“Making a bid for a piece of the emerging desktop Linux market,
Mattel, Inc. announced the immediate availability of downloadable
beta ISOs for BarbieOS 0.99, and said it hoped the final 1.0 retail
version would be on store shelves in time for Christmas. The new OS
was created by Mattel to power the upcoming revision of its popular
B-Book line of laptops for girls between the ages of four and
eleven. The original B-Book laptop, which ran a modified version of
PalmOS, was a huge hit with consumers last holiday season, so much
so that many stores had trouble keeping them in stock. This year,
Mattel is upping the ante by making the B-Book into a full-fledged
desktop replacement targeted specifically at toddler through
preteen girls who are currently Windows users but may be seeking
alternatives, possibly due to increasing licensing fees or out of a
desire to break free of vendor lock-in.“BarbieOS, based on Debian Linux, had been in private beta for
more than six months prior to yesterday’s public release. Initial
reaction to the company’s announcement has been mixed, as some
analysts have claimed that the desktop Linuxmarket is already
over-saturated given its current size, as other major players such
as Lycoris Desktop/LX, Xandros Linux, and LindowsOS are already
competing for the rather small percentage of home desktop users
willing to try a non-Microsoft OS. Still, Mattel says it is
confident of the potential of BarbieOS 1.0 to find a niche market
of young girls under thirteen who are dissatisfied with current
Microsoft offerings and are looking toward maybe asking mom and dad
for a full-powered Linux laptop running BarbieOS this
Christmas…”