[126002770010] |<title>iPad Lookalike Dual-Boots Ubuntu and Windows</title>
[126002770020] |Hard on the heels of the news earlier this month that Taiwanese firm Tenq has an <a>Ubuntu-powered tablet</a> on the way comes word of yet another iPad challenger running Canonical's popular Linux distribution.
[126002770030] |It's a dual-booting machine, this time--running both <a>Ubuntu 10.10</a> and Windows 7--and it's reportedly even closer to being an iPad twin.
[126002770040] |Featuring a 9.7-inch screen, the new device is reportedly much thinner than the Tenq machine is, according to a Friday <a>report</a> on Giz-China.
[126002770050] |It also features a dual-core, 1.6GHz Atom Z530 CPU, 1GB RAM--expandable to 2GB--and an SSD hard drive, reportedly 16GB on the model Giz-China spotted
[126002770060] |Compared with Tenq's P07, the new tablet is "based on a design more similar to an iPad," the publication reported.
[126002770070] |<a>Shenzhen Ruixin</a> is the manufacturer of the device, Chinese Newpad <a>noted</a> on Thursday.
[126002770080] |Newpad also features a number of photos of the new tablet.
[126002770090] |<strong>The Dual-Booting Trend</strong>
[126002770100] |It's not yet certain whether this dual-booting device will make it to market, of course, as Giz-China points out.
[126002770110] |What is becoming increasingly certain, however, is the growing interest among <a>tablet makers</a> in the free and open source <a>Ubuntu</a> operating system.
[126002770120] |In addition to these two latest tablets, we also saw last fall Augen's dual-booting <a>Gentouch Espresso Doppio</a>, which takes a different approach by dual-booting two Linux-based operating systems: Android 2.2 and Ubuntu.
[126002770130] |Dual-booting, I believe, is a growing<a> trend for 2011</a>, and will be seen on an increasing number of devices this year.
[126002770140] |<strong>A Natural on Tablets</strong>
[126002770150] |But while Windows has been slow to adapt to <a>ARM</a> and the era of tablets, Linux-based Android has been on the forefront, posing the first real competition to Apple's market-leading iPad.
[126002770160] |Now, it's particularly exciting to see Ubuntu stepping up as another mobile-friendly and<a> Linux</a>-based alternative.
[126002770170] |With its open source nature, its low resources requirements and its free price, Ubuntu may just prove to be the next tablet winner.