Moblin 2.0 beta impressively demoed on video

We'll admit, we were pretty skeptical that Moblin would ever amount to much after seeing the 1.0 build, but it looks like the elves at Intel have been plenty busy: the 2.0 beta is now available, and it's looking pretty sharp. Unlike the first build's more traditional Linux interface, 2.0 drops you into an attractive unified application shell reminiscent of HP's MIE that also allows you to run regular Linux apps. Apps are grouped into "zones," which function like virtual desktops, and switching between zones is handled by a taskbar-like interface. Of course, even Intel isn't immune to sticking widgets all over everything, and the main screen (called the m_zone) has plenty of 'em, from calendars to Twitter to browser history thumbnails. All in all, it's really slick stuff -- check a quick video after the break.

[Via Hylke's Home; thanks Joey-Elijah]

Read - Ars Technica hands-on
Read - Moblin.org

[mr nimblewick @ May 20th 2009 1:41PM]

Yes! This is what operating systems should be.

[Mam00th @ May 20th 2009 2:03PM]

I disagree, for my desktop computer I really enjoy the flexibility and power of a full blown OS. On a netbook though, this is just perfect.

[mr nimblewick @ May 20th 2009 3:19PM]

As long as there is a menu for applications, what exactly are you missing?

[namtastic @ May 20th 2009 3:24PM]

This is a very "human" OS interface; color me impressed. Good work, Moblins

[Mam00th @ May 20th 2009 3:54PM]

Browsing the web in a window and playing a game in another one for instance, you can't look at more then one program at a time as far as I've seen (I may be wrong though), which is perfectly ok for a netbook, but not for a desktop.

[nartoab @ May 26th 2009 12:06AM]

eh? so how bout 3rd-party apps? so all we can use are the default ones? thats gonna be boring after a while.....

[dat @ May 20th 2009 1:42PM]

Intel got some money in this video, Judi Dench doing the voice over.

[sacapuntas @ May 20th 2009 1:57PM]

Doesn't 'M_Z' look like a strange emoticon?

[sacapuntas @ May 20th 2009 1:59PM]

Dang, I seriously didn't mean to spam your post. My apologies. I would blame the comment system, but I think it was actually my fault...

[Sam @ May 20th 2009 2:07PM]

Doesn't sound like her.

[Monkey @ May 20th 2009 4:06PM]

That's definitely not Judi Dench's voice.

[random @ May 20th 2009 1:44PM]

Is "Impressive" even in Engadget's vocabulary?

[loonix @ May 20th 2009 3:07PM]

This actually made me laugh out loud.

[electron @ May 20th 2009 1:46PM]

wow, Im gonna try this in a VM as soon as its done downloading... :D

[Esteban @ May 20th 2009 3:41PM]

To get the full experience, I dont think a VM will cut it. Part of the selling point is a fast startup time, which is better noticed from a native install.

[Someone on the Internet @ May 20th 2009 1:46PM]

just saw this phoronix.... slick.

[Homeboy @ May 20th 2009 1:52PM]

I like it but wouldn't want to use it. It looks too dumbed down and would work better if morphed into an OS for phones. But I'm willing to give it the benefit of a doubt if it does a better job conserving power than Win 7.

[Sarig @ May 20th 2009 2:06PM]

It's for MID's...

[Oli D @ May 20th 2009 3:24PM]

for a netbook, providing it has standard compatibilities with regular linux distros, i think this is perfect,

The taskbar on W7 is too bulky, takes up too much space for such a small screen at bad res...

[giuliop @ May 20th 2009 1:50PM]

Nice, but I really doubt you need a 'calender' in your computer.

[Marcus @ May 20th 2009 1:59PM]

...?

[waterwagen @ May 20th 2009 2:47PM]

Marcus: It's 'calendar'.

[Oli D @ May 20th 2009 3:21PM]

I use my calendar all the time, appointments, meetings, wanking schedule...

[telepheedian @ May 20th 2009 3:51PM]

WTFV. Thank You.

[rBz @ May 20th 2009 3:55PM]

just wow... @ all replies except water's........... just wOw

[Mark @ May 20th 2009 1:52PM]

Is this an official video? Seems odd for a major corporation to throw in a sentence like "This moblin OS is the nuts"

[Barbaric @ May 20th 2009 3:12PM]

Well, the editor's calender was full, but that may be removed once its out of beta. Probably fix the spelling errors, too. Like calender.

[TR @ May 20th 2009 1:56PM]

There's also a video walkthrough by the Moblin dev team that is worth checking out:

http://www.netbookchoice.com/2009/05/20/video-moblin-v20-netbook-beta-walkthrough/

[Oli D @ May 20th 2009 1:57PM]

I love tabs.

Moblin 1 was just some crummy Personalize-Your-Own-XFCE-Linux-Environment build.

This, i like.

[Rollins @ May 20th 2009 2:04PM]

It makes sense that they were focusing on under-the-hood stuff in the first build. First things first and all.

[Oli D @ May 20th 2009 2:06PM]

yeah, i may buy a new netbook and load this one, it looks tight.

i shouldn't say tight should i?

[trevor @ May 20th 2009 2:00PM]

twitter sure has been catching on as of late

[Mam00th @ May 20th 2009 2:02PM]

That's linux for consumer.

[Félix @ May 21st 2009 6:25AM]

On a netbook, but yes that's pretty much it.

On the other hand, pretty much any 2009 linux distro is consumer friendly on a desktop.
(they even have windows installers that partition your disk for you lol.)

