Ive been playing a little with the latest Moblin release this afternoon and Im actually thinking of trying to run it full-time on a netbook. Theres a few holes yet, but it does offers me much of what Im looking for in a smartbook — a lightweight operating system and good browsing experience. My wireless broadband modem isnt working, nor is my sound or my Bluetooth, so theres a few gotchas just yet. The Bluetooth might be easily fixable in my netbook BIOS, but no sound on the Toshiba NB205 is a reported known bug.

In this 11 minute video, I think youll see why Im walking away impressed. The user interface is intuitive, although it will take some getting used to, and the overall environment is fluid and snappy. Bear in mind that Im running a live image from a USB drive, so an actual installation should perform even better. Maybe its time to turn the Toshiba into a triple-booter: Windows XP, Windows 7 and Moblin! (less info)