Business Tech

Google plans to release a Mac beta of Chrome in early December, judging by some chatter on a mailing list for the browser.

Chrome 4.0 is available today as a beta version for Windows but only as a rougher developer-preview version on Linux and Mac OS X. The standout feature of the new version is customization through extensions, a technology that long has been a core asset of another open-source browser, Firefox.

Google has been moving to a new extensions presentation technology called Browser Actions that let people interact with extensions through a small button toward the upper right of the browser window. "We've noticed that many of you have updated your extensions to take advantage of the new UI. We'd like to encourage the rest of you to do so as well," said Nick Baum, a Google Chrome product manager, in a mailing list posting.

But here's the hitch: Browser Actions only work on Windows and Linux right now. That means those building extensions will leave Mac Chrome users behind for a time. But in telling those developers they won't have long to wait, Baum mentioned the deadline for the beta version.

"The earlier you switch, the more time you will have to polish your experience for our Beta launch in early December," he said.

And Google is on the case for adding Browser Actions to the Mac version of Chrome.

"We realize this means dropping Mac support for a couple of weeks, but we already have people working on that," Baum said. "If you prioritize the Windows and Linux versions, we'll bring you cross-platform parity as soon as we can!"

It's been said that information technology is a fashion industry--that we just keep following the latest hype and fads. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison last year referred to cloud computing this way.

Ellison loves this dig, and he uses it least once every technology generation. He's not alone. I, however, disagree with the entire curmudgeon corps' "It's just hype!" attitude.

While it's true that we in IT have our fashions, just like any field of human endeavor, we're generally pretty practical. It's hard to see either IT's executives or its technicians as highly subject to the whims of style or flights of fancy. The truth is closer to the notion that we're an evolving industry--one constantly struggling to find better ways.

It's not easy to grapple with the fantastic, relentless progress afforded by Moore's Law (on the supply side), nor the constant demand for more capacity, capability, and integration (on the demand side).

In a few short decades, IT has undergone a massive shift from an engineering-oriented support role to driving the beating heart of the global economy. IT is now central to large swaths of all human activity.

As new technologies and strategies come online--whether network computing, open source, agile development, service-oriented architecture (SOA), cloud computing, virtualization, or whatever--we seek to employ them to improve our outcomes.

There's always a bit of experimentation and a bit of hype involved in the early days. Indeed, without that willingness to "try it out" and a strong shot of enthusiasm on the side, we wouldn't be advancing as well as we are. That's not just hype you're hearing; it's also the will to progress. And for the most part, the recipe works.

Most of the major new approaches touted over the past few decades have become workaday parts of the IT landscape. Most apps, for example, are now "client-server" in design. Linux and other open-source engines run much of the Internet. SOA is how enterprise IT is designed.

The same Web services that Ellison derided years ago now underpin much of e-commerce, as well as high-interactivity Web 2.0 services such as Google Maps. And virtualization and orchestration--frequently discounted at the top of this decade--are now fundamentally changing how data centers are operated.

Indeed, when one of these previously experimental, previously hyped approaches recede from view, it's usually not because they've failed but because they've succeeded so well that we don't need to talk about them anymore. They've been burned into the way we do IT.

Each wave of technology builds on the last, incorporating its best parts, weeding out what didn't work, and often re-emphasizing themes that had appeared years before but weren't quite workable at that time--though often using different names. The utility computing, grid, and application service providers of years past, for example, have become the software as a service (SaaS, or more generally, ITaaS) and cloud computing of today.

So when something new comes your way--a new approach, a new strategy, a new way of looking at or doing IT--by all means, be skeptical. Try it out in careful, measured ways. But do try it out--and have enthusiasm for those new things. That's how we advance.

Linux jobs in the United States are booming, up 6 percent since January, according to data from Dice.com. This will come as small consolation to Novell employees, however, which weathered another round of layoffs at the Waltham, Mass.-based company.

