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Intel puts Moblin into foundation, possibly wrongfooting Android

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 3 April, 2009

READ MORE: Intel

Intel is jumping on the mobile open source wave and putting its Moblin Linux-based platform into a foundation, to encourage developer support and position it more powerfully against other 'open' platforms like Symbian and Android. This may show the chip giant aiming to create a mobile system that it can dominate, rather than working closely with one of the other foundations - which could throw a spanner in Android's works - while Symbian remains close to the traditional cellphone processor makers, announcing closer ties with Texas Instruments.

In its efforts to break into the mobile device fortress, Intel has scored some points from its long established support for Windows, but needs a broader base, and Linux is likely to be the base of that drive. But which variant? Intel has worked with Android, and in many ways its interests are well aligned with those of Google, but has steered clear of the more classically mobile culture of LiMO. But it also has its own Moblin platform, which is important, in tandem with the Atom processor, for the netbook and emerging MID categories.

The issue - especially with cellcos like Verizon Wireless calling for a reduction in the number of OSs they must support - is whether Intel will throw its weight behind a unified Mobile Linux platform, or will seek to push its own preferred system into a dominant position, in the netbook/MID space and even in handsets.

Intel is to put Moblin into the San Francisco-based Linux Foundation, a non-profit advocacy group which will host the online community for Moblin and take over stewardship of the project and its community, Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said: "In many ways getting the broad community to participate in this project, even if it means giving it up to a neutral place like the Linux Foundation, is a way to get more support."

The move could also enable Moblin to be targeted at non-Intel chips as well as attracting a broader base of developers. And though the politics of Mobile WiMAX are fascinating, in the currently immature state of the market, there probably is a need for multiple approaches to the system. Moblin, Android and LiMO all take different approaches to the hybrid sector where phones and PCs converge, a sector where few form factors have yet been defined. Moblin certainly brings a great deal of experience of a PC-style approach to the mobile world, and also has support from the Genivi Alliance, which is looking for a standard OS for in-car information and entertainment systems.

Zemlin told PC World: "Nobody knows what the next big thing will be and what it will winnow down to. The key here is we think that this project adds a lot of value in that it provides a super-rich way for developers to create what might be that next big, big thing."

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