Splashtop

Instant-on OS Splashtop is set to ship with all ASUS products, leaving lite users with no reason to install a full OS.

The LINUX distro has already been spotted running on Eee PC, and with ASUS set to ship 1 million mobos a month shortly, the Splashtop is likely to become common especially on notebooks.

SplashTop is a portable software platform, an embedded Linux-based internet app running from flash memory and is linked directly to the BIOS. Quick and painless pre-boot access to the included browser (no doubt FireFox) and VoIP (Skype) environment is possible, although the SATA and IDE bus are unavailable.

There may even be opportunity in future for users to add their own apps to SplashTop, thus constomising the environment.

It’s a clever move from ASUS, one which places the importance of a standard OS in a new light.

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