Google’s Android will Run Laptops

Seattle Times ^ | June 3, 2009 | Tim Culpan

[bamahead]

Google's free mobile-phone operating system will begin running computers next quarter, entering a market dominated by Microsoft's Windows and deepening the rivalry between the two companies.

Acer, the world's second-largest laptop maker, will release a low-cost notebook featuring Android in the third quarter, Jim Wong, head of information-technology products at the Taipei, Taiwan-based company, said Tuesday.

Asustek Computer, pioneer of the sub-$500 laptops known as netbooks, also developed a model that runs on Google's software, Chairman Jonney Shih said.

The development of Android netbooks indicates that the software is powerful enough to replace Windows, which runs about 90 percent of the world's personal computers. Google's move into PC operating systems escalates the pressure on Microsoft as it prepares to introduce Windows 7, according to Calvin Huang, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Group.

"This is a negative and may force Microsoft to lower the price of Windows 7," said Huang, who covers the computer industry from Taipei. "More and more vendors are adopting Android and non-Windows in their products, so this is a very good chance for Android to penetrate the PC market."

Acer's Android-based Aspire One netbook will be cheaper than the Windows XP model, though the two products will have the same electronic components, such as Intel's Atom processor, Acer's Wong said.

"Competition in the marketplace is good and people have the right to choose software that is best for them," Amelia Agrawal, a Singapore-based spokeswoman for Microsoft, said in an e-mailed statement. "Microsoft remains confident that people will keep buying Windows, as evidenced by the robust Windows growth on small notebook PCs."

[HiTech RedNeck]

Several of which, in turn, can fit on a Blu-Ray...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Add TINY to your list....haven't tried it though.

Latest is Tiny Core Linux 1.4

Developer was heavily involved with Damn Small Linux (there) but got little credit ...story on Distrowatch..

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now that is incredible.

[dfwgator]

Android may have some kinks now, but it should get better with time.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And it has a Fortran compiler...wow!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More on the operating system:

What's the Smallest Computer that Runs Linux?

***************************EXCERPT*************************

What's the Smallest Computer that Runs Linux?

More and more Linux-powered Ultra-Mobile PCs are appearing out of nowhere. I think it started with the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) which is merely 1.45KG in weight and have an approximate dimensions of 242mm x 228mm x 32mm. Then there's the ever popular ASUS Eee PC with light as a feather weight of 895g. The list is getting longer and longer already. If you think that these new breed of ultra-portables are the smallest computers in the world that are running Linux, then you have to read on.

Meet Picotux, considered as the smallest Linux computer on earth. Actually, there are more than a few kinds of Picotux available, but the main one is the picotux 100. It is 35mm x 19mm x 19mm and just barely larger than a RJ45 connector. Two communication interfaces are provided, 10/100 Mbit/s half/full duplex Ethernet and a serial port with up to 230.400 bit/s. Five additional lines can be used for either general input/output or serial handshaking.


The Picotux 100 operates a 55 MHz 32-bit ARM7 Netsilicon NS7520 processor, with 2 MB of Flash Memory (750 KB of which contains the OS) and 8 MB SDRAM Memory. The operating system is uClinux 2.4.27 Big Endian. BusyBox 1.0 is used as main shell. The Picotux system runs at 250 mA only and 3.3 V +/- 5%.


For more details on Picotux, visit their website at www.picotux.com.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #46.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #46....Linux is having babies.

[Utilizer]

Thanks for the ref. Something else to play with later. Still evaluating some other distros at the moment but nice to have more options. Peanut Linux was OK not too long ago but now is far too bloated for My taste. So far, Knoppix, Kanotix, and Mepis seem to have a good tradeoff between hardware requirements, ntfs compatibility, and older equipment acceptance / minimal memory footprint.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

uClibc (µClibc) is a C library for developing embedded Linux systems.

[webschooner]

>> Android hopefully runs as good as it looks.

It runs great — as I mentioned, very fast, very stable, very functional and practical OS, very user friendly and very very customizable. I am one of many many who have rooted my phone. It’s fairly easy to do, instructions are all over the internet, and it opens up many new possibilities of what you can do with the phone (such as tethering it to a laptop to use as a modem for emergency use, which I do).