According to several sources within the company, and confirmed by Novell's public-relations director, Ian Bruce, Novell last week laid off 100 to 130 people of its roughly 3,900 global employees.

While my sources indicated that the Workgroup division was particularly hard-hit, Bruce told me that the cuts came "across the company, both geographically and productwise."

Novell appears to be doing its best in caring for these employees, offering several months of severance pay, apparently based on the number of years with the company, among other factors.

For those remaining employed there, Novell announced this week that it would be suspending 401(k) matching contributions, which followed on the heels of its formal filing on Monday, to that effect, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Novell has spent the past few years attempting to reinvent itself as a Linux company, and it has managed to string together several quarters with strong earnings in its Linux business on the back of its controversial partnership with Microsoft. The company has struggled to compete effectively with Linux-leader Red Hat.

On November 2, a Novell PR representative contacted me to arrange a conversation with CEO Ron Hovsepian about Novell's "new focus in its strategic direction."

Whether this means more or less open source is not yet clear. It is clear, however, that Novell needs to focus more on top-line revenue growth, and not merely ways to cut costs. Until Novell learns to grow business, and not simply reduce expenses, its employees are going to remain all-too-familiar with layoffs.

With all the hubbub about Snow Leopard and Windows 7, there's another operating system out there you may not have noticed that's getting a significant update: Ubuntu Linux.

Ubuntu backer Canonical plans to release its "Karmic Koala" version on Thursday, and both the desktop and server versions of the open-source operating system take significant steps toward cloud computing. The concept of moving work away from the computer in front of you and into the network does have some merit, but cloud computing is today's fashionable buzzword, and Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth is sensitive to its overuse.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth speaking at the Intel Developer Forum

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

"What frustrates me is the term 'cloud' has come to mean anything with an Internet connection, including some stuff that really looks familiar like internal IT," said Shuttleworth in an interview. It's fair to say that in Ubuntu's case, though, it's not a stretch.

Built into the server version of Ubuntu 9.10 is Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, technology built atop the Eucalyptus software package. Amazon Web Services (AWS), a collection of computing infrastructure accessible over the Net on a pay-as-you-go basis, is among today's most significant cloud-computing efforts, and Eucalyptus implements many of its functions so companies can build their own "private clouds" using the same services.

And in the desktop version of Ubuntu, the cloud connection is a service called Ubuntu One, which lets Ubuntu users synchronize files stored on different machines and back them up on the central service. Storage space of 2GB is free, and 50GB costs $10 per month.

The Ubuntu software itself is free; Canonical sells Ubuntu support services.

It takes time, leadership, and a fair amount of luck to successfully build an open-source community. It also takes money. Lots of it, if IBM's $1 billion commitment to Linux is any indication.

Unfortunately, the return on such open-source community investments may be permanently scuppered by the European Commission's misguided defense of MySQL from Oracle's intended acquisition. If the EC is going to punish successful open-source endeavors like MySQL, will investors still clamor to finance the rise of open source?

In many ways, MySQL is the quintessential commercial open-source success story. On the financial side, MySQL managed to build a vibrant business, doing north of $90 million at the time of its acquisition by Sun Microsystems in February 2008.

Equally compelling, however, is the exceptional user and developer community that formed around the open-source database project, registering tens of millions of downloads and a massive developer community.

This community augmented MySQL's financial fortunes, of course, but it also protected MySQL database users from the whims of the company, as former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos wrote to European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes:

Even if Oracle for whatever reason would have malicious or ignorant intent regarding MySQL (not that I think so), the positive and massive influence MySQL has on the DBMS market cannot be controlled by a single entity - not even by the owner of the MySQL assets. The users of MySQL exert a more powerful influence in the market than the owner does.

Unfortunately, the EC seems intent on punishing MySQL--both community and company--for its success. Already the MySQL database project has started to fracture into competing forks, while business rivals like EnterpriseDB and IBM collect confused customers.

