You’ve heard of Smart Phones and Netbooks. Now, get ready for Smartbooks — mobile 3G wireless devices that appear to be slightly larger than the iPhone. Qualcomm is rallying hardware partners (OEMs, original equipment manufacturers) to introduce Smartbooks sometime in Q3 or Q4 2009. And here’s the twist: Qualcomm is hiring Ubuntu talent to help drive the project forward.
In a recent Monster.com advertisement, Qualcomm seeks a Linux software engineer who can:
“work with leading OEMs and software vendors to create a new class of device and user-experience dubbed smartbook. These devices combine the always-on, always-connected capabilities of a smartphone with a larger screen, full keyboard, and a more compelling form-factor and user-experience than traditional notebooks/netbooks. 3G is everywhere and fast and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets are small, powerful and power-efficient - join us to redefine mobile computing.”
Qualcomm further describes the Smartbook effort here.
Rise of Mobile Internet Devices?
In many ways, Qualcomm’s Smartbook vision seems to match Canonical’s vision for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
Roughly one-third of WorksWithU’s readers are eager to purchase Ubuntu-based MIDs, according to a reader poll we conducted in January 2009. But the MID market has been slow to materialize — partly because Smart Phones offer some MID functionality, and also because Netbooks burst onto the scene and became so popular.
But proponents think MIDs can carve out a niche — much in the way that the iPhone Touch sits somewhere between smart phones and notebooks.
Backed by Qualcomm, a range of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) apparently are developing MID-like devices, branded as Smartbooks. And Qualcomm’s decision to hire Ubuntu talent for the effort bodes well for Canonical’s mobile strategy.
Still, Smartbooks will run a range of operating systems — Windows, Google Android and plenty of Linux variants, according to some early Qualcomm documentation I’ve read.
We’ll be sure to watch how Ubuntu’s role in the fledgling Smartbook market evolves.
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I can’t wait!
I don’t see any evidence that Qualcomm is hiring Ubuntu talent. Where do you get that? All you cite is a monster job posting seeking some very general Linux software engineer. This whole post is presented like Qualcomm is going to put Ubuntu on smartbooks when in fact there seems to be no such indication whatsoever. This is very sloppy and misleading. Are you just speculating and wishing out loud? If so, come out and say that rather than presenting as news, or give a valid source for the info, please.
@Artinvent:
The full listing at monster.com does say “Ubuntu/Debian” inside a much longer list of desired experience so the article as written is justified.
Here’s list of desired experience from the full description:
OpenGL ES, OpenVG, X11
H.264, OpenMAX IL, GStreamer, Helix, or other multimedia frameworks
MP3, AAC, ALSA, Pulse Camera V4L2
ARM kernel development, board bring-up, Linux device drivers (USB, SD, display, WiFi), Ubuntu/Debian, bootloaders, uboot
Optimization: Performance/power, memory, CPU
Linux profiling tools (oprofile, LTTng, SystemTap), Eclipse
So in context it basically means they want someone whose worked with both the ARM architecture and the debian packaging system if they can get them. I daresay there’s probably more ARM experience floating around for hire in the Debian community than there is in the Ubuntu community. How much of the Ubuntu ARM effort is being paid for by Canonical versus unpaid time?
More to the point. Does the Ubuntu ARM port support the Qualcomm snapdragon yet? My understanding is that it does not..but that could have changed since Computex. The now missing
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/ARMBeijingSeminar2009Report
originally had this quote:
“Ubuntu can only support Freescale Babbage, we have to support more platform”
Android and Xandros do support the Qualcomm chip already. Asus was demoing a smartbook using the snapdragon and running Android. In-house linux talent at Qualcomm could just as easily work with external teams at Google and Xandros as they could with Canonical’s ARM team.
The Ubuntu talent headline is probably a bit of a reach and a bit sensationalistic, but its not factually out of bounds.
-jef
ArtInvent: You’re entitled to disagree with me, but I conclude the position requires Ubuntu talent.
Jef: I continue to enjoy the healthy debate. I know you took strong issue with the Dell/Ubuntu story earlier — especially since ComputerWorld had previously posted a blog with a comment from Dell stating a new Ubuntu PC was coming. In that case, shame on us for not getting the comment and kudos to you for calling us out on it. We’ll continue to eat crow where appropriate.
Joe:
“Requires”…is a bit strong. You probably shouldn’t say that.
Don’t you know the difference between requirements and desires?
Ubuntu/Debian is listed as “desired” experience for the job openings inside a long list of such “desired” experience. The job application is only “required” to show multiple year experience in a subset of that list of “desired” experience areas.
The “required” experience section of the full listing makes it clearer…
* Minimum of 2 years experience in one of the areas mentioned above
* Excellent C/C++ programming skills
Based on that set of requirements I would fit as a hire even though I would not be able to to use Ubuntu as a bullet point among the other items. What’s really required is extensive C/C++ coding experience. Python and mono developers…need not apply.
-jef
But, why Ubuntu? Why do these companies continue to seek out Ubuntu, when it’s far from the most user friendly of Linux distros? They should really be seeking out Mandriva or Novell. Ubuntu should be kept away from Linux newbies. It still requires the command line for setting up things that it doesn’t setup correctly itself. This is exactly what new user that go back to Windows complain about…
@linuxlover:
I think in this context…its about packaging subsystem. Whatever Qualcomm is working on is most likely using the debian packaging system instead of rpm. And that makes perfect sense as Xandros and Debian and Ubuntu and Meamo…distributions with ARM port efforts underway are using the debian packaging system. I don’t know about Android..but those 4 do use the debian packaging system. Is Novel pushing an ARM port? Is Mandriva? I know Fedora has a ARM effort underway but ARM is not a major focus for Red Hat as a business so I don’t think its fair to stand up the Fedora ARM effort side by side with Xandros or Maemo at this point. Linpus announced an ARM porting effort and they use rpm..but I’ve no idea how far that is along really.
The point is..experience with one distribution that is using the debian packaging system would transfer over equally well to the other distributions. So its completely self-consistent for Qualcomm to desire people who have had experience with “Ubuntu/Debian” if they are targeting Xandros for example. And more importantly its not a critical skill. Its one skill among many they are hoping to catch. Since they are hiring multiple people, there’s probably room in the mix for one person with a lot of experience with debian packaging on the team together with other people who are experienced in the other desired areas but do not have the debian packaging experience.
-jef
How are these “new” devices different from Nokia’s N810? Isn’t it basically the same type of device, other than having a faster ARM processor and 3G?
http://www.nokiausa.com/find-products/phones/nokia-n810
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N810
After watching the video, I notice that they have different models. Some are very similar to Nokia’s N800 (but more capable), some are like a very small netbook which fold like a laptop, and some are like a big Internet tablet. Interesting. So I suppose “Snapdragon” isn’t a particular device, but a brand of super mobile (thin, light, and 3G connected) Internet tablets.
Omegamormegil: Thanks for the perspective. I could be wrong, but I think Snapdragon is basically a set of chips that are branded together … similar to how Intel branded Centrino. Just an educations (or some would say “uneducated”) guess on my part.
This is definitely great info. I have been tracking the smartbook since the qualcomm announcement, so this article is definitely interesting. I came across another site which has all sorts of great news like this that I think you should check out. Take a look at http://www.smartbook.asia it has great info as well
I would love an Ubuntu MID, smartbook or whatever it’s called.
‘Hiring Ubuntu talent…’ I like the sound of this.
hi, me too i`m very excited with this.
How long take to buy one??
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