YOU MIGHT VERY well have used one of Linpus‘ Linux distributions without even knowing about it, as the company specializes in custom Linux installations for a wide range of solutions, least not netbooks. The company has also made some customized versions of Moblin, but its latest project is something that looks extremely interesting, a version of Linux for ARM based PCTVs.
The hardware in question was based on a Tegra T20 SoC which we presume is one of the upcoming Tegra 2 processors. It was paired up with 256MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM as well as some storage memory. There’s of course support for both wired and wireless networking, as well as Bluetooth an USB storage devices. The Tegra machine was connected to a display with 1920×1080 resolution, so this kind of setup would work great with any Full HD TV.
The UI of Linpus PCTV was very slick and as you can see from the picture, it also gives you previews of the videos on the storage device. It comes with a web browser and it supports YouTube playback, which again makes it easy to watch online streaming content on your TV. It looks like Google TV is going to get some competition, although the integration of Linpus PCTV doesn’t stretch quite as far as Google TV. The advantage of Linpus PCTV is of course that the hardware requirements are much lower which should allow for much more affordable hardware.
Linpus was also showing off a version of Linpus for smartbooks and its was running on yet another piece of Tegra hardware, namely the Mobinnova Beam which we’re still waiting for its launch. We have to say that we much preferred Linpus on the Beam rather than Mobinnova’s custom UI on-top of Windows CE.
The smartbook version of Linpus is similar to Linpus Lite and features a LiveDesktop which gives you quick access to social networking, bookmarks, applications, email and news feeds to mention a few things. The OS also supports live updates and as such you’ll always have the latest version installed without having to worry about it. This looks like a real tablet beater to us, but that would of course require some actual retail hardware for it to run on, which is a different matter altogether.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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