Based on the popular desktop distro, Ubuntu Netbook Remix but optimised for small screens, modest hardware and Intel’s Atom processors
Want a netbook but not keen on the version of Windows which comes with it? Linux has been a popular alternative for after-market installations, given that so few netbook makers offer Aussie buyers a choice of OS, and Ubuntu Desktop – which last month hit version version
8.10 and despite the name runs just as well on laptops – is a top pick of the Penguinistas.
But now there’s an even better choice for a non-Windows netbook. Collaborating with the Intel-backed
Mobile Linux Internet Project, Ubuntu parent company Canonical has tweaked Ubuntu Desktop into a version optimised for netbooks and christened
Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
The system requirements are quite minimal – a netbook running Intel’s Atom processor (which is just about all of ‘em, barring early editions of the Eee PC and HP’s 2133 Mini-Note), 512MB of RAM and a 4GB drive (either SSD or hard disk).
One new component in the distro is a customised application launcher designed for the netbook’s small screen. This displays program groups down the left side of the display, with icons for individual applications appearing in the large centre panel; drive, folder and network locations are listed down the right side of the screen.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix sports a customised launcher designed for best use of a netbook’s limited screenAnother netbook-friendly utility, named Maximus, ensures that every open window is maximised to take up almost all of the limited on-screen real estate. A tabbed interface acts as the window manager and switcher combined.
Iconic tabs running to the right of the Ubuntu menu (top-left) indicate all running apps, while the name of the maximised foreground app also appears on an elongated folder-style tab
Each active app is represented by an icon-bearing tab sitting in a tab row at the very top of the screen, while the title of the foreground window appears on an elongated folder tab at the centre of the tab row. To the right of this are the conventional system icons as well as the mandatory time and date. It’s a very clever meld of in-vogue tabs as well as the traditional Windows taskbar.
This view of the file manager shows how the always-maximised window includes app elements such as its drop-down menus, while swapping the space-hogging title bar for a title in the main tab
Ubuntu Netbook Remix comes bundled with Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird for Web and email, the OpenOffice suite, Pidgin for instant messaging and the Rhythmbox media player, among others. Netbook OEMs can also add their own components along with a range of Canonical-supplied licensable codecs for MP3, MPEG4, AAC, Windows Media and Real Media.
The Ubuntu Netbook Remix image is 1GB in size and can be downloaded from
http://oem-images.canonical.com/unr, then copied to and installed from a bootable USB key.