Goin' Mobile (With Ubuntu)

Chalk up another edition of what's shaping up to be the Linux edition for the rest of us. A new version of Ubuntu, "Netbook Remix", sports a feature set and a slimmed-down footprint specifically for the emerging (shilling for already emerged!) micro-notebook market.

Right now this version is little more than an announcement, a way to entice OEMs into getting onboard early. No ISO to download -- at least, not yet. That said, given the surge of attention devoted to Linux on portable devices of all kinds, they're likely to sit up and take notice. Ubuntu's one of the few Linux distributions that has anything remotely approaching household-name recognition, so an "Ubuntu Powered" sticker ought to turn the right heads.

Another thing that comes to mind: perhaps Remix also can be used as yet another distribution to power older machines -- either as-is or with some tweaking. Puppy and DSL have traditionally been my choices of distro to accomplish that, but if Remix shapes up the way I hope, it will be great to have that many more choices. (Incidentally, Puppy Linux version 4.0 just dropped as of May; a closer look at that is definitely in the cards here.)