More worryingly, the EC's actions may end up diminishing potential returns to investors in other open-source projects, particularly those that take the added time and cost to build global communities.

Technology mergers and acquisitions activity is at a 20-month high. Open-source companies, however, may miss out on this resurgence, particularly those, like Acquia and EnterpriseDB, that build on successful open-source communities (Drupal and Postgres, respectively).

Indeed, based on the EC's actions, perhaps the worst thing these companies could do is foster successful open-source communities. Maybe they should just take the cash and run?

Consider: the EC didn't challenge Yahoo's acquisition of Zimbra, VMware's acquisition of SpringSource, Citrix's acquisition of XenSource, etc. What do they have in common? Rising revenue but, except in the case of SpringSource, much more limited communities than MySQL. (Even the Spring community pales in comparison to MySQL, impressive though it is.)

Granted, the major difference with Oracle/MySQL is that the two are ostensibly competitors, as CNET points out. In the letter referenced above, however, Mickos dismisses such competition. The reality is that MySQL and Oracle compete in two different database markets.

Regardless, as well as MySQL was doing, $90-plus million is spare change in the global database market. The EC, in other words, isn't trying to protect MySQL's business. It's trying to protect MySQL's community.

Such mollycoddling of an open-source community is destructive to all future investments in similar endeavors. Why should commercial entities bother fostering community--the very community that makes them less susceptible to hostile takeover and anticompetitive forces--if doing so simply ends up ruining financial returns?

The EC means well, but it is not doing the right thing for MySQL, its community, or other open-source commercial efforts. Quite the opposite. Just as the commercial open-source community has been pondering a move back to community-controlled open source, the EC threatens to hobble the shift.

The EC may well end up with less competition, not more, by blocking Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun and its crown jewel, MySQL.

Doug Fisher

(Credit: Intel)

For Intel, the driving force behind its Moblin software efforts is its main role in life: a chipmaker.

At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco last month, the company showed off the latest version of its Linux-based Moblin operating system, designed for smartphones, Netbooks, and Nettops. In most if not all of those cases, the idea is that the device is built around Intel's Atom processor.

Moblin has been slowly catching on in the Netbook arena. Dell, for instance, recently began selling its $299 Mini 10v Notebook with an option for Ubuntu Moblin Remix, and PC makers such as Acer and Asus are also said to be planning Moblin-based Netbooks. Intel is also positioning Moblin 2.1 for all-in-one Nettop PCs, most of which--such as the Asus Eee Top and Dell's Studio One 19--currently run Windows XP.

I recently spoke by phone with Doug Fisher, vice president and general manager at Intel's System Software Division, about the upcoming latest version of Moblin.

Q: Can you tell me what's new in Moblin 2.1 version versus 2.0? What are some of the features and benefits that 2.1 will offer?
Fisher: The way I look at it, 2.1 is obviously an interim improvement over 2.0. So we have the beta release for the Netbooks out there now that people are playing with. We added an element called a Moblin Garage component. It gives the capability to allow developers to start putting applications in this developer store. It's really designed for putting [out] open-source or fully distributable applications or components of applications that developers can use.

Moblin 2.1 is going to be targeted not only for Netbooks but also moving into other form factors like mobile Internet devices or handheld devices, and in-car entertainment--we call that IVI [in-vehicle infotainment]. It's going to add things like 3G support, a connection manager, telephony framework. The input methods are going to be around touch capability and gesture, so we'll be adding those types of support in 2.1.

Version 2.1 is going to be used not only for Netbook and Nettops, but also for handheld form factors. For things like Nettops, we are working on ensuring the capability to support high-resolution screens. We're also looking at incorporating additional social networking support into the platform to continue evolving on the value proposition that Moblin is defined on.

