The thread may be dead but the topic is more alive than ever.
Not only are more and more people making their pc's dual boot but also there are more and more brand-name laptop makers putting splashtop or other derivatives of Linux in the laptops ROM.
Splashtop is great as a backup for Windows because it boots so quickly but it means my son can always use this to access the Web when he runs out of Norton-Online-Family time 
It would be terrific if Linux was supported, too, to close some of the "backdoors".