On the dell.ca site, the low end one actually comes with ubuntu linux!

http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/business/Laptops/vostro-v13/pd.aspx?refid=vostro-v13&s=bsd&cs=cabsdt1

Just an FYI from up in the great white north ;)

Yes, I have a milestone, no you can't have it. I'm up in Canada. It's on Rogers and I just updated to this latest google maps version (with navigation). Some interesting observations.

With this update, I can select the navigate option when i have US-based start and end points. But when it starts the actual navigate it finds out that i'm in Canada. In the background, I can see the navigation arrow (i've used the droid on verizon before so i know what it looks like) and this is indeed the right app! However, it then proceeds to pop up a notice that says "navigation to that destination is not available", and basically requires me to exit the app.

So technically (as in no special new google maps version is required) it should work for Canada based locations as well, however, it's obvious google is filtering for non-US based start/end points and just not allowing it right now. (I'm assuming due to the map licensing issues that everyone is speculating on (google it if you don't know what i'm talking about))

Anyways, just my $0.02CAD (isn't that worth more than your USD these days? ;) )

The only thing that stopped me from getting this was the screen resolution. I so wished they kept the WXGA from the previous one and I would have been totally happy. I got a Macbook instead, although a netbook (with WXGA) would have been enough for my needs. Oh well. So close, yet so far.

@ Greg

You seem to be forgetting their google apps for enterprise. Now how slick of an end-to-end solution is that for your company? Google handles all your work email, calendaring, IM, etc.

Now issue each employee a G1 and they all have instant access to all of works programs. Hmm ... who needs to sync to their PC?

Just a thought.

I'm currently an iPhone user but have been quite eager about google's android (more from a dev. perspective though, as I'm a Java program by nature ;) )

I'm a human being, and I *USE* an Apple PC to run OS X. I also have a laptop (PC) that has Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP (for testing) installed.

All you fanbois are a little ridiculous. Really, does all this bickering about whether Microsoft or Apple has better ads going to really accomplish anything? How is this even related to a "tech blog" anyways? Shouldn't this banter be on some kind of advertising blog where they discuss merits of an ad campaign.

In all honestly, the ad was pretty good. It only started out like a copy of a rather effective Apple ad campaign, but then tried to turn it to a feel good ad about being a "PC". However, to me (a programmer and general tech. guy), I wouldn't be too impressed with all these people claiming to be a PC :) They look like people that don't really know anything about computers and just happened to buy a PC because that's what the saleman sold them.

My $0.02.

Ummmm .. did anyone else notice the stupid placement of the right shift key? :\ Was looking quite good up to that point.

(For those of you too lazy to click the read link, the right shift key is to the right of the arrow keys! WTF indeedy.)

Bah .. that was supposed to be directed @FRED

Don't try to bring up the "profitability" card against Nintendo. If there's one thing Nintendo knows how to do, it's make money. Remember, they've never lost money on a console. EVER. They're not willing to play that game, so not only do they make money on every console, they sell the most!

But it's basically what I do with my notebook now. It's my dev. env. away from my desktop. It need not be ultra powerful (I'm not a 3D game programmer, I'm a web developer). And it's especially important that I have it to show clients progress etc.

All I have on my laptop is your standard LAMP stack. I work in vi so basically 2 xterms is all I need. On a separate desktop, firefox is open.

How is this NOT a good product for my use?

I think the EEE was a good start, but it wasn't quite right for me. The keyboard is just too small for me to do real typing/programming on. The Macbook Air is very close to what I want, however, it missed the price point for me by about $1300 ;)

In come these $500 "netbooks" with almost full size keyboards, still around the 3lb mark and more than powerful enough for my needs.

I'd take a 3lb netbook at $500 over a low end dell 15" any day. My criteria is that they keyboard needs to be big enough, the screen resolution needs to be high enough (1024x600 is good enough for what I need it for) and it has to be cheap enough ($500 or less).

With all these Atom based ones, I can finally say check, check and check! The question now is, which one will I like better? The HP mininote? The MSI Wind, or Dell's offering? I'll have to get my grubby hands on one before I decide.

On a side note, the tie breaker would be the power brick it comes with. Why can't people design power bricks like Macbooks? How hard can it be to make something nice and portable?

Just my $0.02 (CAD)