MSI Launches SUSE Linux Moblin Netbook

If you thought the market wasn’t crowed enough with Linux netbooks, here comes another contender: MSI is launching the first netbook to be shipped with Novell’s SUSE’s Moblin operating system. Moblin is designed to deliver a mobile computing experience that’s easier to use, and suitable for smaller screens. Here’s the deal.

According to this press release, MSI is looking to ship these devices with their latest netbook, the U135. Both the hardware and the software has been designed to minimize power consumption and increase battery life. With a partner ship with Novel and Intel, the netbook is supposed to be custom tailored and refined to work seamless with Mobilin version 2.1.

There’s also a Novell angle here. Generally speaking, Google Chrome OS and Canonical’s Ubuntu earn most of the Linux netbook headlines these days. But SUSE Moblin efforts represent an interesting push beyond corporate data centers for Novell’s SUSE Linux team.

It’s nice to see more Linux netbook exposure, since it’ll hopefully keep Google and Canonical honest about their netbook offerings. While Mobilin isn’t as well known, Linux-for-netbook startup Jolicloud has been using Moblin linux as the base for their unique flavor of Linux. Jolicloud aims to be an easy to use netbook interface with all the features of Moblin, while simultaneously syncing your data and programs into their cloud. It has a social networking aspect to it as well. A quick trial of it on my Mini 9 proved sluggish, but this was based on a summer alpha. Maybe it’s time to check it out again.