Q: Are there going to be different versions of Moblin for each hardware platform or will it be basically the same operating system with just minor changes for the platform itself?
Fisher: I love when people ask that question because it really helps deliver the message we are trying to get out with this. The whole Moblin infrastructure is a unified stack across all Atom-based devices. All the form factors use the same operating system, offering environments with the same UI framework, the same application framework, the same core apps. So it's really a unified API across all the devices. The benefit of this is that all the optimizations for footprint, boot time, and battery life, all of that carries across all segments that use Atom at the core level. The UI framework and the applications are consistent across all those. Now that's not to say we don't optimize for form factor and input methods and things like that. But the core elements are consistent across all segments. So the idea is you deliver Moblin-compliant operating environments.

We have 17 OSVs [operating-system vendors] that have publicly committed to this, and I think seven to nine, somewhere in that range, have actually made product level commitments. Obviously, we've heard from Novell and Canonical and others. So, yes, it's the same. Really, it gives the OSVs a clear compliance to align behind Moblin, and more importantly the ISVs [independent software vendors] a standard API set to write to in order to ensure their application can be portable across any Moblin-compliant operating environment.

Q: From the consumer point of view, if somebody is running Moblin on a Netbook, a Nettop, and a smartphone, are they going to see a similar UI and similar usability across the different devices, or will that depend more on the manufacturer and what they do with Moblin?
Fisher: One of the big benefits of Moblin is that the UI is customizable. If you're talking about the Nettop and the Netbook space, you are going to see very, very consistent usage criteria for all those devices. So what the "myzone" looks like on a Nettop will be very consistent with the Netbook. It's customizable, so who ever wants to, an OEM or service provider, can create their branding and imaging and add other capabilities. But the idea is when a user participates with a Netbook or Nettop, it's a very familiar engagement, so it's going to be consistent. We also expect in the handheld space that there will be a lot of consistencies across those devices as well. With that said, manufacturers are going to want to really customize, and it's possible to do that within the UI framework.

Q: I want to talk a little bit about Dell because I know they just came out with a version of their Mini 10v Netbook running [Canonical's] Ubuntu Moblin Remix. What does that refer to? Is that just taking Moblin and coming up with their own customized version? Can you explain what Dell is actually running on their new Netbook?
Fisher: At the highest level, Dell is running Moblin. Moblin is a pure open-source project. It's all open source, so what we rely on is an OSV, like Canonical, to deliver a productized version of the Moblin project. And so what you see in Remix is Canonical's release of the Moblin platform. It's a pure Moblin play, 100 percent aligned with the user interface we described, API-compatible. But they add a lot of value in productizing it, adding other elements that the OEM wants, customizing it.

Q: Can you then talk a little bit about Dell and other notebook vendors looking to run Moblin? What expectations does Intel have for this adoption of Moblin in the notebook market?
Fisher: If you look over the past year and a half, there's been a lot of activities by the OEMs using Linux with Moblin capabilities. But what Moblin has brought is the unification of those capabilities into the release of version 2.0. And what you see from Canonical working with Dell is a unified release. It really is a much more substantial commitment from Canonical and all the other OSVs around this. So what Dell has done is they've released their Mini with [Moblin] to the developer community. The expectation is that in combination with what was announced at IDF, the developer store Intel Atom Developer Program, with platforms from Dell, we really think it's going to drive a lot of innovation around Atom-based devices, in particular around the Moblin development environment. And so down the line, we expect to see OEMs delivering consumer devices as well.

Q: When you think of Linux, you traditionally think of it of it as an operating system that has been adopted more by IT people, technophiles, etc. What do you think has held back the adoption of Linux and what can Intel do to further Linux along so it becomes more of a mass market operating system and not just a niche player?
Fisher: I think there are a couple of things. When you talk about the consumer-visible things like Netbooks, clearly Microsoft is doing great work, and they're delivering a substantial portion of the Nettops and the Netbooks. We had three main areas that we had been driving requirements around, which is Internet usage, media consumption, and social networking. Those are really the three design points Moblin is focused around--that type of device. It's really a different usage experience. What you described is really true. Educating the user to make them comfortable with this type of environment is important, and what they do with this device after they get it is critical.

