As we have heard in the past sky is very reluctant to support Linux with their downloads service, however will the rise of Netbooks change this? Will this new source of Linux popularity change the minds of the people at sky and make them sit up and listen or will they remain ignorant and arrogant? I think that it is shameful to prevent the use of a service that the customers have paid for, just because of their choice of operating system.

It is great to see linux leading in the cutting edge of technology, providing devices previously reserved for the people who could afford them, for a price that almost anyone can afford. I can only see these netbooks getting cheaper with time. Digital watches were once expensive but now they are a dime a dozen. As new manufactures enter this market prices will begin to fall further. This is truly an exciting year for linux and its users.

Netbooks have also been solving some problems for linux as far as desktop use is concerned. In the past users have complained about it being difficult to use and the amount of time that it takes to boot, but asus with their eeePC have changed this. The eeePC used a program called fast init, which can boot the OS in less than 20 seconds. I’m hoping that these devices can have as much of an impact on linux as a desktop OS, as Ubuntu has had.

Hewlett-Packard has recently placed orders for VIA Nano CPUs and VIA have already started shipping. It is not known whether HP will use the CPUs in it’s notebooks or netbook series. VIA has said that in addition to previous orders from Chinese companies , the company also has orders from a notebook manufacturer and the product will appear in the market by October this year. As for VIA’s C7-M processor used in HP’s 2133 Mini-Note PC, the total volume that HP has ordered is a little over 500,000, which shows that HP expects to ship at least half a million 2133 Mini-Note PCs by the end of this year.

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We’ve just finished adding the hp2133 mininote to our database. One of the best features of the hp mininote was it’s high resolution screen and it’s express card slot, but it seems It was doomed by it’s weak VIA C7 processor which was selected for this machine, I think that they might have better luck if they lower the price and put the new generation of VIA chip in their. The new Via Nano processor should be a vast improvement over the via C7.

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