Like a plus-sized dress on a skinny runway model, Windows just doesn’t fit when it’s loaded on a netbook.
So entrepreneurs are taking a page from the fashion industry playbook, and creating new operating systems that are tailored
exclusively to fit the smaller, less powerful and inexpensive netbooks.
At least four new operating systems are in the works, all promising to offer a better experience to users struggling with tiny Windows icons on their 10-inch laptops.
“This is an OS built for the Facebook generation,” says Tariq Krim, founder of JoliCloud, a new OS being created exclusively for netbooks. “People have their lives on the net now and they want an OS that understands that.”
JoliCloud is one of several efforts to create a netbook-optimized operating system. Another startup, Good OS, is planning a
browser-centric netbook operating system it calls Cloud OS. Intel is spearheading an open source project called Moblin that aims to create a netbook OS based on a Linux kernel, while offering related software development tools. And while details are sketchy, MSI, a market leader in netbooks, has created a new operating system called Winki aimed at mobile internet devices.
Amid a slowdown in PC sales, netbooks are popular among budget-conscious consumers, with nearly 15 million devices sold
worldwide last year. Sales this year are expected to double, says ABI Research. Almost 90 percent of netbooks sold by Acer and Toshiba run Windows XP (the newer Windows Vista is too resource-intensive to run on these underpowered machines). Dell says one in three of its netbooks carries a Linux flavor such as Ubuntu.
But existing operating systems don’t take into account the netbook’s quirks, say the developers of the new OSes. A netbook is much smaller than a laptop, which means a smaller screen size. That’s why the user interface becomes the most pressing issue. Makers of the new OSes hope to create something more appropriate to netbooks’ small, 8- to 10-inch screens and their puny keyboards.
“XP uses a lot of tiny icons that are scattered on the startup screen,” says Phil Solis, an analyst with ABI Research. “With a
different OS you can reimagine the way your computer looks and reacts to your needs.”
Netbooks are also used for different tasks than traditional desktop and notebook PCs — mainly web surfing, e-mail and chat. In short, they are used more like mobile phones, says JoliCloud’s Krim. “I have been a Linux evangelist for a long time and I love the interface of the iPhone,” he says. “So I thought, why don’t we have a perfect mix of both?”
JoliCloud’s OS will offer iPhone-like icons to navigate. It plans to offer a custom browser, and the entire OS will be built on
a Linux kernel, says Krim. The icon-based interface also makes it easier to support touch screens.
Apart from the interface, these new OSes should better serve users who are increasingly living “in the cloud.”
Creating a system for users who live, work and play online has driven the development of Cloud OS, says David Liu, founder and CEO of Good OS. For these users, their word processor is Google Docs, their e-mail is Gmail, and their phone service is provided by Skype. For such users, the browser isn’t just an application — it’s a lifeline.
That’s why Cloud OS will have a small Linux kernel at is core and will offer a
browser screen on startup, says Liu. “The idea is to make the browser
the starting point for the user,” he says. “It fits well with the
internet heavy usage pattern of netbook users.”
The rise of netbooks offers one of the best opportunities in more
than two decades to challenge Microsoft’s near-monopolistic dominance
of the operating system business.
But Microsoft isn’t taking
the threat lying down. The company is hoping to establish its dominance
in the category with the upcoming Windows 7. Windows 7 will be
optimized for netbooks and could even come in a lightweight edition for
smaller devices, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a recent interview.
The Windows 7 Starter edition will be offered for less powerful
machines, such as netbooks, and will be able to run only three
applications at a time.
Ultimately,
whether netbook-optimized OSes live or die will depend on PC makers.
Although Good OS and JoliCloud plan to distribute their software
online, the key to success in the operating system market is getting
your product pre-installed.
Their one hope might be PC makers’
need to differentiate cheap netbooks from ostensibly similar,
higher-priced notebooks. Netbooks, priced at an average of $400, offer
much lower margins to companies than their bigger, more expensive
counterparts, says Paul Moore, senior product director at Fujitsu
Computer Systems.
Netbooks
with well-tailored OSes could help companies build greater
differentiation into their products. Often consumers are disappointed
with their netbooks because they expect similar experience and
performance from these cheap ultraportable machines as they do from
their heftier notebooks, just because the two run the same operating
system, says ABI Research’s Solis. Putting a different interface on the
netbook might help signal its different purposes.
It’s an argument that plays well with former netbook user
Kaan Yigit, president of SRG Solutions Research Group. Excited by all
the buzz around netbooks, Yigit bought a Asus Eee PC with a Windows XP
operating system earlier this year. “It looked extremely attractive
online and offline and I thought, ‘Let me try small form factor,’” he says.
Barely days into using the machine, Yigit found the keyboard too
cramped and the XP user interface grating. “You couldn’t do anything
with it that you could do with a standard XP machine,” he says. Using
the small trackpad on the keyboard to maneuver through XP icons required great dexterity for
even the simplest tasks, says Yigit.
Six weeks later, frustrated with the challenges, Yigit gave the
netbook away to a colleague at work. “Design of everything, including
the OS, has to follow the users needs and the form factor of the
device,” says Yigit. “Old school XP in a tiny machine does not work.”
It’s that call to entrepreneurship that upstarts JoliCloud, Moblin and Cloud OS hope to answer.
Tariq Krim
A: We haven´t disclosed that. Netbooks manufacturers are very interested because everyone is scared by the economy of the netbooks. Computers are so cheap that all traditional models don´t apply anymore. We´ll have a very straight model of distribution, leveraging what we learnt from the web. I can´t tell you more details rather than we´ll work on a downloadable, web 2.0 type of approach.