Moblin Linux boosters go global

Intel continues to push the adoption of the open-source Moblin Version 2 mobile operating system, today using the Computex show in Taipei, Taiwan as its bully pulpit.
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At the mammoth trade show, Intel hosted a Moblin Executive Summit to trumpet "the growing ecosystem momentum behind Moblin and demonstrate the richness of the Moblin v2 beta environment." Joining Intel VP Doug Fisher were Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation, which took over hosting the Moblin effort from Intel in April, and Wu Ming-ji of Taiwan's Moblin Enabling Center, which was founded in the closing days of 2008 to promote the Linux-based Android competitor mobile operating system designed to run on Intel Atom processors.

Intel also released (PDF) a list of OSVs (operating system vendors) who have committed to Moblin. The global gathering comes from Europe, the US, South America, and Asia, and includes the Asianux Consortium and its founding company Red Flag, Canonical, CS2C, Good OS, Linpus, Mandriva, MontaVista, Novell, Pixart, TurboLinux, and Xandros.

Of that dozen, seven made their own announcements at Computex:

• Asianux will target its upcoming Midinux 3.0 at mobile internet devices (MIDs).
• Linpus plans to offer its Moblin V2 Linpus Linux Lite in two versions, one with a Linpus UI and one with Intel's UI.
• Canonical confirmed that it will release what it calls an "Ubuntu Moblin remix."
• MontaVista's Linux 6 Market Specific Distributions for the embedded market will be based on Mobilin Version 2.
• Novell is demoing its SUSE edition of Moblin Version 2 on Acer and MSI hardware at Computex.
• Red Flag will provide both the Asianux Midinux 3.0 and its own inMini2009 for netbooks, both based on Moblin Version 2.
• Xandros is demoing its "Xandros Moblin 2 solution" on an Asus Eee PC in Intel's booth at Computex.

Moblin is clearly gaining momentum - but so is Google's Android. While Microsoft Windows may be winning the netbook OS war, there's a whole brave new world of handhelds, MIDs, media pads, smartbooks, and the like to be conquered.

And although Google had the stage all to itself at its recent I/O developers conference, Computex is big enough for both it and Intel to strut their respective stuff.

And maybe the nascent low-power, low-cost, mobile-internet market will be big enough for both of them to play a significant role.

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BY Rik Myslewski in San Francisco
Source：The Register

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