Fedora Mini: A New Netbook Competitor?
For a long time, Ubuntu was the only big-name Linux distribution with a specially tailored netbook version. That changed recently with the announcement of Fedora Mini, which stands poised to compete with Ubuntu Netbook Remix on Linux-based netbooks and similar devices. Here are some thoughts on what this development means for Ubuntu and Canonical’s netbook strategy, and Linux netbooks in general.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which officially debuted last April but has been available since mid-2008, represents an important component of Canonical’s strategy to bring Ubuntu to mainstream computer users by encouraging OEMs to adopt it on their hardware. It’s already offered as a pre-installed option by several hardware vendors, including Dell and Toshiba, and can run on most other Atom-based netbooks.
Fedora has yet to announce any deals with OEMs, which is not surprising, since the Fedora Mini project remains nascent. But there’s every reason to believe it could become a serious competitor with UNR when it matures.
What’s different
Beyond the obvious fact that UNR and Fedora Mini derive from fundamentally different branches of the Linux family tree–which shouldn’t matter too much to netbook users who are not geeks and don’t know or care about the difference between .deb and .rpm packages, etc.–there are other important differences between them that could affect their respective positions among OEMs and end users:
- Fedora Mini, which supports Intel Celeron M, Via C7-M, and AMD Geode LX processors in addition to the Atom, is targeted at a broader hardware profile than UNR, which is optimized only for Atom chips. This makes Fedora a more attractive candidate on the growing number of netbooks and other devices using alternative low-power processors.
- On the other hand, Fedora Mini lacks support for the Intel GMA 500 graphics chipset, used by Dell in some of its netbooks and supported by Ubuntu with proprietary drivers. This effectively rules out Fedora as an option on some netbooks, at least for now.
- Finally, while Fedora and Fedora Mini are tied closely to Red Hat, they remain community-based projects with no direct commercial backing or support, unlike Ubuntu, which is supported by Canonical and for which technical support can be purchased. Fedora’s community-based status will, I think, make it a less attractive option to OEMs looking for a Linux distribution offering the reassurances of official corporate backing.
Given the differences between them, Fedora Mini and UNR may not end up competing with one another directly in any significant way–only time will tell. Nonetheless, regardless of how this development plays out, greater attention by Linux distributions to the netbook market is a good thing that should lead to faster innovation and better interface design for all parties involved.
Mmm. It seems as if this would be a crossover between UNR and Ubuntu MID:
http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile
Actually, canonical is also targeting cellphones for what we saw recently here in WWU. I think it makes sense to target the three separately (phones, MIDs, Netbooks). And, as you mentioned, Canonical can sell support, either to the end consumer, or more likely, partnering with the hardware vendor to create a customized version for each device.
This will look interesting, but being from Fedora it is bound to be limited to the Linux enthusiasts.
Like you mentioned, Ubuntu is backed by a company while Fedora is the “bleeding edge” test-bed for a corporate entity which doesn’t actually utilize it DIRECTLY, but instead builds their enterprise offering off of Fedora.
This is in part due to Red Hat’s avoidance of the desktop on the Enterprise.
Novell also cannot do this with openSUSE, but they do have SLED which is better than Red Hat’s offering from what I’ve seen/heard, but still shy of Ubuntu’s desktop offering, backing and community.
On the plus side, any strides in a particular Linux distro is a stride for ALL Linux distros. Anything Fedora learns from developing Fedora Mini can and may be implemented in UNR.
Still, it will be interesting, and I am glad to see more getting into the Netbook and different markets.
Sigh. Another misleading article. Do you do basic fact checks anymore? Fedora Mini is a single netbook distro. It is a special interest group working on packages for netbooks and has existed since Sep 2008 atleast.
https://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=SIGs/FedoraMiniamp;action=history
If you read the wiki page, it clearly describes what the effort is all about. Yet, you went ahead and wrote a article describing it as a single netbook distro that is “competing” with Canonical.
Did you know what Moblin distro from Intel switched from Ubuntu to a Fedora base? That was what the original Ubuntu netbook remix was from.
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2068665492.html
effect — not affect. affect relates to ones mood.
Sigh. Another misleading article. Do you do basic fact checks anymore? Fedora Mini is a single netbook distro. It is a special interest group working on packages for netbooks and has existed since Sep 2008 atleast.
https://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=SIGs/FedoraMiniamp;action=history
If you read the wiki page, it clearly describes what the effort is all about. Yet, you went ahead and wrote a article describing it as a single netbook distro that is “competing” with Canonical.
