Google Linux?

In case you don’t follow Digg (I congratulate you), this came up.
In short: Some random hackers figured out how to port Android onto a netbook, and it turns out that there was a folder in Android that had plans for “Mobile Internet Devices”–like netbooks–anyway.
This is pretty cool, but I’m left with one pessimistic thought:
What can Google add to a Linux distro that Canonical, Novell, RedHat or the general Linux community can’t?

Apps? Not really–unless you count Chrome, which is going to be ported to Linux anyway.

Quality? I can’t think of how…

The only thing I can come up with is publicity–if Google, the all-powerful, quite-famous Google starts marketing an OS, it’s going to put Linux in the spotlight, big time. Even if people don’t explicitly use a Google OS, it’ll raise awareness about Linux in general, and suddenly Ubuntu Bug #1 is looking a lot less problematic.

However, we’re all totally jumping the gun–basement hacking does not a mainstream OS make, which is the current situation.

…but basement hacking with some help from one of the largest tech companies in the world does. I’m excited.