Google still isn't saying publicly that they're going to deploy Android as a desktop Linux, but HP, ASUS, and other major computer makers are apparently in talks with the company about deploying Android on netbooks.

On March 3rd, though, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, What's particularly interesting about netbooks is the price point. Eventually, it will make sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption. That's another new model that's coming."

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS.

Google is planning to use Android for any device — not just the mobile phones. Don't be surprised if netbooks will come pre-installed with Google's Linux OS.

A team of Dell engineers has released a very unofficial version of Google's Chrome OS for use on the PC manufacturer's Mini 10v netbooks. Dell isn't on the official list of Chrome OS hardware partners. And the company's founder and CEO believes his netbooks go sour after 36 hours.

With the growing popularity of netbooks, it is no surprise that many Linux distributions and software developers have created customized versions of their software to run on them. Not to be counted out, KDE now has a version of their desktop environment designed for netbooks.

A Dell executive has revealed that the company is in talks with Google and is exploring the possibility of shipping netbooks with Chrome OS, the search giant's cloud-centric Linux-based mobile operating system. The news reflects Dell's interest in experimenting with new platforms.

For a brief time in 2008, the Linux desktop actually owned a segment of the desktop industry: netbooks. That was then. ARM-based netbooks, however, are on their way and, since these systems can't run Windows, Linux has the potential market all to itself.

Wading through the numerous netbooks available today can be challenging, so you might want to at least start with this list of the first three netbooks to consider. There are selected because they have all been fairly well received and, more importantly, all have some feature that distinguishes them from the crowd.