Intel spurs Linux gadget development

The iPhone doesn't run Linux but Intel has begun work to help improve the operating system for future devices of its ilk.

On Monday the chipmaker is launching its Mobile and Internet Linux Project website, which consolidates a number of new and existing Intel projects to improve the Linux kernel and other open source components. In addition, said Dirk Hohndel, Intel's chief Linux and open source technologist, the company employs "quite a bit more than a dozen" programmers for coding work.

Among the projects are efforts to improve power management, user interfaces, use of wireless networks, web browsing, chatting and one of the thorniest subjects, software development for mobile devices. Intel hopes for programming help from outside its own company and two Linux companies that have signed up are Ubuntu backer Canonical and Red Flag Linux in China.

Hohndel said: "We see this as the technology incubator for a lot of things that are going to be productised in three years." He wouldn't comment on the project's magnitude but he said: "My internal funding shows that top management is taking this seriously."

One major focus of the Mobile and Internet Linux Project will be improving programming tools. Developers often write and debug software on a regular PC before transferring it to a device or prototype for further testing.

Intel will be hosting source code and tools such as mailing lists, but it won't actually produce a Linux 'distribution' - a unified collection of software.

It's probably good that Intel is giving itself a few years. Numerous companies have tried to build Linux-based net gadgets for years but few have amounted to much. Among the efforts are the Nokia 770 and newer N800, an AOL-Gateway web appliance and the Palm Foleo, which so far has had a frosty reception.

Stephen Shankland writes for CNET News.com