ASUS Motherboard Ships With Embedded Linux, Web Browser

The web browser loaded up on this Linux environment is called the "SplashTop Browser", but it's really nothing more than a stripped down version of Mozilla Firefox. On the P5E3 Deluxe, the default homepage for the web browser is the ASUS website and it comes preloaded with a few bookmarks. This instant-on Linux desktop isn't running exclusively in the system RAM, but you can save bookmarks and other settings and as long as you don't clear the settings, they will remain loaded for the next time you enter SplashTop/Express Gate.

This SplashTop Browser also includes Adobe's Linux Flash plug-in, so web-sites depending upon Flash will work out of the box. ASUS intends to issue free updates to Express Gate for the P5E3 Deluxe from their website in order to update the browser and enable any additional functionality or new programs. To update Express Gate though you will need to be running Windows on the hard drive in order to run the ASUS utility. The SplashTop Browser we were running was their Community Preview v0.9.0.1 edition.