Embedded Linux is more popular now than ever, but because of its ease-of-use, flexibility, and, importantly, free licensing cost, developers have taken the mobile OS in a variety of directions. Google's Android, Intel and Nokia's MeeGo, and Palm's webOS are just three Linux-based distros found on mobile device today, with Ubuntu Lite both entering the tablet scene later this year.

Thirty years ago, computers were so physically immense that they often had to have rooms and buildings built with the purpose to accommodate them. Each one had a different, unique operating system. until a collection of information and technology (IT) developers collaborated in 1969 to design a code able to adapt to the multiple systems.

NASA and Japan's NII have demonstrated cloud interoperability with their open source based cloud systems

Android devices can't necessarily be equated with ARM processors - as well as an x86 port, Computex has seen the announcement of a MIPS-based device

At Computex, Shenzhen-based Joyplus announced four tablets that run Android, only two of which use the same CPU. The five-inch Joyplus M508 and seven-inch 5701 both tap the 624MHz Marvell PXA303, while the seven-inch M702 runs on a 600MHz WonderMedia Prizm MW8505, and the seven-inch M703 uses a 600MHz ARM926 CPU paired with a 600MHz DSP, says Joyplus.

This is not some death curse on the Linux desktop environments, nor the "traditional" PC platform. The market is not done with this niche yet. Yeah, I said it: niche. Because very soon, I believe, most consumers are going to use computers they carry in their pockets and purses--and nothing else.

The MeeGo Linux operating system for mobile devices gained software support at the Computex show this week in Taiwan. Novell and Linpus both announced MeeGo-based netbook distributions, Movial announced a "MeeGo Services" development suite, and Telefonica has weighed in with support for the open source platform.