Can a mobile be protected against the "Linode problem"?
If your private key is compromised your coins are gone

So the short answer is that the "Linode problem" where your entire private key is at the mercy of a third-party capable of root access to your system is somewhat intractable. As others have stated you can limit your key's exposure, but malware is patient.

Off topic, but possibly of interest, is a project by the MultiBit team to use a HP50G scientific calculator as an item of trusted hardware capable of signing transactions. Not much use out in the field like a mobile would be, but handy for a small business reconciling small volumes of transactions.