I just read this geek.com article. Here are the two sentences that prompt me to ask this question.

Later Splashtop will be featured on all the company’s [Asus's] motherboards, over a million units a month.

and

If you just want to check your email or go to a web site, you can simply leave the system off and boot into Splashtop, which takes just a few seconds. You will have instant access to a basic Linux desktop with applications like Firefox and Skype.