Linux Foundation To Host Intel's Moblin Project

gustavopuy writes with news that Intel will be transferring control of Moblin, its Linux-based OS for mobile devices, to the Linux Foundation. Quoting Ars Technica: "We spoke with Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin, who told us that the Linux Foundation offers a vendor-neutral setting for advancing the Moblin project. He believes that such an environment will help stimulate third-party involvement in the process of building the platform and could also encourage broader adoption. ... Zemlin explained that the Linux Foundation's stewardship of the project will empower third-party contributors to expand the platform beyond its Intel-specific roots. He assures me that Intel sees value in making Moblin open to everyone — including companies that are leveraging Linux on competing processors, such as those based on the ARM architecture."

Comments

Re:Moblin always puzzled me....

[hairyfeet]

Does anyone know the release date and how long it took them to cook up? Because when i first heard about it the first thought I had was "Well there is Intel giving MSFT the bird for Vista". Because, and correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC Vista beta 1 would run Aero on the Intel 915 and 945 IGP, and then along comes beta 2 and they have changed the driver model enough that the 915 and 945 will never run Aero again. Considering the fact that the 915 and 945 were VERY big sellers for Intel and since they were mature I'm sure quite profitable, I assume they were pretty pissed at MSFT releasing an OS that wouldn't work on their biggest selling at the time chipset.

Of course then we know what happens next. Intel has a royal shitfit because Aero pretty much won't run on just about any chipset they have at the time so while leaving the changes so the 915 and 945 can't run Aero they cook up that "Vista capable" bullshit. Which then pisses everyone ELSE off, from the OEMs that had spent good money switching away from the cheap Intel chipsets to the consumers who had been hit by ad after ad proclaiming "Vista is Aero!" only to find out that their new machine wouldn't run the only visible selling point of Vista. So when this Moblin came out I always thought it was Intel's way of saying "you know, we can always go around you if you keep pissing us off" but that was before the rise of Netbooks and MSFT having to add reprieve after reprieve to XP, which of course doesn't have Aero which allows Intel to use less powerful and cheaper chipsets.

So it wouldn't surprise me if old Chipzilla got their point across and is now dumping this on the Linux foundation to die a slow death. After all, the way MSFT had hyped Vista you would have thought it was the second coming of Win95 instead of the uber bloated turkey that it turned out to be. Now Intel doesn't have to worry about the 800 pound MSFT gorilla because their multi billion dollar OS went down like a giant flaming bag o' poo and the Netbook and Netbox market keeps them from going super bloated on their next OS unless they want to hand the market to Linux on a silver platter. Personally I think MSFT is going to shoot themselves in the foot with that cheap ass "only 3 apps running" starter edition on Netbooks which will make everyone run away just like they did with Vista, but that is another story.

The point is Intel knows that MSFT can't really bone them on their lucrative chipset market anymore, because super bloat don't work on the Netbook. So they don't really need Moblin to spook MSFT anymore. They just needed to show MSFT that they could whip off an OS for the big mobile market if they desired. So my guess is Moblin will die the slow death of non support. Damned shame, because from what I saw it was pretty nice and low resource to boot.