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Samsung ups the ante with Intel, plans for Tizen smartphones

While we’ve known and loved Linux flavors of all shapes and sizes for years, there has yet to be a truly multi-platform and open-ended platform quite like Tizen. The multi-platform Linux experience, backed by both Intel and the Linux Foundation, is now also getting the green light from South Korean manufacturer Samsung, and promises to be the one Linux distro to rule them all. Samsung is planning to release several Tizen devices this year.

“We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions,” a representative of Samsung told Bloomberg today.

While Google’s Android continues to be a favorite among smartphone owners everywhere, Tizen promises to be like nothing you’ve seen yet by offering a 100% open-source platform for anything from smartphones to GPSes, TVs and computers. The entire platform will be seamless across the dozens of devices you own, and now with the support of hardware heavyweights like Intel and Samsung, it’s sure to be something worth seeing once it hits high gear in late 2013. The project is the culmination of years of partnership among the many companies that make up the Linux alliance, and may very well change how we look at consumer electronics forever.

Tizen doesn’t debut on the consumer shelf for probably another few months, and will make its way to Japan before stopping off in America. Between Android’s Jelly Bean, Canonical’s Ubuntu OS, and Tizen, it looks like Linux is getting more love than ever in the world of consumer electronics – but which one will truly reign as king in the coming months? 

Oh, and did we mention Tizen can run Andoid apps?

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Joshua Sherman is a contributor for Digital Trends who writes about all things mobile from Apple to Zynga. Josh pulls his…
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