By Erica Sadun
January 05, 2009 - 10:35PM CT

Last week, Matthäus Krzykowski and Daniel Hartmann of VentureBeat loaded Android onto an Eee PC 10000H netbook. According to their write-up, it took no more than about four hours to compile Android for the Eee and get it up and running. This wasn't just a proof of concept install. Once running, Android was able to use the onboard graphics, sound, and wireless capabilities of the device.

This installation success is helping fuel speculation about the future of Android and other possible Google operating system initiatives. While you might think of Android as a phone-based operating system, in reality it is more than that. Android can theoretically run on many PCs, including laptops and netbooks. The VentureBeat install, like the Nokia N810 we wrote about in early December, shows that Android and Android-like operating systems could have a potential range far wider than handheld devices.

That's not to say that you can just swap out Android for any Linux install. Android is built on a Linux kernel but diverges in the way that it handles graphics. Instead of using the standard Linux X Server drivers, Android employs a "framebuffer driver." This alternate technology arbitrates and controls access to the system display using the open source Skia Graphics Library. Skia is also the cross-platform graphics engine that powers Google Chrome.

Standard Linux applications depend on X Server and must be ported to Android's graphics system if they are to run properly there. As VentureBeat points out, the framebuffer driver approach currently runs far slower than X Server. Should Android attempt to make a push into the netbook market, it will have to improve its efficiency on that front or face "very slow graphics." In most other regards, Android and standard Linux installs aren't that different.