Splashtop instant-on Linux hacked

ASUS has been one of the main advocates of the technology, and has recently employed the use of its Splashtop Linux-based OS on the majority of its motherboards and notebook products. ASUS brands the software 'Express Gate'. Splashtop comes bunded with Firefox, Skype, IM, and media-playback applications, and is embedded within the computer's BIOS - though the majority of the underlying applications are installed to local storage.

The hackers have been able to run Splashtop from a USB stick on non-ASUS motherboards, boot Splashtop within a virtual machine, run custom applications, and launch a Linux terminal within the OS. Devicevm, the company behind Splashtop, had previously mentioned opening up the application environment and possibly releasing an SDK, to allow user-installable applications.