Posted on Thursday, August 20 2009 @ 5:25 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
A Dell official
revealed that Dell is researching new netbook-type devices and will soon offer netbook Linux OS upgrades, in an effort to expand its Linux offerings. Todd Finch, senior product marketing manager for Linux clients, said about a third of Dell's netbooks ship with Linux preloaded.
The company is researching the possibility of offering new Linux-based mobile devices called smartbooks, said Todd Finch, senior product marketing manager for Linux clients, at the OpenSourceWorld conference in San Francisco. The company will also upgrade its Ubuntu Linux OS for netbooks to the latest version in the next few weeks, he said.
Smartbooks are netbook-type devices that are powered by chips designed by Arm. The devices mostly support the Linux OS and are designed for those who rely on the Web for most of their computing. Dell couldn't say whether it would ultimately offer a smartbook.
