Is Intel on the outs with Microsoft? Pushing Moblin with Novell

Last week Intel and Novell Inc. announced “broad efforts to closely collaborate and encourage original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufactures (ODMs) to adopt Moblin, an optimized open source Linux software platform” that Intel has targeted with their Atom-based CPU, one that’s used in netbooks and other Atom-powered mobile systems, including MIDs.

Intel and Novell “signed an agreement outlining their plan for collaboration”. Novell also announced it will create a Moblin-based product for netbooks “that it will take to market to a wide range of OEMs and ODMs”. Novell will also establish Novell Open Labs in Taiwan to aid in the adoption of Moblin, working with the Taiwan Moblin Enabling Center (MEC), which is a joint effort between Intel and the Taiwan Institute for Information Industry. Their task will be to validate designs for Moblin compliance.

In 2007, Intel launched its Moblin software and even at that time raised questions about their continued support of Microsoft-based products. The effort largely remained under wraps, however, until resurfacing last month when The Linux Foundation became host to the Moblin community (as what many at first thought was an April Fool’s joke — it wasn’t).

Doug Fisher, Intel’s VP of Software and Services Group, and GM of the System Software division, said:

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. The combination of Intel Atom processor-based platforms and Moblin-based Novell software will provide even more opportunities for OEMs, ODMs and the broader Moblin community to deliver excellent mobile Internet solutions.

The part which makes Geek.com question Intel’s loyalty to Microsoft was given a voice through this signed agreement by Ron Hovsepian, Novell’s President and CEO. He said:

We are extending our involvement with Moblin because we believe that it provides a richer mobile Internet experience. The emergence of such mobile computing platforms as netbooks presents a significant growth opportunity. We believe that Moblin-based Novell software on Intel-based platforms will offer OEMs and ODMs exceptional solutions for delivering a full Internet experience on such devices.

Moblin is currently in its alpha release stage and appears just like any other graphical form of OS, though its boot time is reportedly only “a few seconds”. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger screenshot