[Rollins @ May 20th 2009 2:02PM]

This is exactly what Linux needs to have a chance of breaking into the mainstream. It's user-friendly while trying not to sacrifice what Linux users like about Linux. And it's backed by a major company who can push back if Microsoft tries to impede its progress.

I'll have to see if it'll run well on my HP Mini later.

[Mr. Picklesworth @ May 20th 2009 8:20PM]

I was running it on my 1035 (which ships with XP). Unfortunately, if yours has the broadcom wifi chipset, you're out of luck there for the time being. (And for some reason their fucked up hardware design means you can't adjust screen brightness from software).

Other than that, it works smoothly. It really is a beautiful OS :)
My favourite part is it is based on a very solid, complete GNOME desktop core with all the usual applications, so stuff is nice and interconnected.

The window management aspect of it is ingenious. Tough to describe, but the idea is something which should have been done a long time ago: The Alt Tab window switcher, mouse-controlled window switcher, virtual desktop switcher, etc. are all ONE widget in ONE part of the screen. Makes loads of sense :)

[jay jay @ May 20th 2009 2:04PM]

nothing about this is impressive or new. htc ui changes for android that was posted on here a few days ago has the same things. i don't understand why there another mobile os is being created there are already 5 (android, osx for iphone, M$,RIM, Symbian). i don't think the market needs anymore.

[jay jay @ May 20th 2009 2:07PM]

opps sorry i thought this was for phones. it's pretty cool thats it for netbooks but there are already plenty of linux netbook distros out there such as ubuntu net remix, puppy linux, and dsl linux i don't see what this brings to the table.

[Sarig @ May 20th 2009 2:07PM]

This is for MIDs and netbooks, so the main competitor is Windows XP which is not in any way built for that market.

[barry99705 @ May 20th 2009 2:54PM]

Have you tried netbook remix?? It freaking sucks!! Brings my eee to a crawl. Unfortunetly this doesn't work on the first gen eee's either, needs an atom chip with intel graphics...

[Todd Garvin @ May 20th 2009 2:21PM]

I installed this last night in VMware on a Macintosh. Maybe its the way I set it up, but it runs pretty slow and video/screen is pretty buggy. Anyone have success doing this in a VM. I'd love to get this up to the smooth speed shown in the video.

[Stevenfb @ May 20th 2009 2:47PM]

This is what happens when you have no video drivers. Good Job observing that.

If there are no linux drivers for your vmware machine then you are screwed. Just dualboot then... Or buy a netbook and then dualboot.

[qwe @ May 20th 2009 2:24PM]

LOL, volume goes up to 11, rad.

[qwe @ May 20th 2009 2:26PM]

I cannot wait until the browser can download files, my Dell 910's wireless will be recognized, movies or music can be played, and I want to customize mZone

[digiboi @ May 20th 2009 2:29PM]

This has to be fake - there is no analog clock widget.

[Mark @ May 20th 2009 2:35PM]

Now I need to go out and buy a netbook and install this...

[Michael Scrip @ May 20th 2009 2:43PM]

Netbook screens are 1024 pixel wide. There was a time when all desktop monitors were 1024 pixels wide. The only difference with a netbook is the screen height... which doesn't really matter because you can scroll up and down. And you can use a mouse on a netbook.

How would a web page look different on a netbook running Moblin vs. a netbook running XP? Same screen... same resolution.

Yeah... icons are small on a netbook. Guess what? If you can see the icon and double-click it... your app opens full screen and you're up and running. Netbook screens are small. That's the point... it's a tiny, ultra-portable computer.

"This is the Moblin M-Zone. It's where you see you calendar, tasks and appointments." I already have that... it's my iGoogle screen when I open my browser. I have instant access to my Gmail, GCal and everything else I can get to from any browser. Google works anywhere.

"The Moblin Media Player stores all your music, movies and photos." On your netbook? Then what happens to your existing library on your main computer? Now you have to keep 2 separate copies of your library?

Moblin is a cool idea... don't get me wrong. I wish all computers had a streamlined front end that made it easy to find all your stuff. But it seems silly to have regular computers running Windows, OSX or Linux... and then a complete separate interface on a netbook.

My 65 year old father just got his first computer... an Asus 1000HE netbook. He's only ever used my mom's 15" Dell to check his e-mail. His netbook works exactly the same as the big laptop. I'm not saying he could do any more or less with Moblin... but as a novice he can use his netbook because it's familiar to him after using Windows for a few years.

[Oli D @ May 20th 2009 3:27PM]

Thank you kind sir for your input.

It says that it has front-end support for network storage, so i get the impression it is built around fetching songs/videos from other PCs, without having a dedicated home server.

[Michael Scrip @ May 20th 2009 3:33PM]

>> "It says that it has front-end support for network storage, so i get the impression it is built around fetching songs/videos from other PCs, without having a dedicated home server."

So what happens when you leave your house?

Oh wait... people already have MP3 players...

[Eddie W @ May 21st 2009 12:37AM]

There are a lot of ways to solve this problem of keeping multiple libraries synced (I use rsync that runs through a script that updates periodically), and I'm sure you could set up your library to stream to your netbook for while you're out and about if you'd rather do that. Personally I find having the option of streaming your files from place to place is really nice when you're working on a device with an ssd.

Maybe this isn't aimed at you or your 65 year old father. Perhaps this is the first step in changing OS UIs to be more user friendly and human centric (the streamlined front end you want). I'm glad there's someone working on this, and I'm glad there aren't people giving up working on Linux projects because certain people are so used to XP they wouldn't look at alternatives.

Please don't be so quick to write this off.