When Asus launched the Eee PC in 2007, we recognized that netbooks had the potential to be a major game-changer for mobile computing. Two years and several iterations later, the evolving netbook form factor is better and more compelling than ever before. Hardware vendors have found ways to deliver longer battery life, bigger displays, and more usable keyboards without compromising the mobility advantages of the little laptops.

Mobile Linux platforms have also improved to become more consumer-friendly, resource-efficient, and usable on small displays. One of the most ambitious efforts to improve the suitability of Linux for netbook devices is Intel's Moblin project, which promises to bring significant performance, usability, and aesthetic improvements to the open-source operating system. Although Moblin is still a work in progress, Dell is already offering it preinstalled for the benefit of software developers and Linux enthusiasts who want an early look at the platform.

Dell enlisted Canonical to build a special version of Ubuntu that incorporates Moblin's unique customizations. This hybrid distribution, called the Ubuntu Moblin Remix, offers Ubuntu's familiar underpinnings and enormous package repository alongside key performance and user interface enhancements that were developed by Intel in collaboration with the Moblin community.

Dell warns that the software is still highly experimental and incomplete, indicating that it's not yet ready for average consumers. We obtained a Dell Mini 10v with the Ubuntu Moblin Remix so that we could conduct a taste test and see for ourselves. This review will primarily focus on the Moblin applications and user experience. For an overview of the Moblin shell, you can refer to our hands-on tour of the user interface.

Hardware

CPU: 1.6GHz Atom N270

RAM: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics: Intel GMA 950

Display: 10.1" LCD at 1024x600

Storage: 160GB 5400 RPM hard drive

Optical drive: None

A Mini 10v with these specifications is available from Dell's web site for $299. For $30 more, users can get a 16GB solid state drive instead of the 160GB magnetic drive. Dell also offers an upgrade from a 3-cell battery to a 6-cell battery for $35. Dell doesn't offer options for additional RAM. We purchased a unit with the base specs for this review.

The left side of the 10v has two USB ports, an SD card slot, and the charging socket. On the right side, it has an ethernet jack, another USB port, a VGA output, and mini-audio jacks for a microphone and headphones. The port configuration is identical to that of the Mini 9. Unlike the regular Mini 10, it doesn't have an HDMI output.

Appearance and dimensions

Like the rest of Dell's Mini line, the 10v has smooth round corners and glossy finish that really picks up fingerprints. The build quality and general look is reasonably good for a budget computer. It's slightly slimmer and wider than the Dell Mini 9, but it fits well in the Timbuk 2 bag that I originally got for my Eee. At 2.5 lbs, it weighs slightly more than the 2.28 lb Mini 9. It's still light enough that you can comfortably hold it with one hand and type with the other while you tote it around the house.

Keyboard

Uncomfortably small keyboards have long been the most profound weakness of the netbook form factor. Dell's Mini 9 delivered what is arguably the worst netbook keyboard ever made. The 10v is an enormous improvement and finally puts Dell on even footing with HP in the area of keyboard usability on pygmy portables.

The removable battery in the 10v is configured in a much more space-efficient manner than in the Mini 9, leaving room for the keyboard to go back much further on the netbook's inside surface. Between that and the slightly greater width, the 10v fortunately ended up with ample room for a good keyboard.

According to Dell, the Mini 10v keyboard is 92 percent of the normal size whereas the Mini 9 is 89 percent. Although an increase of a few percentage points doesn't seem substantial, the difference is very noticeable in practice. Unlike the Mini 9, which doesn't have dedicated function keys and puts the apostrophe key in the bottom row, the 10v has a relatively standard layout that won't encourage frequent typographical errors. It has a full-sized shift key and standard punctuation keys, meaning that you won't have to hold the Fn key in order to get symbols like square brackets or the pipe.

Touchpad

Although the keyboard in the 10v is a laudable improvement, the touchpad is a pitiful failure. The design is so fundamentally flawed that I can't believe it ever made it off the drawing board and into a product.

The space constraints on netbooks makes it difficult to pair conventional touchpad buttons with a touchpad of sufficient size. A common approach is to make the mouse buttons vertical and place them along the left and right edges of the touchpad. I've never liked that, but I've never really been able to come up with a better solution. Dell tried to come up with something better but failed spectacularly.

The 10v doesn't have regular left and right click buttons. Instead, the bottom left and right corners of the actual touchpad can be pushed in to generate a click. This may seem like a good idea in theory, but it creates a lot of serious problems during regular use. When you touch the bottom left corner to click, the touchpad will also register the touch as mouse movement. It will slightly change the position of the cursor, guaranteeing that you will regularly miss whatever you were trying to click.

This flaw is even more infuriating during a drag-and-drop operation. When you hold down the corner with your thumb and then drag across the touchpad with your finger and let go, the cursor will jump back down diagonally because the touchpad is picking up the thumb. This makes drag-and-drop operations nearly impossible.

I suspect that the Windows drivers have some kind of hack to filter out unintended motion that gets picked up during clicks, but the Linux installation certainly doesn't. After using the netbook for a few hours, I trained myself to not use the pseudo-buttons at all. Like with any regular touchpad on Linux, you can tap anywhere to click and you can tap-and-hold to initiate a drag. These generally work fine and make the computer usable.