Initial impressions:
This is great, it should be in chip form though. The board's a bit strange, impressive graphics stuff, but only SAS and SATA, no in-built solid drive connections. I'll look into what the O.S. is.
Now I've looked into the O.S., I'm not keen on Express Gate itself, because all the corporate mess/deals have left it not as useful as it could be.
Asus brand it Express Gate, really it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashtop
In the 'Limitations/Requirements' section, the Wikipedia entry says it requires a Windows base to install from, even though it's cut-down Linux. This is confirmed and summarised best here:
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/09/11/asus-express-windows/
I didn't realise this kind of O.S. was about yet, a month ago GOS was vapourware, and now there are alternatives too. I really like the stuff behind this one, especially the Dual version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperSpace_(software)
On my 1.3GHz with SATA2 drive, Ubuntu cold-boots and gets online within 30 seconds, on a modern PC it's probably much better.
Instant- or near-instant booting should be easily available soon, because it is mainly the careful choosing of what gets loaded first that determines boot speed. Once certain things are done, other stuff can run concurrently. I reckon O.S. designers ought to twiddle with what goes on while waiting for the user to login, often nothing is happening at all, so the only thing left for the O.S. to do after login is to load the user's personal settings.
This is an interesting area because I want to look into minimalist operating systems or hacking existing ones for CyberspaceView to run from. It being all Java, the O.S. requirements are tiny. Lots of people often want to get straight into browsing, which is why Asus, Dell, Phoenix etc will do well. As CyberspaceView does not require a browser, the loading time for one is removed.
I'd love to know how quick a solid state (not just flash) drive could boot onlined Linux. It would probably compete well. Obviously, running an O.S. straight from the chip is ideal, which is why I think kernels at least should be on-chip. Plug-in Ubuntu card? Yes please!