Last week, when Intel announced it was changing its tune and backing the OLPC project it once competed with, more than a few of us were surprised. Why would Intel abandon its own affordable laptop project in favor of an open-source alternative? The answer is simple really: Intel is looking at the big picture, realizing that helping markets grow is a better long term strategy than creating closed markets based on proprietary technology. Whether open-source or not, Intel will still sell chips and the more devices out there that need those chips, the better.

That’s why Intel is now launching the Mobile and Internet Linux Project, a program that aims to help improve various Linux components while also serving as an incubator for new Linux technologies. Intel certainly has the capital to help give mobile Linux the push it needs, and mobile Linux has the potential to create a major market for Intel parts. “We see this as the technology incubator for a lot of things that are going to be productized in three years,” said Dirk Hohndel, Intel’s chief Linux and open-source technologist. “My internal funding shows that top management is taking this seriously.”

For more on Intel’s new open-source initiative:
– see this ZDnet article

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Intel shuns Microsoft, reveals Linux-based UMPCs