I just came across this very interesting article about the new Asus P5E3 Deluxe motherboard that ships with integrated Linux and Skype!
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=869 
Asus is well known for their high quality motherboard, and this new series doesn't seem to ben an exeption there..
The Asus P5E3 Deluxe is based upon Intel's new X38 Chipset, and has many great features like ASUS WiFi-AP @n (802.11n wireless) that supports up to 300 Mbps, ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) etc.
But the most interesting new feature is ASUS Express Gate:
Quote:
Surf the Internet in 5-second-boot time without entering Windows
With a fast bootup speed of only 5 seconds, the ASUS Express Gate offers an optional Linux OS bootup that allows you to enjoy instant access to commonly used functions like accessing the Internet, VoIP, and Web emailing without entering the OS.
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This could be really handy if you just want to quickly check your mail, the latest news using the Firefox-rebranded web browser or chat with friends with the
Skype VoIP client etc..
But I agree with the above article that there are a few things they could do to make it much more usefull, like including the possibility to use removable USB media like stick/HDDs etc to make complete backups/system restores from the internal HDDs, integrate their motherboard utilities here so you don't need to start windows to use them etc..
But all in all and 5 sec boot when you just need to check mail, internet etc. is quite impressive!
Quote:
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The web browser loaded up on this Linux environment is called the "SplashTop Browser", but it's really nothing more than a stripped down version of Mozilla Firefox. On the P5E3 Deluxe, the default homepage for the web browser is the ASUS website and it comes preloaded with a few bookmarks. This instant-on Linux desktop isn't running exclusively in the system RAM, but you can save bookmarks and other settings and as long as you don't clear the settings, they will remain loaded for the next time you enter SplashTop/Express Gate.
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http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=869&num=3
The Splashtop site doesn't seem to have been made public yet, but you should be able to find it here:
www.splashtop.com
Some info and a video can be found on the Splashtop Blog:
http://www.splashtop.com/blog/
Here's some more infor on the Asus P5E3 Deluxe motherboard from the official Asus site:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...&mo delmenu=1