Intel says Moblin update coming soon

Intel is readying a second release of the Moblin open-source platform for mobile computing, with plans set for an alpha-level version in a few weeks, an Intel official said at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Ore. on Wednesday.

Moblin is a project for mobile Linux that is centered on a range of devices, with Intel eyeing Moblin for its Atom processor for mobile systems. “Our focus as a company right now is on the Atom platform, but I’m sure other people in the community will drive it [in] other directions,” said Dirk Hohndel, chief Linux and open-source technologist at Intel.

Intel is putting together the software stack for Moblin 2, featuring a forking off of Fedora and the Gnome mobile stack. “We’re going to open this up to the public,” Hohndel said. “I want to see the community that really takes this project and runs with it and makes it their project.”

Hohndel stressed that Intel was firmly in the open-source camp. “Open source is something that we believe really helps change the game,” Hohndel said.

Also at the conference Wednesday, O’Reilly Media CEO Tim O’Reilly brought up two MySQL dignitaries from Sun Microsystems to quiz them on how things were going since Sun acquired the open-source database company earlier this year. The two MySQL officials, Michael Widenius and Brian Aker, waxed positive about the merger.

“It’s actually been really rewarding,” Aker said.

“Sun has given use more free hands to do what we want to do,” said Widenius.

Commenting on Sun’s switch from a proprietary to open-source software company, Aker did note that there are inevitable tensions when engineers have to go public with their code.

Aker also called Microsoft “irrelevant.” Additionally, he said he wanted a new iPhone but hoped that Google gets its Android systems out fast enough that it works well enough that he could use it.

An audience member asked why the open-source world can not do anything as “insanely great” as iPhone. O’Reilly cited potential developments in that direction, such as Android and Openmoko.