Transmission On

"..A year ago, Microsoft announced a deal with Asus to provide netbooks running XP at the CeBIT trade show. Since then, Windows XP has become the dominant operating system in the broader netbook market..."

from http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39622902,00.htm

So Linux is not crap, it's the fact that MS has the power to pay manufactures to use their OS. That's a HUGE difference between a technical point of view or the marketing way of seeing an operating system as better or worse.

Windows XP is used on netbooks to run better since Vista is too slow and resource hungry. Windows 7 should pick up where XP left and leave Vista behind.

Now come on people!! Are you really so insane (I apologize for this but I'll explain why) to believe it's true? Are you really sure this is going to happen?

Windows XP is basically gone, so an OEM license is worth 20 USD for a manufacturer, no problem at all. Windows 7 for Netbooks is the same as all other Windows 7 variants - no lean, light, vlighted, 7lited or whatever. Just a Starter version like in Windows Vista which gives you the "power" to run maximum 3 applications at the same time. Where again is the advantage? Oh yes, now Windows 7 Starter crippled edition costs a bit more than 20 USD for OEM, I would say around 99 USD after discounts, tax not included or did you think MS stops earning money?

So, if today you can purchase a netbook for 350 USD with GNU/Linux or install your preferred distro, you'll have sort of an incredibly powerful netbook with everything you need and you basically paid for...hardware!

Now, being the insane part of the population, not flexible, dependent and incapable of using the grey cells you'd rather pay 450 to 500 USD for the SAME netbook just with Windows 7. Great, congratulations that you cannot open iTunes and Skype since Internet ExPloder is running as well as Microsoft Word 2007 (forgot to add another 300 USD for the Office suite) and VLC - Yep, forgot? 3 applications maximum. Alright, as a workaround you will run Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate - please add another 100+ USD to that price. Or did you download the illegal version from PirateBay :-)

Now don't tell me you're not insane to pay more to get less...

It takes a bit to make people aware that MS is not better technically, but they are better in abusing peoples incapability to use their brains.

This video is amazing:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/video/play/22470997

Someone could say: The guys should tell the people that this is GNU/LINUX and not MS, though I could see a point here:

Make people buy their MS Windows 7 copy and overpriced machines and then find out that they CANNOT do all that stuff! Great, some people need to burn their fingers first to know that it hurts. I'm seriously getting annoyed by people complaining all the time about their Windows machine when you explain them there's an alternative and they don't care.

To sum up, take it and enjoy it or take it, pay for it and be frustrated to see your colleague having the fun!

Right, I just received my new smaller-than-a-notebook-device (exactly, I'm avoiding the word netbook not to create any misunderstandings...psion...) today. Unfortunately for me, Windows XP is installed and i had to configure the first settings until it was running. Now, most of you will know how the Asus Eee Pc 901 will look like, but I have to admit that it just looks better when it belongs to you than seeing it in a shop.

Alright, Windows XP runs fairly good I have to admit, though it's just not what I want on my computers. One important thing for me was to connect it to the Samsung LCD 40inch full HD TV. The Asus just took over - in Windows XP - the resolution of 1920x1080 of the TV. It just does look absolutely amazing!

Now, downloaded Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 5 - Jaunty Jackalope for those who don't like numbers - and I created a bootable USB stick and booted the Asus from the stick. I cannot remember having seen ANY computer that booted so fast from a USB stick. I booted into live session and the overall speed/performance was faster than what I'm using at work on my desktop where 9.04 is installed..go figure.

The well known problem of font size and resolution is really there. It looks awful and I had to re-size the fonts to 8 and the resolution from 134 (!) to 96 dpi. I also quickly changed the theme to look..not brown, connected the Samsung TV and switched to it. Resolution of 1920x1080 was shown without issues. The resolution of the 9inch lcd of the Asus was recognized without problems, WiFi was working out of the box as well as sound. This is my absolutely first experience with a device where I have absolutely no issues when starting or installing GNU/Linux. Ok, apart from font size which is not really a problem, but I'm amazed, compiz fusion is enabled by default. The redrawing of the windows, scaling etc. runs better than on my NVidia tablet. Do not forget I was running the Asus in live mode.

So here I am, waiting that Ubuntu 9.04 is installed on the Asus and then the configuration starts. Xfce and Gnome, maybe also KDE to see how it looks like.

Now there are numerous posts in forums and also a website where the Kernel-array (http://www.array.org/ubuntu/index.html) is a must if you want to run ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10 or similar GNU/Linux distros built on Ubuntu. I think the website owner Adam will have quite a lot of spare time once 9.04 will be released - I don't see the need for the Kernel-array since in 9.04 everything works until now.

For a small device i always wanted, with long battery life (4,5 to 5 hours) and with an Ubuntu experience I never had before, I think these 305 USD are the best investment I ever made in a computing device. I would not dare calling it a netbook, because i think it can do way more than just browsing the net.