The geeks over at Ars Technica have got hands on a Motorola Atrix smartphone along with the netbook style dock and spent some time playing with the little device. This time rather than focusing on the hardware that goes along with the Atrix and its dock, they focused on the software running the show.

Ars notes right off the bat that screen shots are impossible with the system without rooting the device. As soon as the Atrix is plugged into the dock the Ubuntu desktop fires up. It has Firefox and is an Avant Window Navigator based system. Other components are said to be adapted from GNOME desktop.

The browser onboard in Firefox 3.6, which is said to work just as expected. One of the more important features is Mobile View and it is a direct interface on the dock screen to the Android OS on the phone. That allows the user to interact with the phone using the trackpad and keyboard. The hands-on with the software is detailed and you can hit the source below to see more. In the end Ars says the system is compelling, but still very limited.

[via Ars Technica]

4 COMMENTS

  1. one of those things that looks good on paper, but execution is horrible. at first glance, geeks went nuts over the possibility of ditching their laptops, but when you peel the outside layer it’s just plain ole android. What happen to the Chrome OS? Why didn’t they go with this perverted linux-Firefox-hybrid-browser-OS-remote-desktop-virtualized-layer?

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