Last month, we reported here about Splashtop, which starts a laptop in only a few seconds. Since then, Splashtop reportedly has found its way into the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e and the ASUS Eee PC.

Now there's Cloud, from Good OS, which gave us gOS Linux and a cover story for Linux Journal in March 2008. Good OS calls Cloud “A New Operating System for 2009”. More specifically, the press release says Cloud “integrates a Web browser with a compressed Linux operating system kernel for immediate access to Internet, integration of browser and rich-client applications, and full control of the computer from inside the browser” (http://thinkgos.com/press-release20081201.php).

The browser looks like Google's Chrome, and most of the icons in the Mac-like dock on the bottom of the screen are for Google apps running in “the cloud”. One exception is the Windows symbol. We won't go there. Meanwhile, the fast-start race all goes to Linux.Cloud, launched in December 2008 at the Netbook World Summit in Paris, demonstrated on a GIGABYTE Netbook.
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Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal