Moblin
Moblin, short for 'mobile Linux', is a discontinued open source operating system and application stack for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netbooks, nettops and embedded devices.
Screenshot of Moblin 2.1 | |
| Developer | The Linux Foundation/Intel |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Discontinued (merged with MeeGo) |
| Source model | Open source |
| Latest release | 2.1 / November 4, 2009 |
| Marketing target | Mobile devices |
| Package manager | RPM Package Manager |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux) |
| Userland | GNU |
| License | Various |
| Official website | moblin |
Moblin was built around the Intel Atom processor. All builds of Mobilin were designed to minimize boot times and power consumption, as Moblin was a netbook and MID-centric operating system. The netbook/desktop version of Moblin supported other chipsets based on the SSSE3 instruction set, such as the Core2 and some Celeron processors.
OEM support was scarce but hit an all-time high in 2009 when Acer replaced Linpus Linux with Moblin on their Acer Aspire One netbooks. and LG Electronics chose Moblin OS 2.1 for its mobile Internet device class smartphone the LG GW990. Dell also once accepted orders for netbooks running Canonical Ltd.'s Ubuntu Moblin Remix.
Few commercial products existed around Moblin 2, most prominently a netbook from Foxconn and a smartphone from InvenTech, both announced at Computex 2009. Mandriva offered Moblin's v2 version to all Mandriva distribution and netbook owners.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010, MSI and Novell announced SUSE Moblin preloaded on the MSI U135 netbook. Following the release of Moblin version 2.1, this was the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to sell a fully supported Intel Atom processor-based netbook running Moblin-based technology to consumers. It was demonstrated at both the MSI and Intel booths at the show. In addition, Samsung showed four netbooks preloaded with SUSE Moblin.
At the Mobile World Congress in February 2010, it was announced that the Moblin project would be merging with Maemo to create the MeeGo mobile software platform. Nokia stopped all MeeGo development after switching to Windows Phone in 2011 and Intel also discontinued work on to join the Tizen project instead.