linux
Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor runs Ubuntu
It seems to be the current trend nowadays – make a device run an operating system that wasn’t meant to be there. Android on iPhone, MeeGo on Nexus S and now we have one more to add to the list – Ubuntu Linux on the NOOKcolor. If Android didn’t give you a good enough tablet experience and you want more from the NOOKcolor, Ubuntu might be the way to go. The folks over at xda-developers have managed to bring the world’s most popular distribution of Linux, onto the tablet from Barnes & Noble. As usual not everything is working perfectly, but from what we can see so far, it looks great. Expect bugs and hiccups to be fixed in future versions, but now you can say hello to running full-fledged Linux programs like GIMP and VLC on your tablet. Sounds awesome to me.
There will always be companies who love laying up on the superlatives, with claims of the “world’s first” or “world’s largest” thrown around, and this time around, we have the Intermatrix U7 which is touted to be the first Ubuntu-powered tablet in the world. Well, it hails from Australia, and is said to be up for pre-order although shipping is set to commence only in October.
At first glance, the Intermatrix U7 does seem to be a decent 7” tablet that sports a quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex A9 CPU, a quad-core Vivante GC1000+ GPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a 7″ IPS capacitive touchscreen display, but do bear in mind that the bare minimum for an Ubuntu tablet stands at 2GB RAM, so we hope that the final release will come with double the RAM stated, otherwise do expect sluggish performance from the Intermatrix U7.
It has been common knowledge for awhile that most smartphone OS’ have some connection to Linux. For example, Android operating system is one of the many mobile OS platforms which run a Linux-based OS. If the OS is not heavily associated with Linux there will be traces of it underneath which have helped the said OS develop. Now it seems Ubuntu Linux which is best known for being the most used Linux distribution around the globe has got plans to enter into the mobile OS fray themselves.
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If Android, Windows or iOS is not your preferred choice of operating system for a tablet, you might be interested in checking out an upcoming tablet called the Spark. What makes this tablet different from the competition is that its choice of operating system is Linux, and if you’re wondering why does that sound familiar, it might be because you have come across a tablet called the Zenithink C-71, with the Spark tablet essentially being a rebranded version of the Zenithink C-71.
In terms of specs, users can expect a 7” 800×480 display, and under the hood the Spark tablet will sport a 1GHz AMLogic processor with 512MB of RAM and a Mali 400 GPU to match. It will come with 4GB of internal storage and will support microSD cards for memory expansion. It will support WiFi but unfortunately support for 3G is pretty much non-existent for now. It will be powered by Mer, which is a community-based version of MeeGo Linux and pre-orders for the Spark tablet is expected to begin next week at $265, with the tablet shipping some time in May.