I have a Dell Mini 9 and really liked the Ubuntu configuration it shipped with. Wanting to keep my geek cred in good standing and also hoping to rekindle the wonderful experience of my 12" PowerBook G4, I put OS X on it, but it just never felt right. The Broadcom wireless drivers never worked for me and it just seemed too fragile (especially after OS X updates).

So, I put Windows 7 on it last night, along with Word and Excel 2007, Firefox 3, Safari, Python and some drivers that enable me to use my AT&T 3G card. After some tweaks there is still over 5GB left on the 16GB SSD! So far, the experience has been just phenomenal. It is fast, stable and Just Works.

While the tiny form factor is not for everyone (even I use an Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Logitech wireless mouse with it), this experience started me pondering (on the bus ride in to work today). There is definitely room for a new model of computing in the enterprise, and it partially involves platforms like this.

Here's my idea (if you implement it, I take cash, checks and all major credit cards): Within an enterprise (or any large business, really), you install a Dropbox-like file sharing system where there is a mandatory data classification process before final storage. This service is made accessible remotely and internally, and uses the classification rules to determine availability depending on location and means of access.

Everyone but the most demanding users (think developers or number crunchers) is issued a netbook-like system which is configured for selective synchronization with the file sharing service (as space will be limited). Anything not locally sync'd either shows up as a network drive (seamless). Files, where possible, can either be edited locally or via web-enabled version of an office-like toolset. All other "services" are intranet/extranet-enabled, including time-tracking, project tracking, instant messaging, @Twitter-like messaging, e-mail, etc.

These mobile computing devices would also be cryptographic stores. Basically glorified tokens, just in computer format. Only these certified machines could access the sensitive part of the company services and then the user-certs - stored on the machine, secure removable media or wireless "dongle" - would be further used for identity management and more granular authorization.

Folks would not be tied to the office and would be able to use built-in video conferencing capabilities of the hardware, hosted by the company. All these enterprise services would run on an internal/external private "cloud" which would allow for very easy capacity management.

For smaller shops, this could all be hosted "in the (public) cloud" (with apologies to @Beaker), but with full storage encryption for each instance (based on keys unique to each entity) and the same cryptographic controls employed per-system and per-user. With the proper trust systems in place, customers and partners could utilize web services built on either type of solution without requiring yet-another-login-and-password per-company or per-application.

Again, the actual endpoints - the netbooks or netbook-like systems - would be cheap, lightweight and very portable. For example, my Mini 9 has room for a 3G card on-board (and has that as an option in Europe). Imagine the flexibility of this platform, especially for folks with 10", 12" and 15" models. Shift from home, to road, to coffee shop, to work, to customer, etc with ease, always being able to reach your data (and each other).

I may try to expand this concept out over the coming weeks, but there is real power in this model for the majority of users. I definitely welcome discussion on this topic.