ASUS to embed "instant on" Linux distro into every motherboard
ASUS has announced that the Express Gate distro — a version of Linux by DeviceVM shrinky-dinkified into a small BIOS chip to give your PC a fast-boot alternative for non-intesive tasks — will now be installed on all of their motherboards.
Express Gate allows you to boot up your PC within five seconds and access Firefox, Skype and media-playing apps. This quarter, ASUS will release four new Express Gate motherboards: P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-WS, P5Q3 Deluxe and P5Q-E.
Honestly, I could care less about this on a desktop: who turns them off besides ecologically-conscious hemp-huffing hippies like Joel? The environment? Never heard of it! But a laptop with this would be fantastic.
Asus to embed Linux into all motherboards [ZDNet]
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asx on ASUS to embed "instant on" Lin...
"stratosfyr: updates are controlled by the licensee (in this case, Asus) of splas..."
Stefan Jones on ASUS to embed "instant on" Lin...
"This is a neat idea. I was just about to buy a motherboard for my "media" machin..."
jitrobug on ASUS to embed "instant on" Lin...
"My ubuntu running thinkpad is having drive problems, so I spent this weekend usi..."
stratosfyr on ASUS to embed "instant on" Lin...
"This is really cool, but what about security updates?..."
futwick on ASUS to embed "instant on" Lin...
"You could or couldn't care less?..."
Marcel on ASUS to embed "instant on" Lin...
"MICROSOFT MUST SMASH!..."
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Marcel
#1 – 8:34 AM May 19, 2008
MICROSOFT MUST SMASH!
futwick
#2 – 8:41 AM May 19, 2008
You could or couldn't care less?
stratosfyr
#3 – 8:55 AM May 19, 2008
This is really cool, but what about security updates?
jitrobug
#4 – 10:24 AM May 19, 2008
My ubuntu running thinkpad is having drive problems, so I spent this weekend using a livecd instead - and other than a few niceties (tahoma, compiz, mapped keys), it was remarkable how usable the machine was..
The only downside is the boot time - so I love the idea of having a built-in and quick booting..
on the other hand, it would be nice if you could customize a little.. my instant-on computer would absolutely have to have mplayer and samba support.
Stefan Jones
#5 – 4:19 PM May 19, 2008
This is a neat idea. I was just about to buy a motherboard for my "media" machine. I think I'll wait to try one of these out.
asx
#6 – 6:43 PM May 19, 2008
stratosfyr: updates are controlled by the licensee (in this case, Asus) of splashtop. risks are reasonably mitigated, as there's no access to the system drives, etc, but there's no live updates. should be noted that while the product splashtop includes is based on firefox, it's a non-branded version called "Splashtop Browser" that you cannot customize.