Slim Linux laptop has potential

Palm’s Linux-powered Foleo has potential, but only if Palm can stop denying that the device is actually laptop, reckons Sascha Segan ofGearlog. Palm has positioned the Foleo as a “mobile companion” for itinerant workers needing only email, document prep, and PowerPoint capabilities.

The Foleo has been pitched as a “revolutionary product category” ever since Palm began hiring Linux developers more than a year ago. When Palm unveiled the device last month, it breathlessly billed the Foleo as the first of a “new class” of products likely to go down in history as Palm’s best-selling ever — more popular than the Treo smartphone, and more popular than the original “Palm Pilot.”

When allowed a few minutes with the Foleo at a regional trade show, Segan discovered that the Foleo is really a laptop afterall, albeit one with an appliance-like Linux-based OS. In a brief “hands on” mini-review, he writes:

Read more at LinuxDevices.com