The battle for the inexpensive UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) market has begun. Several companies already have them; such as the CloudBook from Everex and the EeePC from Asus. Both look “okay” but it would be hard to call them aesthetically pleasing. ECS will be introducing its version of a UMPC and it looks like the smaller brother to the MacBook

The schools of the Canton of Geneva are going to switch 9000 computers from Windows to GNU/Linux in September according to this article which is in German. Here is the google translation: http://google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pro-linux.de%2Fnews%2F200...

Dutch integrator Van Der Led (VDL) Designs has announced a clone of the Asus Eee PC ultra-mini PC (UMPC) notebook. The WiFi-enabled "Jisus" UMPC is equipped with a Chinese-made 1GHz Loongson CPU, has an 8.9-inch display, and runs Ubuntu Linux.

Some critics seem to think that UMPC (ultra mobile PCs) are just a fad. Wrong. They're here to stay.

Regardless of whether you think that the UMPC needs saving or not, it is clear that the ultra-mobile PC has not been the success that manufacturers had hoped it would be. These systems, which are now generally in or approaching their second generation, seemed great when they were announced, but were unable to hit reasonable price points.

Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers (UMPC) are so hot right now that major PC manufacturers are competing to create the lightest, fastest and sexiest-looking portable machines imaginable. Most of these emerging sub-notebooks are pre-installed with Linux, and I wasn't surprised.

The Linux Netbooks are cheap, simple and small — just apt for performing the basic tasks. The future for this next wave of personal technology gadgets is simple as it doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket and has portability advantages.

In case there’s anyone left out there who doesn’t get that the UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) is a big deal for the Linux desktop consider that arguably the most important business Linux desktop, Novell’s SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 SP2) is now available on MSI’s (Micro-Star International) new Wind Notebook.

We have another entry in the UMPC (that’s Ultra Mobile PC to those who might not know) market. I was impressed with the eeepc from ASUS and I was considering purchasing one. But now I’m saving my pennies for this guy.