Hi Arthur,
As far as I can see with my relatively short involvement in this fiasco, Intel produced a product that was actually quite good, in fact too good. The hardware department was clearly not on the same track as the accounting department. The result we see today is a response to that.
When they released the original N270 the processor could do all the typing and other general stuff you need to do and some basic games, this fitted with the market segment. Then for some reason the hardware department decided that customers would really like something that would be faster, but with the same form factor and battery life. They began promoting this product, only to realise that they were selling people 98% of a full laptop for a third of the price, now clearly the accounting department got very agitated at this point and told everyone to go to sleep.
We therefore have some above average hardware with below average drivers. Oh and they definitely wouldn't want anyone to have any chance of creating any decent drivers, otherwise that would circumvent what they are trying to do now. So no, you're never going to get any support for Linux, well not at least until people have forgotten about this product and form factor.
Please go and buy an Ultrabook, they're the latest and greatest, that little bit of extra space and oh so much extra cash makes a huge difference, even if the processor and hardware are almost the same.
This is why we either need to force Intel, Imagination Technology and your OEM to do what is not in there financial interests, and the only way to achieve that is to cause significant reputational damage to them.