Dell, Intel cut out Microsoft | InfoWorld | News | 2008-08-15 | By Mike Elgan, Computerworld

Dell, Intel cut out Microsoft | InfoWorld | News | 2008-08-15 | By Mike Elgan, Computerworld:
"Dell Latitude ON
Dell announced this week a new feature called Latitude ON that enables the use of e-mail, Web surfing, basic PIM functionality, and document reading -- all without booting Windows. The idea is to enable basic use without having to wait for the main OS to boot, and also to extend battery life.

A more accurate name than 'Latitude ON' would have been 'Windows OFF.'

The codename was 'BlackTop,' a combination of 'BlackBerry' and 'laptop.' The original aim of the project was to give users the same basic functionality of a BlackBerry using their laptops' full-size keyboard and screen.

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What Dell is really doing here is building the equivalent of a secondary ASUS Eee PC into a full-featured, full-size laptop. The Latitude ON feature uses a low-power Intel Arm processor (just like the new Eee PCs), flash storage and Linux (Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) separate from the laptop's main CPU, hard drive, and Windows OS. But unlike a subnotebook, the Latitude ON system won't allow you to install applications. It's essentially a 'cloud computing' device that depends on the Internet for much of its functionality.

As far as I can tell, none of the applica"
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I only just read this, and this excerpt is from a broader post, but this Dell Latitude ON feature seems pretty frickin' killer to me!

I mean, I travel quite a bit (lately) and I see people pulling out laptops and waiting for them to start up or shutdown, or even hibernate, etc, while on a plane, and it seems like such a huge waste of time for little return (this is obviously my opinion... but I'd rather sleep on a plane or read a book for fun ;-). The other part that seems like such a waste to me is battery life. Granted, the laptops and batteries today are SO much better than just a few years ago... but batteries can and do go bad, which shortens the life you have to use them without power. I have a Dell Latitude D620 for work, and I have two extended life batteries for it. They are supposed to give me 4hrs each of life off the plug. Well, BOTH have dropped in capacity to literally minutes of battery life before going critical and the PC shutting itself down. I obviously need to get them replaced, but that would also mean I no longer hold the excuse that I *can't* work on the plane. ;-)

Anyway, I suppose this sort of turned into a rant about batteries, didn't it? Oh well. I think that anything we as an industry can do to lengthen battery life is key. I also am really interested in the slimming down of operating systems to the bare essentials for certain applications of operating systems. Like smartphones and other, what I like to call, "appliances". Normal multi-purpose desktop PCs should probably remain pretty fat, otherwise they start to lose their multiple purpose use.

I am still looking for the perfect inexpensive internet device for browsing, email and blogging. I think the EeePC, or something similar, could be it... but the price is still rather high and it lacks the full-size screen and keyboard I like so much. All in all, I want incredible battery life with very little heat generated and as little moving parts as possible (i.e., no spinning HDD). The EeePC with the (nicer) 10" screen seems to ONLY come with Windows XP. I don't know that I want something that bloated for that type of "appliance"... but if managed properly, I suppose XP would work.