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When you take a look at all the netbooks out there, they all seem to have the same or similar specs.  The one thing that links a vast majority of them is the Intel Atom chip, and it seems to be doing well.  ARM, the company that makes between close to 80% of the processors used in cell phones wants to enter the market, as well as the desktop market.  That sounds good, right?  You’d probably expect a fairly clunky Linux distro or Windows XP to come with the machines.  Not so.  ARM has teamed up with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu for these machines.

The machines will be built upon the ARMv7 architecture, specifically taking advantage of the Cortex A8 and A9 processors.  Of course, the operating system will take advantage of the best open source software available.  Not much else about the machines has been detailed yet, but seeing as ARM makes cell phone chips, it would make sense for the portables (whether they be MIDs or netbooks) to have terrific battery life, though we’ll have to wait and see for that.

This isn’t the first time Ubuntu will be featured in netbooks, the Dell Mini 9 has the option, and the upcoming HP 1000 is based on Ubuntu (even though the MIE interface looks more like an tv).  The trend certainly is promising.  Having used the Ubuntu Eee distribution (not an official Canonical distribution) on my Eee PC 901, I can say that it makes everything so much easier, even if finding some software can be a bit of a pain.  It’s certainly easy to navigate, and there’s no worries about viruses.  I can only hope these new Ubuntu ARM machines are cheap enough to justify purchasing once they come out in April 2009.

Read [BBC]

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