The first iteration of the Alibaba mobile OS will be targeted in China, though there is nothing stopping manufacturers from releasing handsets pre-loaded with the OS elsewhere. Pricing and release information is not yet known.

China, which favors home-grown products and technologies over those made by foreign firms, may be the battleground for new OSes to emerge. Given the population in China, the market will be an important one to watch. If successful in its home country, the Alibaba mobile OS could grow a large enough user base to challenge those of established players like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and RIM.

News of Alibaba attempting to create its own mobile operating system comes just after China-based search giant Baidu announced that it would create a customized version of the open-sourced Android OS. That version will be called Qiushi and would allow Baidu to enter the mobile advertising space to monetize on mobile. Additionally, the Chinese search giant could potentially adopt Google’s business plan for Android, meaning that it could monetize through selling content like apps, books, magazines, songs, and videos, as well as deliver advertising and creating its own ecosystem. The best part is that the underlying Android architecture is free, and all Baidu would need to do is to create some customization on top of the Android base code.

Via: MobileBurn

Two New Mobile Operating Systems/Platforms Coming Out of China is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

At an Intel meeting, Renee James revealed some details about Windows 8 for ARM processors that Microsoft was not yet ready to disclose. James said, ”There will be four Windows 8 SoCs for ARM. Each one will run for that specific ARM environment, and they will run new applications or cloud-based applications…. They are neither forward- nor backward-compatible between their own architecture – different generations of a single vendor – nor are they compatible across different vendors. Each one is a unique stack.”

However, Microsoft has countered with its own message, discrediting Intel’s claims. In a statement to Business Insider, Microsoft is saying that Intel’s statements were “factually inaccurate.”

Intel’s statements during yesterday’s Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft’s plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading.  From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC, we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage.  As such, we have no further details or information at this time.

Unfortunately, though,  Windows head Steven Sinofsky of Microsoft did not elaborate on which part(s) of Intel’s statement was inaccurate. Will the ARM versions be compatible with each other? Will there be more than four versions of Windows 8 for ARM chips? How about legacy app support only happening with the x86 framework?

The company has been so far secretive about its plans for Windows 8, and it is speculated that a few Microsoft employees were fired after some early screenshots were leaked of the forthcoming OS. A Jobsian-like environment of secrecy may help the company build hype for their offerings prior to product releases.

Microsoft: Intel’s Windows 8 Statements Were Wrong is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

News of the new OS naming convention arrives out of DevCon Asia and co-CEO Jim Balsillie says that the new version number was appropriate as there are so many new features in the new software update.

In the past, there were speculations that RIM would begin to migrate away from its smartphone platform beginning with BlackBerry 7 OS to unify its smartphone and tablet ecosystem under the same QNX code that’s found on the company’s PlayBook tablet. Currently, the tablet runs on a separate BlackBerry Tablet OS and smartphones operate on the legacy BlackBerry smartphone platform.

With the change in naming convention to BlackBerry 7 OS, there is speculations that RIM may be giving the version bump because older smartphone models may not be able to take advantage of all the new features that are supported by the new OS, which will create incentive for current BlackBerry owners to upgrade according to Electronista. With BlackBerry 7, hardware-accelerated graphics will be supported, voice search, and other new, power- and hardware-intensive features are rumored to be coming. With those features, to take full advantage of the new OS, users would need BlackBerry devices that can properly support those features, which may require new hardware.

In recent times, the last major update to the BlackBerry smartphone software was with the BlackBerry 6 OS, which debuted on the BlackBerry Torch on AT&T. That device offers a better touchscreen experience, multitouch support, and social media integration.

RIM may be talking more about the new BlackBerry 7 OS features at the BlackBerry World conference next week in Orlando, Florida. At this point, not much information is known about the software other than the naming change from 6.1 to 7.0.

According to N4BB, one of the many new features that the new OS will support is a digital compass:

The BlackBerry digital compass is a simple app, yet the implications are far reaching as it coincides with RIM’s developmental progress. With the digital compass app in OS 7, you can see you current location, set a location to see how far away it is, calibrate the compass, and manage different options. Hit the break for more on its features.

RIM Rebadges BlackBerry 6.1 OS to BlackBerry 7.0 OS; Promises Major New Features is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

In the past, the company has stated that Windows will be the tablet OS of choice, which is a different direction from what Apple is doing. Rather than scaling up its mobile Windows Phone 7 operating system to accommodate the larger tablet screen, Microsoft will be utilizing a full-fledged desktop OS for tablets, a move which can be seen as controversial as Windows in the past has been designed for keyboard and mouse interface, not pen and touch. However, the move towards ribbons may help Microsoft with the tablet market as ribbons provide a more intuitive classifications of actions into categories and the larger buttons are more conducive to touch than smaller text-based options on drop-down menus. For instance, hitting a picture of scissors for the function “cut” is easier to navigate since ribbons provide larger icons for touch than trying to hit “Edit” and then the text for “cut” in the drop-down menu.

