Mobile carriers may start giving away netbooks for free, and Linux-based application stores could help them profit by doing it, the head of a Linux advocacy group told Chinese companies on Monday.

In an effort to expand its Linux offerings, Dell is researching new netbook-type devices and will soon offer netbook Linux OS upgrades, a company official said on Wednesday. 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.

In 2009, mobile consumer devices including netbooks, e-readers, tablets, MIDs, PMPs, and mobile phones were increasingly dominated by embedded Linux or the Linux-based Android.

Google wasn't the only company announcing new Android-based devices this week. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, several handset and mobile device manufacturers also announced new models and partnerships with mobile carriers for their Android devices, ranging from various mobile phones and tablets, to eBook readers.

The LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation has endorsed a new Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) industry group established by mobile carriers to devise a common app format. The WAC format will build upon two web-based mobile widget standards: the Open Mobile Terminal Project's BONDI and the Joint Innovation Lab's JIL initiative.

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.

Sorry if I’m the only person who’s confused about Canonical’s mobile Linux strategy. The company has at least two Ubuntu software projects — one for Netbooks, the other for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) — that sound strikingly similar. So what’s the difference between Ubuntu for Netbooks and Ubuntu for MIDs? Canonical gave me some answers during OSCON 2008.

Intel is rolling out a new line of Atom chips, which power most Netbooks, for mobile devices. With Android moving into Netbooks, you can expect a merger between the Netbook and mobile form factor very soon.

Browser-obsessed netbooks running Google's Chrome operating system will be the freshest thing to hit computing in two decades, Eric Schmidt claims.