The VAR Guy

The Netbook. Once considered a toy, it now seems like the preferred device for many productivity-driven workhorse travelers. And even if you’re not a mobile workaholic, there’s something simplistically perfect about sofa-browsing while watching TV and catching up on some e-mail. With a small form factor, there comes caveats at the expense of size and portability. But recent moves by Lenovo and others show some promising trends — several of which involve Linux.

The practice of putting Mac OS X on your vanilla computer is kind of old news. Since 2005, Intel code has been hacked and executed on gray boxes all over the world. But the Dell Mini 9 netbook falls into a special category of this kind of hacking. The Mini 9’s 8.9 inch form factor and expandability deliver something that Apple fanatics — and perhaps even some mobile executives — would buy in a heartbeat. Here’s why.

It’s one small step for Dell and consumer Linux — and one giant leap for Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux efforts. Specifically, Dell is spending advertising dollars to promote PCs with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled. The move has significant implications for the business world as well. Here’s why.

For a few months now, The VAR Guy has been predicting that Netbooks — otherwise known as sub-notebooks — would be the hot ticket in the PC market during the fourth quarter. He’s still sticking to that prediction. Here’s why.

In an email to The VAR Guy, Lenovo Senior VP J. Scott Di Valerio describes the PC giant’s evolving Linux strategy, including plans for so-called NetBooks that will launch in October. Here’s a look at what Di Valerio had to say.

Lenovo and Novell next week are set to announce joint work on Lenovo’s new Think servers. However, the Linux faithful are distracted this week by reports that Lenovo has stopped selling SUSE Linux on certain PCs. Now, both Lenovo and Novell are weighing in with responses.