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Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

It was inevitable, really — now that ARM processors are bound for netbooks and the like, it follows logic that ARM would tag team with Canonical to bring along Ubuntu support. The two firms have collaborated in order to “bring the full Ubuntu Desktop operating system to the ARMv7 processor architecture (targeting the Cortex-A8 and Cortex -A9 in particular) to address demand from device manufacturers.” They even go out of their way to assert that this is all about bringing Ubuntu to “new netbooks and hybrid computers,” though we’re still hopeful that the OS will find its way into even more diminutive ARM-powered devices in the future. Sadly, you’ll have to wait until April of 2009 to see the fruits of this so-very-special relationship.

[Via CNET]

Canonical bringing Ubuntu to ARM-powered devices originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Laptops

After toying with our heartstrings for like, ever, Dell finally gathered up the courage to formally introduce its 12-inch netbook late last month. After arriving at the testing facilities of Laptop Mag, critics quickly found a lot to love about the relatively expansive display, “excellent” battery life and spacious keyboard. In all fairness, there really wasn’t anything to complain about on the surface; the first kvetching we heard was soon after bootup — er, a fair while after bootup, we should say. The biggest knock on Dell’s Mini 12 was its sluggish performance under Vista, not to mention the lethargic hard drive shoved in there. In sum, critics frankly pointed out that the “Mini 12 doesn’t have the right hardware to handle this OS,” and recommended holding off for one with WinXP / Ubuntu if you were dead set on the design.

Dell Inspiron Mini 12 reviewed: bigger, not necessarily better originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/10/Picture_9_01.png” width=”594″ height=”438″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Good day for Linux guys (and girls!)—the final version of Ubuntu 8.10 is now available for download. The Intrepid Ibex release brings integrated support for 3G cards and better support for media devices as its flagship new consumer features, along with the slew of updates and improvements that go into a new Ubuntu distro. And if you’re updating from a previous version, use a href=”http://torrentfreak.com/use-bittorrent-to-upgrade-to-ubuntu-intrepid-ibex-081029/”Torrentfreak’s guide/a to do it via BitTorrent, avoiding the centrail upgrade server that’s surely getting slammed. [a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download"Download Ubuntu/a, a href="http://torrentfreak.com/use-bittorrent-to-upgrade-to-ubuntu-intrepid-ibex-081029/"Torrentfreak/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=awaazLuJ”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=eQ9Cz3CD”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=rVA58T7t”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=rVA58T7t” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=Qsn5hZLX”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=Qsn5hZLX” border=”0″/img/a
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/ubuntu_splash.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”200″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Ubuntu 8.10, the “Intrepid Ibex” release of the free, open-source Linux distribution, is a href=”http://ubuntu.com”officially out and available/a for download. This release doesn’t bring much huge or startlingly new to Ubuntu, but does smooth out some rough edges and improves the Wi-Fi, 3G, and portability experience. Check out our a href=”http://lifehacker.com/5058730/first-look-at-ubuntu-810-intrepid-ibex-beta”full screenshot tour of Intrepid Ibex/a to see what’s inside, and if your ISO downloads or upgrades are going slow today, read up on a href=”http://lifehacker.com/5070638/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-using-bittorrent”upgrading using BitTorrent/a or a href=”http://lifehacker.com/384325/speed-up-ubuntu-updates-with-a-mirror-server”grabbing updates and ISOs from a mirror server/a. There’s also one or two new tools we didn’t catch earlier this month in the final release, which we’ll peek at below. Ubuntu 8.10 is a free download; it can run as a live CD or install on most Intel-based systems./p pUbuntu 8.10 includes a simple, working tool that puts a bootable Ubuntu system on a memory stick and lets you use persistent space on it to store settings and documentsmdash;in other words, keep a real Home folder there. I really wish, however, that you didn’t have to download an Ubuntu ISO to make the disk, or that it could at least point you to a list of mirrors to find one on. In a perfect world, it would just create your USB disk from your current system, removing any specific hardware references and the like. As it is, though, it’s a pretty handy tool for any spare thumb drives you’ve got./p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/usb_maker.jpg” class=”center” width=”691″ height=”530″ style=”display:block;float:none;” //p pAlso new in the release candidate and final versions of 8.10 is a “System Cleaner” applet. I couldn’t dirty my brand-new desktop quick enough to give a good screenshot, but the Cleaner will apparently show any unneeded and abandoned software packages hanging around your system, and will also alert you to bad or leftover lines in your code/etc/fstab/code (drive configuration), code/etc/X11/xorg.conf/code (display and device manager), and all the other files you want to back up before messing with. If it works as promised, it’s a pretty good step toward that “for humans” slogan the distro touts./p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/system_cleaner.jpg” class=”center” width=”400″ height=”398″ style=”display:block;float:none;” //p pTell us your impressions of the final Intrepid Ibex in the comments./p div class=”related”a href=”http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download”Ubuntu 8.10/a/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/tivo_quicklink.png” width=”140″ height=”156″ align=”right” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ align=”right”/Netflix and DVR maker TiVo have partnered to stream the video rental service’s “Watch Instantly” offerings to TiVo users in the near future. Add that to the already rolling Amazon movie rentals and the a href=”http://lifehacker.com/351812/favorite-tivo-tricks”many TiVo tricks out there/a, and the original TV tweaker is looking pretty appealing these days. [a href="http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20081030/wr_nm/us_tivo_netflix"via/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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Filed under: Laptops

