The folks over at DeviceVM certainly have something to grin about - ASUS has just announced that it will include its Splashtop instant-on Linux OS software as part of its Express Gate feature on all upcoming motherboards starting with the P5Q family.

While Express Gate is not entirely new, it has seen some changes now. Instead of having to run the software off a HDD or pen drive (where you might as well just use Ubuntu), this time the boards will have a dedicated memory chipset linked to the BIOS. Turn on your system and within a second or so, you have an OS to play around with.

The type of setup is probably more suited to notebooks, but if you are only interested in web browsing, you could save a bucket of cash not having to pay for Vista or waste time setting up another Linux operating system, as it is there ready to go. The video below which was uploaded to YouTube below explains how Splashtop works.

You can see an early preview by Rob Williams over at Techgage and you can check out the full press release here.