HP announced that its new Mini 1000 Mi Edition netbook will feature a preloaded Ubuntu operating system, with a custom Ubuntu Linux user interface. The price for the device starts at $380, making it a very appealing offer. It is considered one of the lightest and smallest netbooks ever released, and its performance is also rather decent.

The device is equipped with a 1.6 GHz Atom N270 processor, 1 GB memory, 16 GB SSD, 2 USB 2.0, a multi-format card reader, a recessed USB slot, HD Audio and a 3 cell battery.

The new interface is based on Ubuntu’s 8.04 Hardy Heron version and is expected to run without any issues with all compatible applications such as Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Firefox and Pidgin. It appears as a dashboard which displays web search options, favorite Web site list, shortcuts to photos and music gallery and Mailbox.

Ubuntu is known for offering a wide range of customization options, which include a library of Linux applications.

HP is currently releasing the software only for its netbooks and did not make any comments about its availability for notebooks too. The company plans to post a utility for creating a system restore on a USB flash disk using Windows.

The decision to run a customized Linux operating system managed to attract the media’s attention, as the campaign, which targets the general consumer user base, promotes the Linux powered products as easy to use Internet appliances – so far, Linux managed to record great success as a more underground player.