Another Android netbook port, this time to HP

Hot on the heels of Venture Beat's port of Android to an Asus EEEPC, Engadget reports that "some HP loving Canadians" at Netbooknews.de have done the same thing, this time on an HP Mini-Note 2133. And with all this porting going on, could an actual Google-sanctioned Android for netbooks be far behind?

A video of the port, posted to YouTube, shows some simple maneuverings, like checking settings, calling up Google Earth and just navigating around the OS. And although the OS ran off a USB stick, it all seemed to work just fine. While the demo was less than compelling (as Engadget says, it just shows "someone go through a preference pane and empty photo album--all without the use of a mouse") the fact that these ports keep happening makes the idea of an actual Google-sponsored netbook OS seem a bit more realistic.

Running a netbook on Android, vs. something more heavyduty like XP or Vista, makes sense because it's already been optimized for a small Internet device--the mobile phone. It's been designed to run well under a netbook's limitations, like small screen size, low battery power and small hardware footprint. And now that HP announced that it's latest netbook can run for eight hours on a single battery charge, imagine the battery-life possibilities if it decided to ship the new 2140 with Android as the OS. Pretty interesting.

What do you think? Is an Android-flavored netbook on the slate for 2009? Add your voice to the discussion via the comments section.

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