[donalphilby]

From the New York Times:
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...-netbooks/

Also, see small article in current Cruising World on using one laptop per child laptop for navigation. Advantages: waterproof keyboard, multivoltage, no moving parts, low draw, etc. But what operating systems can be run?

donal

[Amgine]

For the XO, I've read of windows, linux (various flavours), and other *nix including FreeBSD (which would thus include Darwin - the underpinnings for MacOS.)

However, the XO hardware is not powerful by current computing standards. Sugar (the linux OS which the XO ships with) is optimised for this specific platform, and is reasonably swift. Friends report minimalist Linux environments are more than powerful enough for usefulness, but relatively cuddly environments (KDE) are sluggish.

Unfortunately, I still haven't got one so I can't comment directly.

However, you have to realize the Mac Air is a netbook. It just happens to have a full-sized laptop footprint. So, big screen/keyboard, but lightweight, somewhat less powerful.

[donalphilby]

Interesting observation about Mac Air. I was told by a sales person that the keyboard on the Air was far more moisture proof than the other Mac books and that water damage to a MacBook Pro keyboard was $600 to replace, one argument for the Air on a boat.

donal