Asus to offer Linux on all motherboards

Asus to offer Linux on all motherboards

Daniel Fleshbourne on 16 May 2008 - 18:35 · 28 comments & 11468 views

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Asus is to fit its entire range of motherboards with the company's Express Gate version of Splashtop Linux. Splashtop boots from a Flash chip on the motherboard in a matter of seconds and is designed to run a small suite of applications including Firefox, Skype and instant messaging.

The Linux-based software will be extended immediately to the new P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-WS, P5Q3 Deluxe and P5Q-E series motherboards, and Asus has pledged to produce a further million Splashtop motherboards per month. Part of Splashtop's appeal is that it complements rather than replaces Windows, offering users the option to run a choice of operating systems.

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(2 replies) #1 Windam on 16 May 2008 - 18:48

This is a great step.

I'd be amazed if people started using this as a default OS

#1.1 markjensen on 16 May 2008 - 18:57

I don't know about "default OS", as it seems to be somewhat limited, but being able to power on and go online to google for solutions if your hard drive with Windows fails to boot for any reason sounds amazing!

#1.2 +Kushan on 16 May 2008 - 19:26

(markjensen said @ #1.1)

Indeed, especially if it has read/write NTFS support as standard, at least that way even if Windows gets absolutely skupppered, you'll be able to (relatively) easily get your important data back. Plus it never hurts to have a second, "backup" OS anyway.
I'm wondering how long it'll take for Microsoft to produce a special version of Windows PE for this sort of thing.

(5 replies) #2 markjensen on 16 May 2008 - 18:51

Interesting...

#2.1 Burst404 on 16 May 2008 - 19:37

(markjensen said @ #2)

Interesting...

Yes...

#2.2 cardg on 16 May 2008 - 22:44

(Burst404 said @ #2.1)

(markjensen said @ #2)

Interesting...

Yes...

Agreed...

#2.3 +Dakkaroth on 16 May 2008 - 23:23

(cardg said @ #2.2)

(Burst404 said @ #2.1)

(markjensen said @ #2)

Interesting...

Yes...

Agreed...

Indeed...

#2.4 Airlink on 17 May 2008 - 02:08

Indubitably....

#2.5 +DrunkenMaster on 17 May 2008 - 13:45

(Dakkaroth said @ #2.3)

(cardg said @ #2.2)

(Burst404 said @ #2.1)

(markjensen said @ #2)

Interesting...

Yes...

Agreed...

Indeed...

I'll take that and raise you one: supercalifragalisticexpialidotious

#3 Doli on 16 May 2008 - 19:05

Do an HTPC like this (using Myth TV I guess) and ill be super happy

(2 replies) #4 x-byte on 16 May 2008 - 19:49

Smart move. It would be great if you also can diagnose and rund recoveryprograms.

#4.1 Airlink on 17 May 2008 - 02:10

rund?

#4.2 Shadow Dragon on 17 May 2008 - 16:10

(Airlink said @ #4.1)

rund?

You really don't have a life do you?

(1 reply) #5 BBinder on 16 May 2008 - 21:12

sounds ok, maybe in the future they could use it for editing the bios

#5.1 Airlink on 17 May 2008 - 02:11

Um... no. That's not what it's for. Besides, BIOS is on the way out.

#6 simon360 on 16 May 2008 - 21:32

Heh, sounds kinda cool!

#7 HalcyonX12 on 16 May 2008 - 21:46

Great move. Hopefully you can mount your hard drives and fix problems as well. Maybe in the future these distributions will contain helpful recovery tools and backup/restore solutions. I've always bought ASUS in the past, and I'm glad to see them moving this to support all of their motherboards instead of a few premium ones. Hopefully other motherboard makers will follow suit.

#8 C_Guy on 16 May 2008 - 22:23

Giving customers more flexibility and choice is a good thing and this is an innovative way to do it. Will help people with the limited mindset that computers "only" run Windows.

As mentioned this is a great idea for running utilities if you cannot start up from an OS on your hard drive.

#9 ajua on 16 May 2008 - 22:50

This is great. I also hope that i will allow users to modify the embedded files in the flash chip in case we need something more than what the Splashtop offers.

(2 replies) #10 rm20010 on 17 May 2008 - 00:22

Sounds like a great idea. However, how can one be sure Splashtop's graphics drivers are kept up-to-date and compatible with new GPUs coming out every few months? Using the generic vesa driver could work, but then watching Youtube videos - or even browsing sites for that matter - might be horrendously slow.

Worse case scenario is Splashtop refuses to load. An instant-on OS failing before booting into the user's everyday OS? Freaky.

I assume there's still a way to boot into a failsafe BIOS menu.

#10.1 markjensen on 17 May 2008 - 00:38

Latest graphics drivers?

News-flash. This is not a gaming OS they have installed. Just a quick-boot from flash web browser and messenger/voice app suite. Great for a quick message to a friend as you stop for a quick bite to eat or a coffee on the go.

If you want latest drivers and full OS... You set up a traditional dual boot.

#10.2 Airlink on 17 May 2008 - 02:16

I'd be surprised if the Splashtop OS even has 3D video acceleration. It doesn't need it.

(1 reply) #11 TEX4S on 17 May 2008 - 07:38

Im already running 3 OS - getting crazy as it is....

XP64, Vista Ulti64, ubuntu

#11.1 cork1958 on 17 May 2008 - 09:49

I see absolutely no sense to running multiple Windows OS's, now a days.
Well, might be a good idea in your case, seeing as the one is that bloated, crappy Vista!
Much better choices out there other than Ubuntu also!

In regards to the topic though, looks very promising!

(1 reply) #12 Angel Blue01 on 17 May 2008 - 12:37

OK, but what about viruses? I know, this is Linux, but I'd be scared if a worm could boot into this OS then delete all my data off my hard disks.

#12.1 markjensen on 17 May 2008 - 13:40

I would be far more concerned about viruses on your installed Windows partitions than one on the Linux firmware.
This "splashtop" seems to not access the hard drive at all, certainly not in any "write" capacity.
Booting into this is an optional step that must be taken manually at the local machine, so I see no way that it would get corrupted while running your Windows OS.
Your "worm booting into this to delete your hard drive" is highly complicated. Instead watch for the regular worms that just do their work within the currently installed OS.
If you are still hyper-concerned about malware on this, then I suppose you could keep it updated, just like you would for firmware BIOS.

(1 reply) #13 +DrunkenMaster on 17 May 2008 - 13:44

There's a few neat little Media OSes that run on Linux. You can use them to play DVDs and CDs and MP3s. This would be a nice thing to use on the Mobo. It doesn't take all the horsepower to run full blown Linux or Windows.

#13.1 HalcyonX12 on 17 May 2008 - 16:41

I know it would be complex, but it would be cool to see a miniaturized games-only distribution where you could just locate your installed game on the hard drive and play it with nothing else running in the background, then your regular OS could just be used for browsing and productivity. If PCs switch to EFI you could also use that to play DVDs.

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