A few computer manufacturers have shipped their netbooks with Android, but, most have chosen to ship with the tried and true Windows XP or Windows 7. Taiwan’s MSI is hoping to buck the trend with the MSI U135 netbook, which will come with Linux-based SUSE Moblin.

Moblin (a combination of mobile linux) is an operating system originally intended for mobile phones, but like other mobile OSes, became refocused for netbooks and nettops. It has many favorable comparisons to Android. Dell declared their interest in selling Moblin-equipped netbooks, but MSI will apparently beat them to market.
The U135 will ship with version 2.1 of Moblin, a version that Intel and Novell worked together to optimize for netbooks. There is a concern among PC manufacturers that consumers will not be attracted to buy computers that don’t ship with Windows, specially at the low-end. Despite that, everybody involved with this project thinks it can succeed.
“The Moblin project has the potential to become an accessible and widely used computing platform,” Intel’s Business Director of Open Source Software, Ram Peddibhotla, said in the press release.
On the hardware side, the MSI U135 is a fairly typical netbook. It’ll come with a 10.1-inch display, an Atom N450 Pine Trail processor (clock coming in at 1.66GHz), 1GB of DDR2 and a 250GB hard drive.
No word on price, but MSI’s press release mentions that by going with a Linux OS, they can charge less than that would have than Windows, so expect it to come in a bit cheaper than the typical 10-inch Pine Trail model. It’ll be shipping in February 2010, and it’ll be interesting to see if Linux catches on in the netbook/nettop marketplace.
Browse Deeper: Related Reading on TFTS
Got Something to Say? Add Your Comment
Commenting on TFTS
Please note that all comments made are moderated by humans, not machines, so will not appear immediately and that comments made purely for self-promotional purposes will be rejected. When entering your name please do not enter your website name as this will also lead to your comment being rejected - we do offer a website URL box, please use that.
Please also note that we do not stock any of the items we cover on the site so orders for items cannot be accepted.
Many thanks for your kind understanding.



![MSI U135 Netbook Featuring Linux [10-inch Pine Trail Notebook To Ship With Moblin]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/MSI-Wind-U135-netbookpostvotbox17090_.jpg)




![MSI Wind U135 Pine Trail Netbook US Release Confirmed [MSI’s First Pine Trail Netbook Ships Stateside]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/MSI-Wind-U135-Pine-Trail-Netbook-RedSBL17580_.jpg)
![Dell Announces Moblin Mini 10v Netbook [Inspiron Mini 10v Runs Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition, Available Tomorrow]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/Dell-Moblin-Mini-10v-NetbookSBL17580_.jpg)
![ASUS Eee PC 1001P Pine Trail Netbook Coming [Another Pine Trail N450 Powered Soon From ASUS, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/asus-eee-pc-1001pSBL17580_.jpg)

![Samsung N220 Netbook Spied In France [Samsung's New Pine Trail-Powered Netbook Leaked in France, 10-inch display, N450 Atom, 1GB RAM]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/Samsung-N220-netbookSBL17580_.jpg)
![Toshiba, Gateway Netbooks Getting Pine Trail [Two More Netbook Models Getting Pine Trail At CES]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/toshiba-gateway-netbooksSBL17580_.jpg)


![PlayStation Home Is More Popular Than You Think [Sony Reports 12 Million Home Users, More Content, Minigames Coming]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/PlayStation-Home-Screenshotsblic50_.jpg)
![Sceptre Chrome 24" HDTV [New Sceptre HDTV Comes In All Chrome, 1080p Capable, Widescreen Ratio, HDMI ports, Good Contrast Ratio]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/Sceptre-Chrome-HDTVsblic50_.jpg)
![PlayStation Motion Controller Only Uses 2MB of RAM to Handle Your Moves [PS3 Move Won't Break Gaming Performance, Has Low System Demands]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/PlayStation-Move-motion-controller-1sblic50_.jpg)
![Apple Sold 90,000 iPads in 6 Hours [Apple Makes $54 Million in Its First iPad Pre-Order Day, Doesn’t Care About iPad Haters]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/Apple-iPad-dollarssblic50_.jpg)
![Apple iPad Keyboard Dock Shipping Late April [Pre-order the iPad Keyboard Dock Now, Getting it Later Than You Thought]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/iPad-Keyboard-Dock-2sblic50_.jpg)

![iPad Battery Replacement Program Proves Just How Much Apple Cares About You [Choose to Replace Your iPad Battery and Get a New iPad Back, All For $99 & Some Data Loss]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/apple-tablet-ipadsblic50_.jpg)
![Apple Bestows Glory & Riches to Tim Cook for Services Rendered [Tim Cook Awarded $22 Million in Cash, Apple Stock, 5 MacBooks, 2 iPhones, 2 iPads & 1 Place in Heaven]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/tim-cook-applesblic50_.jpg)
![Vodafone UK Announces HTC Desire & HTC Legend [Vodafone HTC Desire & Legend UK Release Date Confirmed for April]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/Vodafone-UK-HTC-Desiresblic50_.jpg)
![How to Pre-Order Your iPad Outside the USA in Seven Easy Steps [Apple iPad Pre-orders are U.S. Only For Now; at Least In Theory]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/alt/Apple-iPad-worldwide-pre-ordersblic50_.jpg)