I also want to say that Linux is absolutely mainstream across many devices. Set-top boxes, TiVo, all these electronics are loaded with embedded Linux. So it's just not visible. It's not merchandized or marketed. But Linux is extremely mainstream across many, many devices today.

Q: Can you describe a bit about the Nettop arena and how Moblin can take advantage of that market, and perhaps what some of the challenges are there?
Fisher: I think at a high level, the usage model is very, very similar to the Netbook. The actual design concept for the Netbook is being scaled because of the screen resolutions to take advantage of the larger screen resolution. The difference in my mind is more around input methods and the resolution of the screen. So there's a lot of innovation going on around the touch and gesture activities on the Nettop. I expect to see manufacturers in the future delivering the Moblin-type capabilities on these devices, as well as the media-phone-type devices and other things that really require an input method like a touch or gesture.

Q: You mentioned before there are already some Nettops running Moblin. Can you talk a little about that?
Fisher: Back in, I think, 2008, there was a big push to deliver Nettops by the OEMs, primarily in Taiwan. What we did was we inserted Moblin's capabilities into the releases, so that when these devices went out into the market, they had the Moblin technology, and capabilities were already available in them. We really dramatically reduced the power consumption with some techniques that we had driven into the Moblin project. We had boot-time capabilities that we had been working aggressively on. We made sure that they were incorporated into those releases. Fundamentally, those devices were released with Moblin technologies, and as I've said, now we've built a Moblin-compliant set of specifications, nearly completed, which really unifies and documents those things. And Moblin version 2 is where that really came together.

Q: What would Intel like to see from vendors and manufacturers?
Fisher: At Intel, our goal is to ensure that Netbooks, handheld devices, Nettops--all these are shipping with Atom. That's our pure goal. We want to be sure we ship Atom platforms. In order to do that, we have to have the best experience. Whether it's Windows or if it's Moblin, it doesn't matter to me.

Q: How does that play into Intel's working relationship with Microsoft in terms of what operating system ends up on these different platforms?
Fisher: At the highest level, we have a great relationship with Microsoft. They're delivering a wonderful operating environment. We're all looking forward to Windows 7. So there's no competition. The only competition we see is ensuring that as a hardware platform company, that we win in the platform space. So it's all about winning the Atom platform. We work very closely with Microsoft to ensure that Intel Architecture [IA] is optimized, that they take full advantage of the architecture and we take full advantage of the capability they deliver. And as the platform of choice, we're going to ensure the same thing when the Linux environment is chosen.

Q: Obviously one challenge of any operating system is getting people to write applications for it. Can you talk about the Atom Developer Program and your goals with it?
Fisher: On a high level, it's really about generating excitement around innovating on Atom. We think that by putting the development platform out there, we're going to get developers to innovate around these specific Atom platforms and then have a mechanism to monetize their efforts. And that's critical to creating demand in the ecosystems. So regardless of whether we're developing on Windows or Moblin, we want to see innovation. So we announced the ability to develop native Moblin applications. We have an SDK to develop natively to Moblin. Windows has always had a very strong presence in the development platform.

Q: I had read something about Moblin 2.0 supporting Android applications. Is that correct at this point?
Fisher: No, there are no plans for that.

Q: I had read some stories at one point that they're looking at supporting Android apps?
Fisher: There was a technology demonstration--open-source projects. There's a lot of innovation going on. But there's no product commitment. It's all community-type stuff. I think Ubuntu is doing some stuff.

Q: As far as the mobile device and notebooks as well, obviously Android is the other prominent player as far as open source on those different platforms. How does Intel see the arena between Moblin and Android? Is that an area of competition or more a peaceful co-existence between the two? Do you think the market can support both environments or is one going to have to be dominant over the other?
Fisher: It's a big market. Our focus at Intel, we're just maniacal on delivering the best platform for Atom, in this case the Atom version of our architecture. I'm focused on that. The Moblin effort is 100 percent focused from an Intel perspective. It's an open-source project. Our Intel effort is all around delivering the rich Internet experience, media consumption, social networking for these types of devices. A popular choice for Atom-based platforms is Moblin. So we are going to optimize the heck out of that. It's not about competition. For me, it's about selling Atoms. It's about us delivering the best experience on our Atom platform so that they sell.

