu on it and forget about viruses. We use it when primary PC is occupied.
3. I have Pentium III 700 notebook running Ubuntu as well. My kid likes it! It has a huge repository of free education software and 2D arcade games. He is happy to play them. And I am happy that he does not play flash games over internet and does not play RPG games suitable only for backbone brains development.
Now what I really need is light weight internet browser to read New York times seating in sofa. All that Ads showing some idiot having laptop in hands and seating in sofa are stupid. It does not work. 3 pound notebooks are anyway heavy and very hot to use them as hand held device. The only way to use notebook is to put it on any kind of surface but not having it in hands. So these new generation of internet enabled devices should become real hand held devices for every day.
Google know how to play their cards; but mind you, I don't know a single person who owns a Google Phone...
Virgin know how to play their cards; but why do most of my friends and family own sky and drink normal coca cola?
Apple quote unquote etc.
Well I think google are doing amazingly better than they thought they'd do in 2000, but monopolies don't work, so they best be careful. Either way, I won't mind seeing google on my screen in the near future.
You could always have windows or versions of linux on the same machine as well if you wished in other partitions or whatnot for when you need certain programs or applications.