Zelda Monster
Check out this promo video for an upcoming netbook-specific (Linux-based) operating system that Intel is doing, called Moblin.
Watching this video, I was immediately struck by how un-revolutionary it looks; how natural, even incremental, of a design achievement it is. 5 years ago, in 2004, this would have looked magical, at the absolute cutting edge of interface design. In 1999, it would have looked like something out of a sci-fi novel, like something the kids in Ender’s Game might have used.
But nowadays, this just feels like the next logical step. And you know, it’s also illuminating to me just how much of an impact netbooks have had. They’re just smaller laptops; but, once you hold one you realize how much more you want to carry it around. Now the size of netbooks, and the very feeling they give you, is (finally) inspiring this and other genuinely new approaches to desktop layout.
Again, none of the stuff on display in this video is revolutionary; what it is, is proof that a revolution has already taken place.
Too many “known issues” to bother with now, me thinks.
Scott
May 27, 8:09am
boyinthebands.com
I don’t get the appeal of a netbook. It is just a watered down laptop / super smart phone (without the phone). “hmm, i will take a large smart phone, with extra smart, hold the phone… oh and mayo on the side” That is what i would say if a computer store was a restaurant and i was ordering a netbook. In my opinion, this is a niche product, useful for a few but that is about it.
Ryan
May 27, 10:19am
That’s what I thought too, until I held a nice one, and saw the effect it had on people around me. Netbooks make people like computers more. It’s a completely emotional thing, because on the technical merits alone, you’re absolutely right. Their incredible market success also contradicts your theory that they’re useful only for a few. They sell like hotcakes and everybody’s hopping in the market to manufacture one. It’s not that netbooks will become huge—they already are.
Eric
May 27, 1:48pm
mill-industries.com
Well alright then, your facts win out on my uninformed sales predictions. Well done facts you win against speculation again.
Ryan
May 28, 10:32pm