Here"s a netbook with a twist: Emtec"s 10-inch Gdium Liberty has no hard drive. Instead, it will ship with a bootable USB storage stick (dubbed the G-Key) that runs Mandriva G-Linux and has over 50 open-source applications pre-installed: including OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and Spam Assassin.
The novel concept would allow it to be shared amongst users (say, a family) who"s individual G-Key"s store their own files and preferences. G-Key capacities will initially be 8, 16 and 32GB when the Liberty goes on sale around April, starting at about $400. While a 64GB G-Key is also on the cards, the Liberty"s built-in SDHC card reader and three USB 2.0 ports also help with storage expansion.