The Everex UMPC, Delayed By 'Software Tweaks' and 'New Year's Eve'

Everex has announced that their promised ultra-mobile Cloudbook PC won't be ready until the next month or so, due to some last minute changes that need to be performed to the Linux operating system. The minor tweaks will keep the highly anticipated notebook away from the US consumers' hands for at least a month, although the notebooks should have arrived since yesterday, according to the initial roadmap.

According to Everex's director of marketing, Paul Kim, "a couple of last-minute software tweaks" will keep the ultra-mobile notebook off the retailers' shelves. The $399 Cloudbook is one of the most aggressive competitors for Asustek's popular Eee PC. The Cloudbook has been showcased during this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Everex's Ultra-mobile solution is powered by gOS, a Linux distribution based on the popular and user-friendly Ubuntu flavor. The operating system has been "adjusted" and optimized to be properly displayed on the miniature, 7-inch LCD display.

Another factor that contributed to the delay is the upcoming Chinese New Year, that will begin on the 7th of February. The majority of factories are closing down for a few days and the Taiwanese workers often take off a few days or even weeks before and after new year, which slows down the manufacturing process.

However, there are rumors claiming that the delay is not the result of some minor tweaks, but because of some alleged driver issues and hardware problems.

The Everex UMPC will come with a conventional 30 GB hard-disk drive that would also allow the installation of Windows XP or even Vista, but Microsoft's operating systems won't be as efficient as the tweaked Linux distro, given the UMPC's reduced screen resolution. Although the hardware configuration supports both XP and Vista, Everex has no plans to ship its notebooks with pre-installed versions of the Microsoft OSes.