Q: Moblin [2.1] is in a trial or beta stage right now. When is 2.1 scheduled to officially hit the market as a final release?
Fisher: Well, to hit the market is kind of a question for the OSVs and the OEMs. They are really the ones that productize and finalize it. From a community effort, we are expecting 2.1 capabilities in the October time frame for Netbooks so that then they can be productized. And then later on, late this year, first of next year, for the handheld-type devices, you'll see capabilities in the communities to productize those. We are really driving a timed market around our Moorestown platform for those types of things for 2.1.

In the battle for supremacy among the software industry's Big Four, Cisco may be placing the biggest bets and angling for the biggest returns. Some still think of Cisco as a networking hardware vendor, but hardware is simply Cisco's beachhead into others' turf, similar to how Microsoft (desktop), Oracle (database), and IBM (everything) are using core strengths to move into adjacent markets.

If anyone needed further confirmation of Cisco's software aspirations, its forays into Linux offer a strong hint.

In what might have looked like a publicity stunt around a $100,000 prize for Linux developers, Cisco's Linux development contest was actually a major clue as to just how serious it is about becoming a leading server vendor with a global development community--and soon.

Today, Cisco announced the winners of its "Think Inside the Box" contest. The three winning applications are very interesting, but the bigger story here is what Cisco's contest just demonstrated:

Most of Cisco's 7 million installed Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are now servers, for all intents and purposes.

The contest proved that server-side Linux developers who know C/C++, Java, or Python can now write applications to Cisco routers with little or no knowledge of routers. (Remember: the finalists only had 90 days to write their applications).

That's a development community of millions, folks. Overnight.

Still think Cisco is a hardware company? By fostering a developer ecosystem around its core router family of products, Cisco just made its hardware solutions much more valuable to its customers (and increased the stickiness of its customer relationships), and turned its routers into a big target development platform for developers.

I wrote about Cisco's contest last June as Cisco's way of paying developers to stick a finger in the Microsoft eye with a $100,000 bounty for writing Linux-based applications for its AXP (Application Extension Platform).

I clearly underestimated Cisco's ambitions.

This is doubly clear when correlated with another Cisco announcement this week about its new and expanded Cisco Developer Network, which SearchNetworking covered.

Cisco is serious about software and fostering a global developer community. As I argued in my "Software's Big Four" blog, each of these companies is entering new markets from incumbent positions of strength, unlike HP and SAP (which both have big software businesses), which are largely sticking to existing businesses.

Millions of Cisco routers already sit in data centers and branch offices around the world. They consume less power than servers. They have a smaller footprint. They're more secure. And they enable a class of applications that Cisco calls "network-aware." Just slot in an AXP blade hosting an application.

Basically routers are much smarter now, and with the right applications can be used to take control of your phones at night to monitor for burglars; manage HVAC, water, and power in your office; deliver advertising in your retail store; and much, much more.

There are two things Cisco still lacks, however, in order to make an unimpeachable bid for developers. First, it needs to move off Broadcom chips for its ISRs and add x86 chips to the mix, something that I'm hearing rumblings may well be on the way.

Second, as impressive as Cisco's outreach to Linux developers has been, the company also needs to support Microsoft's .Net/Windows developers. It's too big a market to ignore.

If Cisco can deliver on x86 and to Microsoft developers--and I think it just might--Cisco will have opened its router (server) family to an even larger development community than the already large Linux market, further blurring the distinction between routers and general-purpose servers.

The result? A formidable software company that sprouted out of a dominant hardware company. How would Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM react?

