Linked by Jordan Spencer Cunningham on Sat 7th Mar 2009 18:08 UTC
It's not very surprising as we've all speculated a full-fledged Google OS for years, then Google's mobile OS hit the phone market, and now we've seen it (Android, of course) already installed and working dutifully on netbooks. It's not rock-solid, but Google's CEO has hinted that there'll be subsidized, Android-powered netbooks backed by Google or its partners arriving to the netbook scene soon.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
A lot will depend on the applications. I am a bit skeptical on an Android only based netbook, but with subsidies taking the cost down it might be viable.
I have pre-ordered a Touch Book with the intent of trying to get android running on it. As I see it, with the touch screen and expandable nature via USB, the Touch Book could make an interesting Android platform. Optimally I would like to be able to launch X applications rootless from Android. Failing that having a minimalist X session may be sufficient for the few applications that I foresee doing on a device like that.
For the "power user" though an android only OS would be a bit limiting. Given the choice of Android only or Debian only I would take Debian. I would rather have both though.
For a simple user only looking for portable web and mail Android might not be a bad choice. It is not a consumer group I deal with often but I think android is intuitive enough that it should work well for an end user for these basic tasks.
I do not see Android competing with Windows 7 in the full featured netbook category though. There will be users who want a device that does the same stuff as their main computers, within limitations of the device size. For those Android won't cut it. Of course neither would Linux in general for that group.
Edited 2009-03-07 20:05 UTC