Dell Says it Will Join the Sub-notebook Fray (Bring Back Windows 98SE!)

Looks like Dell is playing the me-too catch-up game (from Information Week)…

Dell Gears Up To Enter Mini-Notebook Market

The first question is what price will the Dell entry be set at and what features will be available. Asus gambled and took the early mind-share. HP seems to have raised the bar (feature-wise) — although some claim the $749 version is priced too high. The second question is whether or not June is too late to enter the sub-notebook game. The third question is whether Apple and Lenovo (who currently own the high-end sub-notebook mindshare with the Macbook Air and X300, respectively) will enter the low-priced sub-notebook market.

Finally, Microsoft has got to do something to create an OS for the sub-notebook market. Windows Vista is just to gigantic to squeeze into the flash-storage-no-hard-drive boxes. Keeping Windows XP would just an admission of defeat for them. I hope Microsoft comes to their senses and bring back the Windows CE (Windows Mobile) Handheld PC concept updated for the 21st century. Failing in that, they should Open Source Windows 98 Second Edition and let hordes of talented programmers tighten it up and bring it up to date for the sub-notebook market. My old IBM Thinkpad 240 ran Windows 98SE like a champ in a mere 128MB RAM. It would probably take up less space than the Linux distro Asus currently uses in the Eee PC.