Discussion on:

Splashtop "Instant On" motherboard

I suspect we'll be seeing more of this sort of thing, with a tiny BIOS-based kernel spawning virtualized containers for several instances of OSes. The laptop manufacturer that brings that functionality to market soonest and best will get my business.

VMWare hypervisor for its server line.

I think this is a really great idea. It would save on batter time when checking email or surfing away from home on my laptop.

Another idea. Build that functionality into an all-in-one system with touchscreen capabilities, and it would make a great kitchen computer. Load a recipe database on it, throw in some widgets for weather, news, sport, or whatever else people want to know while making breakfast and I think it could be a hit. I've wanted a computer in the kitchen for a while, but I don't want to leave it running constantly, nor do I want to wait for one to boot up when I need it. It could even be designed to attach to the bottom of the upper cabinets and the screen could flip up out of the way when not in use, thus keeping it away from counter-top spills.

Sounds like a great system but you said "That 2GB of ram really helped. I think if the laptop were sold with less, the performance would take a serious hit." which causes me to wonder if it is worthwhile to even consider. Imagine a linux system requiring 2GB of ram just to run sounds more like Windows.