Original post by Bregma (6) A lot of manufacturers are focussing on the ARM processor because of cost and improved battery life.
I've heard that mentioned before, but I have yet to FIND an ARM based netbook, they're all celeron or intel Atom from what I've seen. Both i86 compliant.
Old Username: Talroth
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Original post by Bregma (6) A lot of manufacturers are focussing on the ARM processor because of cost and improved battery life.
I've heard that mentioned before, but I have yet to FIND an ARM based netbook, they're all celeron or intel Atom from what I've seen. Both i86 compliant.
I would imagine (but I don't know) that many companies, while they are prepared to offer Ubuntu as an alternative, would be unsure selling a computer without a Microsoft OS option. Many people would be unsure buying a non-Windows OS.
I don't know whether thread resurrection is frowned upon here, but I wanted to comment on a few points...
It was mentioned that NetBooks aren't revolutionary, hardware wise. The platform is showing huge amounts of support from manufacturers, and the competition is absolutely insane at the moment.
I recently picked up (and am replying from) an ASUS Eee 1000HE. The little guy has an Intel Atom N280, 1GB DDR Ram (which I will be upgrading to 2GB) and a 160GB HDD. It runs XP without a hitch, and I'm going to give a variety of OSes a go on the extra partition (starting with Vista, then to Ubuntu). They really aren't as under-powered as was originally planned with the 7" Eee and the OLPC.
Netbooks are finally pushing reasonable battery lives. This 1000HE generally gets about 8hrs with wireless going, and the screen turned way down (not all will use the screen this low, but I do with all my monitors). MSI is planning on releasing a Wind model with 15hr battery life. With ARM suggesting they will work with Canonical to release a series of Netbooks, battery lives will continue to increase.
I personally find it a very exciting shift in focus, and as the install base continues to increase I believe you'll see all sorts of innovation to support the features the platform is most popular for.
I do believe that there is money to be had in games suitable for computers with less capable hardware... but I also agree that these sorts of games already exist in surplus. Flash based games, card games, puzzle games, etc. are all wildly popular in the casual gaming market.
The advantage that Netbooks have in appealing to the non-gamer is they are more likely to desire a Netbook then a dedicated gaming device.
