Remember before netbooks arrived when everyone thought MIDs would take over the world? MIDs are mobile Internet devices. They are supposed to be small computers you can carry around in your pocket, but they never really took off. Ubuntu MID edition might be able to bring them back, though.

Thanks to the iPhone, the primary value of most smartphones comes from their applications. Regardless of the controversy Apple’s app store created, it certainly changed the game for mobile devices.

Since then, we have leared about plans to make it possible to run Android applications on Ubuntu. This could give some new life to MIDs. Imagine if on your MID, in addition to doing whatever normal things you would do on a MID, you could run applications, preferably from diffferent sources. For example, this would allow you to tkae advantage of the applicatinos created for different phone systems, without having multiple devices.

We knew netbook makers were already checking out Android, so I suppose it is logical that it would extend to all portable devices. Apparently, Sony will be producing some future Walkman portable music players built on Android, Google’s open-source, Linux-based phone OS.

Since few companies are able to distinguish their portable devices based on software, Apple being a notable exception, open-source platforms like Android may really take off. Android will not be alone, though. As it starts to be adopted, competitors will come from all directions, just like with Linux netbook OSs.

We may be headed towards a future of open-source OSs on every mobile device, which, in addition to leading to much better software, would open up some interesing hacking potential.

Around the Eee PC boom, the idea of a special quick-boot OS for checking email and surfing the web arose, largely thanks to a company called Device VM (better known as Splashtop). Though it’s a cool idea that has just started to take off, it’s not clear how long it will last.

When Splashtop first arrived, many OSs took a minute or more to boot up. Since then, though, Ubuntu has been steadily improving their boot times and is aiming for a 10 second bootup in 2010. Apple, who offers their customers a choice between premium hardware and crazy hardware, is coming along, too, with their upcoming release – Snow Leopard. Even Microsoft, with its notoriously bloated Windows, is working on decreasing the power required to run Windows 7.

With rapdibly plummeting boot times on normal OSs, it’s not clear that instant-on special OSs have much ground to stand on. In just a few years the difference will be 1 second to 5 seconds. Once you factor in the convienence of only having one OS, quick-boot OSs might not have long to live.

Right now, in the rush to take a piece of the Netbook buzz, every distribution seems to be joining it with their own netbook OS, sometimes even with a few. Soon, though, this will have to change.

Netbooks are very much consumer devices at this point, and so having such a wide array of distros cannot last. The question is, who will come out on top? It will likely be one of the major players: Xandros, Ubuntu, or Moblin. There is, however, still time for another player to emerge.

However it turns out, it is very likely that we will see a clearer picture in the next few months.

It looks like a version of RealPlayer is being licensed to several major netbook Linux distro companies along with support for a number of commercial codecs that are not usually shipped with Linux distributions.

RealPlayer hasn’t, in the past, had a very good reputation, largely for the tendency for tons of unrelated software to arrive along with RealPlayer. The company appears, though, to have ended these practices more recently, so this looks like a great step forward for Linux-based netbooks.

Of course there are already media players on almost all of these netbook distributions, but most of them do not have the codec playback capabilities that RealPlayer will have, due to licensing issues. Unfortunately, this often confuses people who are used to playback of any media “just working.” Now, though, those issues shouldn’t come up, at least in many cases. If only it were that simple on the desktop (without the $100 price tag, thanks).

The first Android-running phone, the G1, attracted a fair amount of attention, but didn’t really make it as a mainstream phone. Over and over again, though, people said it was the hardware, not the software, that made them dislike the phone.

While this particular model will never be released, CNet got their hands on the Google Ion, a new all-touchscreen phone from HTC running Android 1.5 (Cupcake). CNet called the phone “the Android device for which we’ve been waiting.” Though the Ion lacks the G1’s physical keyboard, it is supposed to be much sleeker and generally more polished. There are still some complaints, but there is plenty of time for issues to be worked out before a phone like this makes it to the US consumer market.

This look at future Android devices may signal that Android is really starting to go somewhere as a consumer phone platform, not just a hobbyist’s toy. Competitors, such as Apple and Microsoft, have a lot going for them, but, if Android takes off, its cross-device presence will give it a major boost.

Android’s future is still unknown, but this looks like a step in the right direction.

Today was the first day of the Ubuntu Developer’s Summit for Karmic Koala. In the next week, the plans for Karmic Koala should be roughly defined for implementation over the next four months.

One of the things that will be discussed on Tuesday is support for running Android applications on Ubuntu. This is an interesting possibility, since it could allow for a vast library of interesting applications designed for mobile use to be used on Ubuntu computers, most importantly those running Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

At this point Android stands a chance of really taking off, due to its open-source foundation and powerful backing from Google. If, and this is a big if, that happens, there will undoubtedly be a huge library of incredible applications, both free and for pay, that will make the Android experience what it is. Ubuntu and its mobile variants do not stand much chance of getting this amount of developer attention anytime soon, but if Android application could be run directly on Ubuntu, that would give Ubuntu a boost from whatever attention Android gets.

We will probably know more after the idea is discussed on Tuesday (the 26th), but it certainly sounds like an interesting idea.

Almost every major Linux distribution now has an official or unofficial netbook version that has been optimized for one particular netbook or for netbooks in general. This usually largely means adding bigger buttons to make them easier to press on the tiny screen.

These interfaces almost certainly help new users get started, but would are specific netbook versions really better for more experienced users or do they just get in the way? On one hand, they may make it easier to launch the first application, but many sacrifice taskbar space and don’t have seem to offer anything special after you start working.

Are netbook remixes just a gimmick or are they really necessary?

When we think of the phone OS wars, we usually think of the iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, and the BlackBerry OS.The true war, though, is between open and closed.

Currently one of the most successful phones, the iPhone, is a very closed phone. Both the OS and the applications are controlled by Apple. At the same time, though, more and more companies just keep joining the open-source phone OS game.

As far as what will determine the future, it doesn’t matter what company winds up on top, it matters if the winning OS is open or closed.

As usual, Ubuntu’s home page advertises both Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 Desktop Edition and Server Edition. This release, though, a third product joins them: Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Until now, Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix has been focused on OEMs like Dell and HP, both of whom now use Ubuntu and some custom software on their netbooks.That piece may always be their biggest percentage of installations, but it is clear that they are going to try and change that by offering the Nebtook Remix right on the home page as a download for any netbook.

Given that consumers are apparently already uncomfortable trying something new, it is not clear that they will be willing to install a new OS. For those who are willing to install a new OS, Ubuntu is clearly positioning for your limited SSD space. Right now, it looks like they’re gonna get it.