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

IBM has unveiled a new Netbook software package designed to help businesses in Africa.

Partnering with Ubuntu Linux sponsor Canonical, IBM announced on Wednesday that its new software package will use a Linux-based operating system and cloud computing, offering users in Africa an alternative to conventional and costly PCs and applications.

With traditional computers often too pricey, many businesses in Africa have opted instead to equip their employees with low-cost Netbooks. The IBM Client for Smart Work takes advantage of that trend by providing a collection of open-source software specifically for Netbooks and other thin clients, said IBM.

Running on Canonical's Ubuntu Linux operating system, the package offers open-standards-based e-mail, word processing, a spreadsheet application, communication tools, and social-networking features. In addition, users can collaborate with each other through a cloud-computing model. IBM said the package can also work on virtual desktops using the VERDE system from Virtual Bridges, which will be available through business partners.

"Businesses in emerging markets are looking to gain the freedom and flexibility afforded by open standards," said Bob Picciano, general manager for IBM Lotus Software. "The IBM Client for Smart Work builds on the movement toward open standards and Web-based personal computing by giving people the power to work smarter, regardless of device."

Along with the new package, Big Blue will offer a subscription to LotusLive.com starting at $10 per month. The LotusLive network will let businesses connect with partners, suppliers, and customers through file sharing, virtual meetings, instant messaging, and social networking.

With a focus on health care, IBM will also provide a voice computing option whereby a doctor can access the Smart Work package by voice to better collaborate with other medical professionals from remote locations.

IBM said that a network of local providers will offer the software package to governments, schools, and businesses throughout Africa. IBM will also work with universities to spread the software to the academic community.

Though available only in Africa for now, the software package is being tested in other emerging markets around the world.

Big Blue estimates that the package can save businesses up to 50 percent per user over a Windows-based desktop. The company did not announce specific prices, saying that they would depend on the configuration and support requirements.

(Credit: ZDNet UK)

Imad Sousou is the director of Intel's Open Source Technology Center, which is behind the Moblin project--aimed at providing optimized Linux technology for Netbooks and mobile Internet devices.

On Wednesday, ZDNet UK caught up with Sousou at the Open Source In Mobile 09 event in Amsterdam, to discuss the nature of Moblin and the hardware on which it will run.

Q: There seems to be some confusion over what Moblin entails--it appears to be a full Linux distribution, but we have seen Suse and Linpus flavors, and Canonical are about to release an Ubuntu flavor. What is Moblin?
Sousou: What Moblin really is, in technical terms, is a community distribution, much like Fedora or Debian, that people tend to use in different ways.

There are certain operating-system vendors who take Moblin completely as is and use it, and add customization and provide support, and there are those who take various technologies from Moblin and incorporate them into their own operating systems--although, when people do that, they tend to focus on the user experience.

When you hear, for example, Novell is taking Moblin or Ubuntu is doing Ubuntu Moblin, they are using the operating-system infrastructure and taking the Moblin user experience, which is a set of applications--the 3D infrastructure and a set of libraries, infrastructure components like the social networking, media management, and so on.

Essentially, from a technical standpoint, you end up with the same thing, but for the OS vendors it is sometimes easier to use a distribution system that they already use. We made it easy for them to use that.

I don't think there is a lot of confusion anymore, at least not with the people who use Moblin. It is a full OS but you don't have to use the full OS.

You're about to release Moblin v2.0. Can you tell us more about that?
Sousou: (As a) release from an open-source perspective, it's a milestone more than it is a product release--product releases come from OS vendors and OEMs (manufacturers). Soon you will start to see OEMs shipping Netbooks with Moblin. You will see an announcement over the next week or two.

It's still in beta--right now we're in the very final phase. Very minor but critical bug fixes are being done based on input from OEMs and OS vendors. We don't want to call it a release until someone actually ships a product with it.

The final version will be available for download over the next couple of weeks. Once that happens,... Read more