OStatic

As Slashdot, Moblin Zone, and ZDNet UK are reporting, the very first netbook preinstalled with Moblin version 2 for Netbooks is likely to launch next week, very probably at Intel's Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, or at Portland's LinuxCon. ZDNet UK did an interview with Imad Sousou, head of Intel's Open Source Technology Center, in which he implied as much. Sousou has also confirmed that Moblin version 2 will be made widely available after that, with many new features.

While Microsoft's Windows 7, due in October, is going to be aggressively pushed in the netbook space, Moblin will join Ubuntu and Google's upcoming Chrome OS in the effort to keep innovative open source operating systems going in the fast-growing netbook space. Intel has handed stewardship of Moblin over to The Linux Foundation, which could help its chances. Netbooks represent an important frontier for open source adoption and innovation, and I have my own guess at who will be shipping the first Moblin v2 netbook.

For so many years, Taiwan-based Acer was an under-the-radar computer manufacturer. Although it has been the number three player, behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell, for a long time, even the company's previous business strategy tended to keep it anonymous. Acer used to make computers that other companies would put their brands on. It was better known overseas than in the United States.

All that is changing now--big time--and how both Dell and Acer approach open source is an important component of the competition between the two companies. As The New York Times reports, Acer now stands a good chance of surpassing Dell as the number two computer manufacturer. Among other things, Acer made shrewd moves in the laptop arena, particularly when it comes to netbooks.