"The iPhone doesn't run Linux, but Intel has begun work to help improve the operating system for future devices of its ilk."

Intel and Microsoft have announced a new port of Silverlight to Linux, specifically for the Intel-sponsored Moblin operating system running on Atom-powered devices such as netbooks. The port enables Intel to include Silverlight as a supported runtime in the Atom Developer Program, which will feed an iPhone-like App Store.

Intel has snapped up British Linux house Opened Hand in another sign of the growing interest in the use of the operating system on mobile devices.

Last month, research from ABI Research said that Linux was set to take the lion's share of the market for the so-called mobile internet devices, those bigger than a cell phone but smaller than a laptop.

Intel will work with Google on the development of its Linux-based Chrome operating system for netbooks, the chipmaker's open-source technology chief has said. Imad Sousou, who is in charge of the Moblin mobile Linux project, told ZDNet Asia's sister site, ZDNet UK on Wednesday that Intel did not view Moblin as a competitor to other versions of Linux.

Intel’s short run as an operating system maker has come to an end.

MeeGo is an open source, Linux operating system based on Moblin (by Intel) and Maemo (by Nokia). MeeGo 1.0 targets mainly netbooks and supports most Intel Atom-based netbooks but MeeGo v1.0 Core also supports ARM-based Nokia N900 and Intel Atom-based in-vehicle. MeeGo doesn't work on netbooks with GMA-500, Nvidia or ATI Graphics chipsets.

Intel (Quote) is pushing its mobile Linux development efforts with Moblin.org, a new resource site for open source projects focused on the development of Linux for Intel-based devices. The site has already posted an initial list of projects that it will undertake, including key components such as the kernel, browser, power management framework and a user interface framework.

Intel and the Taiwan government plan to open a development center to further the Linux-based Moblin OS for devices such as netbooks and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), they jointly announced on Thursday.

Hoping to inspire people to write code that can run on its multi-core processors, Intel has open sourced one of its development packages.