In the market for a Netbook? Amazon has the baseline HP 2133 on sale for $299, down from $499. Right away that solves one of the HP's main problems: its high price. Best of all, this is a new unit--not a refurb--and you don't have to deal with any rebates.
HP is really going after "digital snackers" with a second model, the HP Mini 100 with MIE (Mobile Internet Experience). This model, available in January at a starting price of $379.99, does away with a traditional operating system in favor of an HP developed Linux platform that is designed for specific applications. You can get e-mail through a Thunderbird client, web browsing through a Mozilla-based browser and access to all your photos, videos and music.
Hewlett Packard on Wednesday rolled out a netbook lineup designed to play catch up with Dell, Asus and others. But the real interesting play here is HP’s move to develop a custom Linux operating system for one of its netbooks.
The HP MediaStyle interface is available on the Mini1000 MIE version, which comes with Linux rather than Windows XP like the other two models. MediaStyle sits on top of Linux and is a dashboard that takes users to music, IM, photos, videos, and the Web with one touchpad click, which HP says will shield users from ever having to interact with the open-source OS.
... with the MIE graphical interface:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/29/hp-breaks-the-netbook-mold-with-the-mini-1000-and-mie-linux-netbook/
I posted this information in the other thread about the new HP Mini. Most likely the MIE interface can be changed to a more conventional desktop such as Gnome, KDE, or XFCE. The real news here is that HP DROPPED SUSE FOR UBUNTU!!! :D