Ever since Dell released it's Ubuntu powered netbooks, I've been wondering how successful they would turn out to be. While I have yet to find any sales data and I doubt Dell will be dishing any of that out, there is some good news coming out of OpenSource World.

According to an article at PC World, "Close to a third of all netbooks Dell ships during certain quarters are preloaded with Linux. . . ." That's really good news for Linux enthusiasts. And Dell is excited enough about the success of Linux based netbooks that they're looking at bringing a new product to market -- a smartbook.

What is a smartbook you ask? A smartbook is nearly the same thing as a netbook, but running on an ARM processor instead of the usual x86 chip architecture. If you're not familiar with the terminology, ARM processors are typically used to power smart phones. But ARM processors have gained enough power in recent years to feasibly run a small laptop, and they have some other advantages such as lower power consumption as well.

While there is no telling if or when a smartbook may hit the market, Dell has also stated that they'll be updating their pre-installed software on current netbooks from Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) to the web-centric Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Netbook Remix. They are also researching Google's newly announced Chrome OS for potential use in netbooks.

Welcome to Nillabyte's new Linux and Open Source column. We're very excited about open source software and the many great options that it offers, and we hope that we can share that with you through this section of our site!