Mal already got down to the nitty gritty of the Dell Mini 12, something of an in-between as far as laptops go: it’s not quite large or powerful enough to be a full-on desktop replacement, but it’s not exactly small enough to be considered a netbook or ultra-mobile PC. The thing is less than half an inch thick, weighs less than a paperback novel, and actually performs better than my current laptop, an HP Pavilion N5170.

The Mini 12 isn’t really considered a gaming machine, yet it holds its own on more than a few applications. This particular Mini came loaded with Ubuntu Linux, evidently quickly replaced with the Windows 7 RC, which as predicted, runs significantly better than my ill-fated and ill-advised attempt at emulating it via Virtual PC (which, admittedly, would probably have gone better if I’d used VirtualBox or VMWare). Malachai mentions to me that the OS will probably also get replaced with Win XP or such. The Mini 12, jack of all OS’es, master of…some? Wonder if you could put Windows 2000, BeOS 5, OS/2 Warp 4, or most of all, Hackintosh the thing and make it run OS X Leopard?

I’m pretty satisfied with this thing and kind of want one of my own. (psst, give me some money, Adecco, so I might buy something!)