Did you know what Moblin distro from Intel switched from Ubuntu to a Fedora base? That was what the original Ubuntu netbook remix was from.
neonil: Fedora Mini didn’t announce the first alpha release of the Moblin desktop environment until late last month: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-August/msg01296.html. The project may have been around before that but I don’t know of anything it produced until a few weeks ago.
Fedora Mini is not a separate distribution any more than UNR is a separate distribution–they’re both simply specially tailored versions of their respective distributions (Fedora and Ubuntu) aimed at netbooks and similar devices. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise and apologize if the article was confusing in this respect.
As for competition between Fedora Mini and UNR: I think it’s only reasonable to assume that a version of Fedora tailored for netbooks is naturally positioned to compete with UNR, within the limits described in the article. Ubuntu used to be the only mainstream Linux distribution with a special netbook flavor; that’s no longer the case with Fedora Mini’s alpha release of the Moblin desktop. This isn’t to say that the sole purpose of Fedora Mini is to compete with Ubuntu, but it’s clearly going to be one of its ramifications.
@doug. What’s the reason for trying to be pedantic? This reflects bad on you, not on Christopher, no to mention you are actually wrong:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?dict=CALDamp;key=1392
http://www.answers.com/topic/affect
Chris:
Correction…. Xandros had a netbook tailored offering for the EEE pc. Xandros equipped PCs started the retail netbook market. Its a bit of a mischaracterization to suggest that UNR was the first netbook oriented distribution for retail/consumer use. I specifically say retail to exclude the OLPC operating system even though historically its very important in generating general interest in the netbook form factor. Please try to avoid revisionist history.
That being said, I think you really have to watch the Novell/Moblin relationship more closely as it develops if you want to get a sense of who is driving netbook interface innovation forward at this point. This history of Moblin version 1 is tied closely with the development of UNR. Understanding why Canonical is not taking a lead development role in moblin v2 is something I think you might want to look into.
-jef
[…] Fedora Mini: A New Netbook Competitor? For a long time, Ubuntu was the only big-name Linux distribution with a specially tailored netbook version. That changed recently with the announcement of Fedora Mini, which stands poised to compete with Ubuntu Netbook Remix on Linux-based netbooks and similar devices. Here are some thoughts on what this development means for Ubuntu and Canonical’s netbook strategy, and Linux netbooks in general. […]
Fedora Mini is NOT a single distribution or distribution variant. It is a special interest groups producing MULTIPLE variants. You continue to miss fundamental differences. Good luck with your approach.
Why is it that when I read the comments I see a #6 from me, “awaiting moderation”? (and it’s been like this for a day already)
Thanks!
Leo: not sure what’s going on but I think it’s a WordPress issue. We don’t moderate comments before they’re published. Apologies for this, but it does look like your comment showed up eventually, correct?
Re: #12: right, now it seems fine, posted as #7, thanks, Christopher!
Fedora Mini? Didn’t Red Hat say they weren’t interested in the consumer market.
“Fedora Mini? Didn’t Red Hat say they weren’t interested in the consumer market.”
Yes. Red Hat has’t released a netbook distribution. Fedora as a community distribution is working one one. What’s your confusion?
[…] http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/22/fedora-mini-a-new-netbook-competitor/ a few seconds ago from xmpp […]
I don’t think it matters that Red Hat produced a mini distribution or not the reaction would pretty much be the same as I see here. SIGs do produce nifty and quite interesting things. If the Fedora project or related SIGs participate in efforts that gain traction they may very well obtain sponsorship from commercial firms. People do good things to make others happy. In spite of the many complaints that people should not waste efforts on building parallel projects, I believe in competition as a driver of innovation. Note that Fedora and Ubuntu (and others) are meta distributions that have come up with quite nifty goodies that are always impressive. Perhaps the divergence of efforts makes it easier for developers to push out great features that may otherwise have not gotten the attention of upstream developers.
Fedora is the basis for Moblin’s official products
Fedora is not a commercial project. but Moblin is bades on it and you know who is behind Moblin ?::: INTEL
so chance, we will see fedora-mini based distro soon on the market
sorry i meant “based on it” and not “bades on it”