The Hybrid Netbook Experience, RevisitedThe Hybrid Netbook Experience, Revisited

No, I don't mean a computer powered by solar panels or fuel cells (although those aren't terribly absurd assertions, either). Rather, there's a growing sense that netbooks -- and notebooks generally -- won't just be running Linux or Windows, but a mix of the two.  But this doesn't look like proof that Windows is on the skids.

I've recently been looking at notebooks that use the Linux-powered Hyperspace "side-boot" system -- a parallel OS rather than a complete replacement for Windows. The tiny OS contains most everything you need to get work done quickly: a network access module, Web browser, messaging and VOIP clients -- and now, word processing and spreadsheet software courtesy of the ThinkFree suite. The whole thing boots in mere seconds; it's comparable to the boot speed of environments like Moblin, maybe even better. Plus, the more upscale version of Hyperspace loads Windows in parallel, so you can switch into or back out of it once it's fully loaded.

What's struck me most after using Hyperspace for a bit is whether or not the ultimate aim of the product is wide of the mark. If the point is to give people instant-on access to common productivity tools, Windows can already do this in the form of suspend/resume -- although, I guess, the fact that you can access Hyperspace in seconds from a cold boot is a further power-savings gesture. Especially since on some machines Windows can take just as long to come up out of hibernation as it does to boot cold.

I've mused before about the possibility that Hyperspace would provide an incremental wedge via which people get more and more workaday exposure to Linux. I'm thinking now that's not really the point, either. It's not about how much Linux people get to use, but how good their computing experiences are overall, with Linux being one of the more flexible ways to bring that to people. If people find Hyperspace more genuinely useful than a full boot to Windows (something I'm also willing to debate freely), it won't matter what's used to put it together.

Finally, I suspect that Hyperspace is likely to get its most direct competition not from Windows but from other open-source projects -- the aforementioned Moblin, for instance, which holds at least as much potential as Hyperspace. Windows's greatest competition has long been with itself -- and it looks like Linux may end up following the same pattern.

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