Novell, Intel to push Moblin adoption

Novell and Intel have signed an agreement to promote the Moblin Linux software stack for Atom processors.

The agreement, announced on Thursday, will see Novell create a 'Moblin-based product for netbooks', the companies said in a statement. The software maker will establish a new Novell Open Labs in Taiwan and work with Intel's Taiwan Moblin Enabling Center to validate hardware designs for Moblin compliance.

Moblin is an open-source software platform that is specifically tailored for use on Intel's Atom processors. Atoms are low-powered processors designed for mobile internet devices (MIDs), netbooks, nettops and embedded devices.

Novell has already had its own Linux distribution, Suse Linux, preinstalled on netbooks from several manufacturers, including HP's Mininote 2133 netbook.

Intel started development of Moblin in 2007, but the leadership of the project was taken over by the Linux Foundation in April 2009. Novell began contributing to Moblin in October 2008, and has worked particularly in the fields of window, email and media management.

"Novell has taken a significant leadership role in the Moblin community since joining the effort late last year, and today's announcement will extend Novell's level of involvement," Doug Fisher, vice president of Intel's Software and Services Group, said in the statement. "The combination of Intel Atom processor-based platforms and Moblin-based Novell software will provide even more opportunities for [manufacturers] and the broader Moblin community to deliver excellent mobile internet solutions."

In February, it emerged that technology from Moblin is finding its way into the 'netbook remix' of Canonical's popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.