14 DAY TRIAL // During the Intel Developer Forum, which took place in San Francisco on 22nd-24th of September, Canonical, Dell and Intel took the opportunity to unveil the Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition. This operating system uses software from Ubuntu Linux, on top of which the core Moblin Version 2.0 interface, libraries, and applications are set. While this distribution is highly optimized for a single computer, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v netbook, which sports an Intel Atom processor, the main motivation of the two companies is to provide a platform for the development and testing of Moblin-specific applications.
While Moblin is largely-believed to be an extremely innovative operating system for low-power computers, which has incredibly low boot times and well-thought user interfaces, its adoption has been rather slow, but that probably has to do with the fact that Intel considers it more of a technological base upon which other operating system developers can build their distributions. For the Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition, Canonical has joined forces with Dell and Intel, expanding the core Moblin operating system with new features and interfaces. Shipping this distribution preinstalled on a netbook means that interested developers won't have to worry about creating drivers or modifying them to work with the hardware; they can just pick up this bundle and start developing.
Mark Shuttleworth, the founding father and CEO of Canonical, stated that "Moblin keeps on getting more exciting as a project with new applications and improved user experiences. It's great to be delivering this release with Dell to developers wanting to participate in Moblin [...] Intel and the Moblin community are bringing tremendous resource and investment into the Linux ecosystem and this product acts as a bridge to Moblin for developers."
Dell has been shipping computers with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled since 2007, so this involvement in the creation of Ubuntu Moblin Remix was the logical step to take, providing their customers with a next-generation Linux implementation for portable computers. "By collaborating with Intel and Canonical we can offer early adopters, developers, and Linux enthusiasts, a truly pioneering Moblin development platform, the Inspiron Mini 10v, optimized for overall better performance, quicker boot time, smaller footprint, and longer battery life." - said John Thode, vice president, small screen devices, Dell, Inc.
Intel, the maker of the Atom line of low-power processors, was represented by Doug Fisher, vice president of the company's Software and Services Group, who reiterated Intel's position as a technology provider: "It has been scarcely three months since the Moblin v2 beta was released and with the release of Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition on the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v we see a great example of how quickly the market segment is taking advantage of key technologies from Intel, Canonical and Dell."
If you want to hop on the Moblin bandwagon and catch an early start with it, you should be able to order the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v with Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition from Dell's online store.