We’ve been struggling to keep awake for the large majority of this year, as netbook after netbook lands in our laps with identical specs, form factors and general shoddiness. No longer. HP is giving the market a shot in the arm with its new “clutch-style” skinny form factors, polished Linux OS and aggressive price points — even if the specs are about as boring as the Mini-Note 2133. As rumored, HP’s new Mini 1000 netbook is ditching VIA and going the Atom route (1.6GHz N270, in case you hadn’t guessed). Also new is an option for a 10.2-inch display, though it’s a mere 1024 x 600 instead of the 1280 x 768 display on the 2133 — for a bit cheaper you can get a 1024 x 600 8.9-inch display, but that would just be boring. HP is offering 512MB, 1GB and 2GB RAM configurations, though the XP option limits you to 1GB (thanks, Microsoft). For storage you can score a 60GB 4200 rpm HDD or your choice of a 8GB or 16GB SSD. If you go the SSD route there’s also room for a 2, 4 or 8GB “HP Mini Mobile Drive,” which is a regular USB drive that inserts all the way into a special slot for added integration. There’s also an SD slot, VGA webcam, 802.11b/g, optional Bluetooth, Ethernet and dual USB plugs. Where things get extra interesting is in choice of OS. You can go the standard XP route, or for $20 less you can go for HP’s brand new Ubuntu-based Linux “experience,” MIE, which reminds us not just a little of HP’s TouchSmart interface. The XP version is available today starting at $399, with a 10.2-inch version costing just a little bit more. The Vivienne Tam Edition, which brings a whole lot of style but little substance to the offering, will go for $699 in mid-December, and the MIE version will land in January for a mere $379.

HP’s new Mini 1000 and MIE Linux make netbooks fun again originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/10/dellminismile.jpg” width=”494″ height=”329″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Dell has just posted an update that should take care of the a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5065657/dell-inspiron-mini-9-ships-with-annoying-disk-partition-error”annoying partition error in Ubuntu Inspiron Mini 9s/a that would cause systems with 8GB or 16GB storage to only have 4GB of formatted disk space. Run the update manager, install the patch, restart your system and voila, you have all the space you paid for. [a href="http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/10/24/resolution-for-inspiron-mini-ubuntu-linux-partitioning-issue.aspx"Direct2Dell/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/beautiful_conky.jpg” height=”165″ width=”230″ align=”right” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ align=”right”Topping off our fascination with Linux desktop monitor Conky this week, here’s a remarkable setup on Ubuntu that delivers Gmail counts, Yahoo weather with graphics and system stats, all with an eye for uncluttered text and transparent integration with any wallpaper. Check out a larger look at this Conky setup, and the desktop it came from, below. Want to get started setting up your own ambient monitor? Check out our a href=”http://lifehacker.com/5067341/customize-conky-for-ambient-linux-productivity”guide to customizing Conky/a./p pThese pictures come from a href=”http://www.quicktweaks.com/2008/09/27/gmail-weather-beauty-right-on-your-ubuntu-desktop/”Quick Tweaks’ detailed Conky how-to/a, which explains how to set up Gmail monitoring, Yahoo Weather updates, and statistics from your system temperatures and fans. The author is also rocking Avant Window Navigator, GNOME-DO (running a Launchy-like skin), and an Emerald theme. Check out the post for more details./p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/full_desktop.jpg” class=”center” width=”800″ height=”500″ style=”display:block;float:none;” //p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/full_conky.jpg” height=”671″ width=”230″ class=”center” align=”center”/p pemThanks for the link, a href=”http://lifehacker.com/5067158/conky-puts-lightweight-ambient-system-stats-on-linux-desktops#c8487642″asge/a!/em/p div class=”related”a href=”http://www.quicktweaks.com/2008/09/27/gmail-weather-beauty-right-on-your-ubuntu-desktop/”GMAIL+WEATHER+BEAUTY RIGHT ON YOUR UBUNTU DESKTOP/a [Quick Tweaks]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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Filed under: Laptops

Early Dell Inspiron Mini 9 customers who sprung for a larger drive may want to check their partitions — Dell apparently used a static 4GB Ubuntu image during some initial manufacturing runs, leaving the OS in a 4GB partition and the remainder unused. The problem’s been fixed now, but if you were unlucky enough to get one of the wrongly-formatted units, Dell’s saying that you’ll need to restore from the System Restore disk, but there are some live partition options out there if you’re feeling brave.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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