Intel is pushing its Linux software efforts in a bid to break into the smartphone chip market. For the last couple of weeks Intel has been pushing its Moblin software which is a mobile version of Linux to the press.

Moblin has a few tricks which makes it better than the other mobile operating systems out there. The first is that it can reach the internet in about seven seconds and then shows a list of appointments and favourite programs. Packed with animated icons and other quirky bits and pieces, Moblin looks different, especially compaired to the fairly stale Microsoft
offerings. Intel says that smart phones and netbooks will be the target for the OS. Novell apparently has decided to offer a customised version of the OS.

So why is Intel so interested in an operating system that it can't make money from? Well the answer is that Moblin will help the sales of the Atom. Intel wants the Atom under the bonnet of every smart phone and netbook. However most mobile phones run on Arm chips or beasts of a different architecture.

By providing good mobile software for the Atom chip, it will encourage phone makers to buy them and the next thing you know your phone will have an Atom chip on board and Intel will be even richer.