In the pre-release build of Windows 8, ZDNet is reporting that beta users can turn off the ribbon UI for the traditional UI if they so choose, but the publication is uncertain whether this toggle will make it to the final release build of Windows 8.

Ribbons to Make Windows 8 More Tablet-Ready is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

Web Browsing

Web browsing in Moblin feels limited.  A stripped down, tab enabled browser serves as your portal to the web.  The design of the browser feels clunky; there is too much space used for tabs and the navigation bar.  A Google Chrome-like experience would be much more satisfying as Google Chrome allows for maximum screen real estate in a visually pleasing package.  Performance-wise there are no issues as the browser renders pages quickly and correctly.  My primary suggestion is with design rather than function.  Check out the screenshot below.

Applications Window

My suggestion here is not with the applications themselves as there are plenty provided by default.  Again, the design of the GUI feels too cumbersome.  Rather than having icons that lead to different areas, Moblin categorizes the applications under collapsible windows.  This presentation is too cluttered for the limited netbook screen.  This is a minor complaint and really doesn’t impact the overall Moblin experience.

The MyZone Area

For Moblin to be a success, it must rely heavily on the cloud.  Integration with popular online services such as Gmail and Google Calendar are a must.  I’m a big fan of the MyZone area, a place where your to-do list, calendar, recent files, and social stream are contained.  The MyZone idea is similar to an iGoogle site for your desktop.  Although very functional, a few tweaks would prove useful.  Facebook integration is also a must and the way Twitter is displayed needs improved.  Rather than a big gray box with a tweet that only shows the name when you mouse over, it’d be more practical to display the name of the person who is tweeting.  I don’t want to place my mouse over every box to figure out who is saying what.

Who is Moblin Designed for?

Moblin would be great for those new to computers or folks who only want a consumer-focused Internet experience.  Although netbooks are not designed to create, Moblin’s focus is on consuming content.  Moblin seemed very stable, had great battery life, was customizable, but still felt a bit limited.  Power users will likely require a few tweaks and mods.  Overall, Moblin v2 is still young and gaining more interest daily.  Expect more developers to get involved as Moblin’s popularity grows.

How do I get Moblin?

It’s easy.  Visit the Moblin site and download the live image.  You can follow the directions to burn it on a CD or install from a USB drive.  It’s worth a look and could definitely evolve into something great for the netbook platform.

What are your suggestions for making Moblin better?

Moblin v2 Impressions: This Has Potential is a post by Matthew Dillon from Gotta Be Mobile.

• Ubuntu Netbook Remix
  Based on Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution, this OS features a customized graphical user interface (GUI) for the smaller netbook screen.  One of the major benefits of Ubuntu is its large resource of applications available through the package manager.  It used to be true that linux was complicated, ugly and not user friendly, but this is no longer the case.  Installing Ubuntu is easy with the live cd as prospective users can try it out before installing.

• Moblin v2
  Moblin has been in the background for some time but the most recent release seems to be gaining some attention.  This customized Linux-based OS is optimized to work on mobile devices including MIDS and netbooks.  The Moblin folks have created a FAQ to answer many of your questions such as, “Can Moblin run on the iPhone?”

• Google Chrome OS
  Although it is yet to be released, there is great buzz regarding Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS.  Although little is known about Chrome OS, it is expected to be streamlined for netbooks.  Expect it to be fast and heavily reliant on Google’s cloud-based services such as Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, and Gmail.  The official Google Blog states that Chrome OS will be quick starting, only taking a few seconds to boot.

• Mac OS X
  Running Mac OS X on an Intel Atom based netbook has become a popular OS choice for those with a bit more computer aptitude and interest.  Creating a “hackintosh” may be a violation of Apple’s End User License Agreement (EULA) and can certainly be illegal if you do not own a valid copy of the OS you’re installing.  While creating a hackintosh netbook is very cool, I’d say it is perhaps the least practical choice largely because of the lack of support.  Any updates or changes to OS X for hackintosh netbooks comes from a small community of individuals.  Unlike Ubuntu or XP, new updates for OS X on unsupported platforms often requires tracking down files from various sources, typing commands in the terminal, and hoping that what you’ve downloaded is reliable.  The constant struggle to maintain an updated system and the lack of full support make OS X on netbooks impractical.  Regardless, many still strive ahead and create their own OS X netbooks.  This chart will be necessary should you set out on that quest.

There are other, less popular operating systems out there but most lack the support and drivers to be truly painless to install and use.  The best place to gain information about installing, tweaking, or hacking these operating systems often comes from the community forums of fellow netbook users.  I would argue that one of the reasons behind the success of the netbook as a platform is due to the extensive online community support.  Sites like Eeeuser.com for the Asus series of netbooks, MyDellMini.com for the Dell Minis, and MSIWind.net for the MSI Wind netnooks have daily forum postings from folks sharing their experiences.  A simple Google search reveals that there are many of these online communities filled with information from helpful users.

What are your thoughts on alternative operating systems for the netbook platform?  What do you recommend?

Alternative Netbook Operating Systems is a post by Matthew Dillon from Gotta Be Mobile.