I recently had a very interesting talk with Freescale’s Glen Burchers, director of global consumer marketing, regarding netbooks, where Linux stands with this emerging form factor and what we can expect to see as everybody and their grandma pushes innovation of these devices. From Freescale’s perspective, and from a Linux fan’s, the future looks nice: thinner, cheaper netbooks, many of which will be based on Linux, that run as long as eight hours on a charge. Freescale this week announced its intentions to enter the netbook market with new, ARM-based netbook technology to deliver better battery life and other features for less than $200.

Burchers did discuss some issues that remain with Linux, which even among younger users can be viewed as a ‘toy.’ Perhaps it doesn’t help that the popular Linux-based EeePC netbook is sold at Toys’R'Us, but as I pointed out recently, the toy store has the right idea in labeling the netbooks with ‘Linux’ (which is more than I can say for Dell, which sticks to ‘Ubuntu’). Still, I think that Windows XP runs just as much risk of being viewed as ‘my parents’ OS,’ which would certainly be worse than a toy.

While Linux may have a way to go in terms of education, mind share and credibility, it is certainly appealing to manufacturers based on its lower cost, which in turn helps it appeal to more consumers with greater features at less cost.

One of the things Freescale’s Burchers stressed was thinner netbooks (15mm or less). Another trend is solid state drives, which are coming down in cost and going up in capability. Finally, the other big thing with netbooks: cost. Burchers says manufacturers are pushing the price, which now typically hovers between $300 and $400, down to $200. We also see wireless carriers subsidizing netbooks similar to what they’ve done with mobile phones, and this is further incentive for manufacturers to shave down the price as well as the profile of these things.

All of these factors, as well as other logistics and economics, point to greater use of Linux. The open source OS — available in a variety of distributions that are specialized for netbooks — offers more flexibility in design and may help designers go leaner. In terms of the SSDs, we typically see them included in Linux versions, which may cost the same as the XP version, but is able to include the more expensive, non-moving SSD thanks to licensing savings from Linux. Lastly, as manufacturers drive down the prices of netbooks and their components, there is no question that Linux is a key component of the less expensive netbook. My discussion with Freescale confirmed this.

As we’ve said, netbooks, MIDs and increasingly other mobile and consumer devices are largely about cost and Freescale agrees that the netbook’s reliance on WiFi, rather than a costly data plan with a smartphone, will be another key driver for consumers embracing netbooks.