Most all readers will be well aware of the ASUS Eee Linux PC. Other vendors now seek to achieve similar success, the latest being Acer’s Linpus device. Yet, a common complaint is that traditional software doesn’t necessarily translate well to the smaller screens. Here’s my tips for developing software for the emerging and widely popular netbook market.

The challenge for software developers comes in adapting to the growing numbers of these machines. Sure, you can run any Linux app on them as is – it’s not like the Windows Mobile situation where programs have to be specially built and compiled for Windows Mobile devices. They may run Microsoft Windows, but it’s not the same operating system at heart (or even the same type of processor.) By contrast, Linux netbooks still use the exact same underlying kernel and graphical subsystem as their traditional computer counterparts.

Yet, despite this, the screen resolutions on these devices are often somewhat whacky. The Aspire One, for instance, operates at 1024x600 pixels. That’s pretty good for a netbook but is short of the taller, more conventional, 1024x768 you’d expect on a regular desktop. Similarly, the original Eee offered 800x480 pixels; again, shy of the more usual 800x600. The Elonex ONE also operates at 800x480 and the 2nd-generation Eee 901 models deliver 1024x600. You can see a pattern emerging here: while giving reasonable width, the netbook displays are consistently squatter than the traditional resolutions developers work with.

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