Little Laptops With Linux Have Compatibility Issues
May 27, 2009
by Nick Wingfield
When the cheap laptops known as netbooks first came out over a year ago, computer makers were able to offer them at low prices in part by shipping them with the free Linux open-source operating system, rather than Microsoft’s Windows. Since then, Windows netbooks have taken over most of the market after Microsoft began pushing Windows XP aggressively to netbook makers and consumers realized Linux netbooks didn’t work well with some popular applications and devices.
Linux on netbooks isn’t going away though. In fact, software and hardware companies have been making big investments to improve Linux netbooks. For the past week, I’ve been using several flavors of Linux running on netbooks — Ubuntu, Hewlett-Packard’s Mi (which is based on Ubuntu) and Moblin, created largely by Intel and not yet available commercially. In all cases, the Linux netbooks failed at some basic functions that any laptop, no matter how tiny and inexpensive, should be able to handle, like working with printers. At the same time, Mi and Moblin have impressive graphical user interfaces well-suited to the habits of typical netbook users, like checking email and accessing social-networking sites, as well as the small screens and low horsepower of tiny laptops. In addition to Linux, all of the computers shared the standard features, or lack thereof, common among netbooks, including compact keyboards and no DVD drives.
H-P’s Mini 110 Mi Edition
The most polished of the products was H-P’s Mini 110 Mi Edition, a new model with a 10.1-inch screen that H-P will begin selling on its Web site for $279.99 on June 10. That’s nearly $50 less than what H-P will charge for the Mini 110 running Windows XP, which will come with a 160-gigabyte hard drive instead of the 8-gigabyte solid-state drive that will come with the Mi edition.
The striking thing about this netbook is the slick graphical user interface created by H-P that runs on top of Ubuntu and first began appearing on H-P netbooks early this year. Instead of a traditional desktop like that found in Windows and the Mac, Mi (pronounced “me”) arranges commonly used applications and content on a screen called the “dashboard,” which looks like a personalized Web page and lists recently received emails, fresh thumbnail images of favorite Web sites, and a Web-search toolbar.
The Mi home screen is a clever way to make the computer seem alive with on- and off-line content, which is fitting since netbooks are designed for on-the-go Internet activities. It’s also tailor-made for the small screen size of netbooks.
A more eye-catching iteration of Linux is Moblin, which I tried out in test form on an Acer netbook; it is expected to ship on netbooks by the end of the year. Moblin has a menu of icons at the top of the screen, the most interesting of which leads to the M-Zone, a home screen that displays calendar appointments and favorite applications alongside snapshots of recently visited sites and a continuous feed from the user’s Twitter network.
An icon called “People” leads to a list of instant-messaging buddies, while another, called “Zones,” let me organize all the applications I had launched into different virtual workspaces, which is useful for hopping between various tasks on a small-screen device like a netbook.
The look and feel of the standard Ubuntu system, without the Mi interface, is more commonplace. I tried out a Dell Mini 10 with a 10.1-inch display and 160-gigabyte hard drive that sells for $349 on Dell’s Web site. The Mini 10 ships with version 8.04 of Ubuntu, which resembles Windows XP, with its desktop, taskbar and pop-up menu system. Ubuntu, in some cases, seemed to overestimate the size of the Dell Mini’s display: A window for configuring wireless-networking capabilities was so large it bled off the screen, and I couldn’t access all the buttons on it. I also installed on the Dell a new version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which works better on small screens. Since a Windows XP version of the Dell Mini 10 sells for the same price as the Ubuntu, I can’t see a compelling reason to choose the Ubuntu option.
All the netbooks I tried had compatibility problems with other external devices. The netbooks couldn’t load the software drivers to let me print to my Canon and Dell printers. I couldn’t load pictures over a USB cable from my Canon PowerShot SD750 digital camera. I was able to get my pictures on the machines by plugging a storage card from my camera directly into the netbooks.
Canonical, the London company that oversees development work on Ubuntu, says it is improving the system’s compatibility with various devices. Intel says it is unfair to judge Moblin until it is commercially available.
Some key applications currently don’t run on Linux, like Apple’s iTunes, which makes it difficult to load music files onto iPods from the netbooks. While the Linux laptops didn’t run Microsoft Office, they came with OpenOffice, a free package of word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications that allowed me to open and modify basic Word and Excel files.
The companies behind Linux netbooks have made great strides in improving user interfaces, but until they can achieve similar breakthroughs in how the machines work with other devices, Windows netbooks are still a better deal.
- Email nick.wingfield@wsj.com. Walter S. Mossberg is away and will return next Thursday.
Comments
Where is Walt?
Posted by Dave Barnes at May 27th, 2009 at 8:19 pmWho is this Nick guy?
Only Walt and Katie are worth my eyeball time.
Your blog reads as though you’ve never actually had hands-on experience with a Linux netbook. Or perhaps you’re incapable of learning something different. Why on Earth would you think that Windows device drivers should work on Linux? Do those drivers work on MacOSX?
Linux handles iPods just fine, with a variety of multimedia software: As the BirghtHub blog observes, “Linux has become so good at detecting and auto-mounting devices like iPods, you might think you were using OS X or Windows instead … And not only is connecting and disconnecting the device easy, you will be surprised how much _more_ you can do with your iPod in Linux than you ever could in OS X or Windows.”
http://tinyurl.com/opvltz
Posted by Ro Laren at May 28th, 2009 at 2:35 amIt’s OK. Walt’s not any better than Nick. You didn’t mention that the Canon and Dell printers didn’t work because the manufacturer didn’t provide even nominal Linux support. For example, all HP printers are plug-and-play in Linux, even better than Windows and Mac (where you have to download 50 MB or more of drivers).
Also, your statement that Dell offers no discount for choosing Ubuntu is flat-out incorrect. If you customize a Dell Mini 10 (not the 10v) with Ubuntu, it cuts about $50 off the price—a substantial discount for a $400 netbook. Please update your post to reflect this.
Posted by Mazin Karas at May 28th, 2009 at 9:05 amI am not trying to promote Linux or Windows, but note that anything that is a remote threat on the domination of Apple gets subtle criticism from Walt.
Usually this criticism is for things that any reasonably informed reader will bulk from buying, such as “freezing OSs” and now “incompatibility” – the Netbooks are a dire threat to Apple’s Mac biz.
Apple’s products on the other hand, get subtle endoresments by Walt, but in order to sound balanced, he has to invent “flaws” that will be dismissed of course, such as “the height of Mac Air will make it difficult to use in economy seat of a plane” – Wow!
Posted by Asher Pat at June 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 am