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Linux For Housewives. XP For Geeks.
Talinom writes "ZDNet has an article sure to raise the hackles of any self-respecting geek. They report that housewives buying small laptops like the Asus EE are causing Linux usage for that demographic to spike. A reporter for Tech-On states that 'Retailers and contract manufacturers in Taiwan say that novice PC users there, like students and housewives, tend to buy the Linux version of the Eee PC701, while geeks go for Windows XP.'"
Taiwan culture is not US culture, of course. I imagine that even Geek culture is different between the two cultures.
If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.
Well, I am not sure that housewives can't be geeks. Maybe they confuse geeks that are buying XP with idiots? I wouldn't think that a true 'geek' would give a rat's buttocks about what OS came on the hardware. I put what I want on there when I get home.
The article was short on details (aside from the study being in Taiwan), but my guess would be that the "geeks" are the ones playing video games, and unfortunately most of the big titles are constrained to Windows. On the other hand, a computer you're only using for e-mail and web browsing should opimally be as cheap as possible, and you certainly don't get cheaper on an OS than free.
I didn't know that the day would come, when I would feel more unfamiliar (didn't say uncomfortable - but I guess that's coming, too, with Vista (oh yeah, I don't intend to move to Vista - ever)) in Windows than in Linux. But, alas, that day has come and now I have no clue how to troubleshoot Windows anymore. It's just way too arcane and complicated. In Linux and Solaris I know how to at least start troubleshooting, and then I can search the 'net for specific keywords (error messages, log entries, etc.). Some of this could probably be done with Windows as well, but I just find the "whole experience" of troubleshooting it, more hairy and unsettling.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
And this shows that Linux is now usable for non-geeks when preinstalled. Many of those users wouldn't be able to reinstall their Windows either ;-)
There is still a lot of software that is only available for Windows (in particular games), but the OS itself is just as usable as Windows.
C - the footgun of programming languages
No no, this makes perfect sense.
Housewives don't play video games and download a bajillion "utilities". Geeks do.
Housewives want to browse the web and use e-mail, and have a stable safe system.
Geeks love the chaos and security challenges that is posed by Windows.
Nice troll, but I'll explain the difference to all the previous Linux installations:
Among geeky types, it was already widely believed that Ubuntu (for instance) is just as easy to setup and use as Windows. But those people already have computer knowledge which may help them over some points where a non-geek may feel stumped. So they do not exactly represent the average user.
Computers that come preinstalled with Linux have been rare, and this is the first time lots of them get into the hands of non-experts. So people like GP's girlfriend are the real test of how newbie-friendly linux is. One of them is anecdotal, lots of them make a valid test. Give it a few months and both your and my post will be irrelevant because the results of the test are out.
C - the footgun of programming languages
I have been living this reality for awhile now. My parents and grandparents use Ubuntu (I forced/tricked it onto them), and are getting along just fine. When it comes to basic computer use, Linux has been ready for the Desktop for about a two years. I myself cannot stand using it, since all the weird apps I use only work with Windows. I like Linux, but it is the applications that are important, not the operating system.
Since the Asus EEE mini laptops actually come with a Linux distro pre-installed, I'd have to say your theory is critically flawed. They're buying the LAPTOP not the OS. It's incidental that the laptop has a Linux distro on it.