Pants on Wordpress 2

UMPC Portal points to a PDF that says Intel is collaborating with Red Flag Software on a linux distro tailored specifically to MIDs (mobile internet devices), appropriately called MIDINUX.

Apparently the UI is Gnome-based, which is very good news. Maybe they’ll adopt Tango, but if not it shouldn’t be too hard to create and install an appropriate theme/icon-set.

MIDINUX will support GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and i915 chipsets should they be present on a given MID. The PDF also cites drastically reduced boot/resume times & storage footprints over traditional linux distros (by means of kernel reduction, removal of unnecessary services, etc.).

To me, it doesn’t look like Intel will release their own MID anytime soon. They are more interested in getting a platform together while the market is young. By keeping the system open, this might lower costs while spurring developer interest.

Also: there seems to be some confusion between the terms “MIDINUX” and “MID Linux.” As best as I can tell, MIDINUX is the brand name for Red Flag’s distro; MID Linux is the title for Intel’s MID architecture.

John Tokash has more to say.