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Linux not essential to Eee PC success: ASUS

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Linux
Hardware

They’re tiny, they’re portable, and they’ve rewritten the rules in the traditionally feature-heavy notebook market. Despite years in which Linux has been ignored by mainstream notebook makers, Linux-based mini-notebook PCs drove a spike in sales during 2007 that suggest the operating system could finally be hitting the mainstream.

Or could it?

Love it or hate it, most of us know how to use Windows to do what we need. That makes the love-to-hate-it operating system a functional baseline for many. And, for all its functional and usability improvements so far, Linux based mini-notebooks are still riddled with everyday usability differences and compatibility issues that could very well sink their chances of long-term success.

Linux made easy?

While the inclusion of Linux has helped vendors customise their systems and set a sub-$500 price that’s resonating with consumers, those more subtle differences become evident when users take even small steps outside the sandbox the vendors have created.

Adding new applications, for example, is far less intuitive in Linux than in Windows for novices, who will be rightly lulled into a sense of familiarity with the prettied-up menus. Built-in functions for adding applications to the Eee, for one, show a frustratingly sparse selection of options culled from the built-in repository of Eee software maintained by Asustek.

A single mistake can cripple a system to the point of being unusable. “It’s very, very easy for a careless install to brick your Linux system,” says one hobbyist.

Rest Here




The problem with this article

Yet another article that fails to understand that an EeePC 701 is not a traditional laptop, but more like a souped up PDA. Put XP on a 701 and add anti-virus and anti-spyware and your hard disk will be nearly full and the computer barely functional. The 701s are ridiculously cheap now, just remember they are great for email and limited web surfing and Skype on the run, but not for running Office or typing long documents. The author talks about how hard it is to add extra software, the idea is that the average user won't change it - just use it. Hobbyists like myself will do all sorts of extra stuff because we can and it is great for this, running XP instead is for people who live in the past and have no imagination.

The newer models (EeePC 1000H, Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind etc) with more resources can run XP, but these are more like traditional laptops and it is yet to be seen how well they can compete in this space.

I have an EeePC 900 running Debian EeePC with a GPS dongle and software, an extra 16gb SDHC with music on it, a connection from the headphone jack to the car audio system, a car charger and a portable USB DVD drive for movie watching when traveling. And it all fits in the glovebox (glove compartment for Americans).

I do not want a bigger keyboard (and thus bigger netbook) and a moving 120gb hard disk, and XP or Vista, that defeats the purpose - I might as well just use my Dell Inspiron.

GregE
Melbourne, Australia

Sensationalism.

Having looked at other sites' comments, the writers are being accused of sensationalism.

shocking

schestowitz wrote:
the writers are being accused of sensationalism.

Wow, magazine writers and bloggers writing in a fashion that makes their subject exciting or favors their POV. I'm shocked I tell you, just shocked.

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