Last week we attracted a lot of attention when we announced a deeper collaboration with Intel to help drive adoption of Moblin, a Linux-based software stack that delivers a rich Internet experience optimized for small form-factor devices like netbooks.

Novell announced it will create a Moblin-based product for netbooks that it will take to market to a wide range of OEMs and ODMs. Novell will also establish Novell® Open Labs in Taiwan to foster the adoption of Moblin, and will work with the Taiwan Moblin Enabling Center (MEC), a joint effort of Intel and the Taiwan Institute for Information Industry, to validate designs for Moblin compliance.

The opportunity for Moblin is significant. Uniquely, Moblin has been designed ground-up specifically for small, low-cost, mobile devices like netbooks. And the netbook market is growing dramatically, with IDC reporting that in the first quarter of 2009 shipments rose sevenfold compared to the same quarter last year.