I really like the Android OS on a phone, and would definitely consider it later on on a netbook or a PC, as it migrates over to that platform.

[webschooner]

>> How much memory does one get on a cellphone?

The G1 that I have, the first Android phone, only has about 90MB of internal memory, but it has a micro SD slot. It comes with a 1 gig card, but I have an 8 gig SD card, and I don’t know — perhaps you can put a 16 gig card in it, I don’t know. The applications run from the internal memory, and some people run out of memory, but you have to have maybe 150 applications loaded up, give or take (depends on the size of the applications) to max it out. If your phone is rooted, as mine and many many G1 owners phones are, you can partition the SD card and run the apps from the SD card, and therefore load as many apps as you like on it.

The Android phones coming out now have more memory. The HTC Magic, already out it Europe, and out here soon (prolly different name here), has 192MB RAM and 512MB ROM, and again, has an SD card, so you can load tons of music, photos, etc. on it.

The Samsung i7500, coming out sometime this year, has 8GB of storage, 128MB of RAM, and a microSD card, up to 16GB the specs say.

[TChris]

I've just tried KioskCD.

It appears that development has stopped on it. V2.8 is available for download, with posts in the blog about better hardware support in V3.x. That was in ~2007.

I tried it on a Dell Optiplex GX280. It won't see the Broadcom NIC. *shrug*

[Utilizer]

I tried it on a Dell Optiplex GX280. It won't see the Broadcom NIC.

Hmmm. Might be a delay in the next release. The smaller distros experience this sometimes depending upon developer availability. Not sure if you want to use that particular distro for a General Purpose machine as it is expressly configured as an internet gateway distro. You might want to try the "Customizing" download so you can set up a specific netcard module or see if you can specify it during initial boot. If you are not that comfortable with command-line options, DSL (Damn Small Linux) might work out better for you as it is another minimalist distro. Your machine seems fairly new and if you have the speed and bandwidth you might try downloading some of the other distros I mentioned for a much wider automatic NIC recognition among other hardware. Specifically Knoppix, Kanotix, and Mepis seem to see all the machines I have tried them on and you might have better luck with them. I rate them the three highest on compatibility with the least amount of pain to get a straight-from-the-box operable distro. Currently trying out a fourth but no decisions yet.

I have tried out many other distros for some time and rejected most for one reason or another. From no Serial Mouse recognition (PS/2 only), to not recognizing a USB device, to poor ntfs support, or not enough default apps on the desktop. All are Live-CDs so you can play around as you wish without installing them, then if you wish pick one to install for better speed and less memory requirements. They also have fairly good online support to help you with problems -such as an unrecognized NIC during detection or a different video mode from the boot menu.

[TChris]

If you are not that comfortable with command-line options, DSL (Damn Small Linux) might work out better for you as it is another minimalist distro.

I was intrigued by the idea of a kiosk-type browser-only live CD for a couple of applications. If that would have worked, it would have been perfect. :-/

I'm not afraid of the command line, but I'm an old MS-DOS-then-Windows guy slowly learning the xNIX world. The idea of recompiling a kernel still gives me the willies.

[Utilizer]

I was intrigued by the idea of a kiosk-type browser-only live CD for a couple of applications. If that would have worked, it would have been perfect.

In that case, I suggest looking at the online help for the distros (including any for kioskCD you can find) and see what module others used for Linux to recognize their NICs. If you just want to play around a bit more you might try DSL as a simple install, then use your root (administrator) privileges to keep your drives unmounted, which will make them unwriteable to a non-root user. Modify the bootscript to autostart DSL and autologon with guest-only privileges and you have an instant kiosk machine. I would advise trying it on the kioskCD distro but I am not sure how many bootup options it supports. Still, if the Customize download helps you get your NIC recognized then perhaps that might be preferable for you.

Of course, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter is also an option for under twenty dollars... You would probably wanat to borrow one first to see if it would work (I have two here Myself -good for older computers with no ethernet capability).

[Utilizer]

Forgot to add: No kernel recompiling necessary. (I am with you on that one.)