Wine is an open source project that, on the face of it, seems to offer something wondrous: the ability to run Windows applications under Linux (or any other open source OS). It does this by attempting to recreate the Windows API layer in open source.

Finally! A chance to run those Windows programs for which there are no open source analogs: Quicken, or Flash CS. And all those games!

There are a variety of netbook distros out there, but you can have a little fun creating your own. Here are some software packages and tips worth considering:

Choosing a distro

You can chose any distro but my favorite is, of course, Ubuntu. The 9.04 release is particularly well-suited to netbooks because it not only works well on most of them, but includes the ultra-quick boot-up technology that will probably mean the desktop appears in about 25 seconds of powering-up. This removes the need to hibernate or suspend the computer each time you've finished with it, which also removes the need for a large swap partition because this is where the hibernate file is stored (my Dell Mini 9 only has a 4GB SD disk, for example, and has 2GB of RAM, so a swap partition is simply impossible).

One of the biggest problems with open source is understanding what it means out in the real world. I'm not talking about understanding the actual technology. I'm talking about the impact of open source. How open source is actually useful.

What's clear to me is that open source is not an end in itself. Open source is an enabler. It's a catalyst. It allows other things to happen. It's the fulcrum upon which can be rested the lever that will move the world. But it isn't the lever itself.

It seems like the chatter around some impending Windows 7 vs. Linux faceoff has been exponentially increasing these past couple of weeks. I do not know about you, but I find it somewhat humorous. After all, the fan boys are getting widely excited. And, from reading all of the comments flying around one might think this is some kind of no holds bar, dirt encrusted, choose your own weapon, cage match of death.

In fact, let's just call this Thunderdome!

As expected, there's a flood of Linux netbook announcements at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan. What wasn't expected was for one of the top netbook companies, Asus, to turn its back on one of its own netbooks running Android Linux.

I'm sorry I'm not in Taipei for the show. It must have been quite the sight.