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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.'"
Housewives with Linux??!?! Geeks with Windows?!?! Dogs and cats living together?!?!? MASS HYSTERIA!!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I 4 1 amd welcomming our new script bashing apron wearing apple pie bakeing overlady's!
Will code for new sig.
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.
She loves it because it fits in her hand bag, "it runs linux eh? what's linux? It does what I need it to do and it's cuuuttteee"
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
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.
Yep. Because obviously somebody can't like or buy ANYTHING big/fast/cool these days without it being to make up for "inadequacies".
Do you do the reverse? I know I don't look at the guy pulling out of the shoebox apartment (old Pentium 75 visible through the windows) in a rusted out Geo Metro and think "Man, I bet he's hung.".
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Housewives are used to getting the products that have the best cost-benefit ratio.
The Eee is a machine that provides wireless web browsing and email, instant messaging, etc.
And it's cheaper without XP.
It's a no-brainer then.
As for why do geeks prefer XP? I can speak for myself and say that I thoroughly know the beast, it is a pleasure to google for the most wild assed software/driver you can think of and find that due to the widespread presence of the thing, pretty sure SOMEONE has gone through the same ordeal as you, and has posted a workaround.
It works, and given current hardware configurations and provided that you configure it properly, it is FAST.
I know it is light years away from an elegant OS from an academic's point of view, but I rather have XP on an Eee and be open to all the possibilities of interaction with other peripherals (oh, how our choice of words reveal one's age) than spending time tweaking linux.
The geeks are buying the XP version to install their own flavor of Linux as a dual-boot?
Then they are stupid geeks. The Windows version has a smaller disk, so it makes more sense to buy the Linux version.
I bough the 701 4G a few months ago. My father in law liked it so much, and after hearing the price, ordered two for his kids: 4yo and 12yo. (Kids from his second wife: I'm not married to a 4yo or 12yo).
Anyway, I'm surprised to hear the geeks take the XP version. I'm actually quite happy with the default Xandros install. It even has perl, ruby and python for crying out loud!
I guess that instead of the year of the linux desktop we should be celebrating the year of the linux laptop
Funny, Considering the fact that Linux + laptops used to be one of the biggest headaches in the world.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
2008 will be the year of XP on the desktop!
Er, laptop. whatever.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I've never bought a copy of linux.
Or windows, for that matter.
_>
Cheer up, young fellow, and read A Nerd's Guide to Getting Laid.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Does this mean I am going to have to start using UNIX if I want to feel like an elitist-asshole?
In many cases a more technical person has to have a Windows OS, either because they have to test against it, or they code in Visual Studio, or run some XP only app.
The prevailing mindset is that it is better to run the same OS at home as at work, if, for no other reason, the work software can be often be used at home as well. But with all the free and cheap software, and with the often extreme difficulty of keeping a MS Windows machine running, it is no longer a sure bet to run MS Windows at home. Many people are realizing that MS Windows is targeted to the corporate user, and requires corporate resources for the average person to use.
*nix, OTOH, if it is kept simple, and has some vendor support, can be run by the average person.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Geeks play games that run under XP. Housewives (househusbands, most of the rest of the universe) don't play games often, and when they do, they're browser-based or included in the OS.
Nothing to see here.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I can think of several reasons a geek might get XP while preferring Linux. A job that lets you telecommute but doesn't supply a notebook or a Linux-friendly way on to the VPN. Getting locked into XP through years of acquiring familiar apps and tools. Shelling out cash on specialty hardware before checking Linux compatibility. Pouncing on the chance to snap up XP just to hedge their bets before they can only count on finding Vista. And then there's always the people who intend to dual-boot. You'll see them buying XP, then they'll get Linux without alerting the media.
TFA article is pretty clear on why the housewife wants the Linux Eee PC. But it doesn't even tell you what they meant by "geek" - fondness for games? already uses more than two programs that didn't come on a computer? computer literacy? - much less offer any reasoning.
Finally modding someone offtopic when they rant about what "Begging the Question" means: priceless.
iPod's were purchased by everybody and their mother. People with no interest in computers or high end stereo equipment or portable audio all of a sudden bought expensive iPods. Now people with not a ton of interest in computers, and definately not in really expensive ones, see a computer that's inexpensive and has an OS that is actually very friendly to newbies, and they are eating it up.
If you haven't tried an EEE and are surprised by the idea of non-geeks using Linux, you should try one with the default setup. A few people I know that were never particularly adept at figuring stuff out in Windows, people that definately don't qualify as geeks, have been picking up the cheapest EEE to use for web browsing and music playing. Then, all of a sudden, they started doing things like switching to the full desktop mode, adding new applications, doing what they have to to get the EEE to support what they want to do.
I'm no UI designer, that's for sure, but there is definately something about the EEE's flavor of linux that has gotten a lot of non-computer types to delve into really learning about and customizing their OS. That's not the case with everybody obviously, but in general there is a level of accessibility in the EEE's setup that seems to just make people happy.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Linux... housewives? Only cheesy pr0n can result. "I'm here to repair your Linux install ma'am. OOohh, I see the problem right here. I just need to $unzip this and $touch that. Now let's $fsck!" ~Bow chica wow wow~
Do you do the reverse? I know I don't look at the guy pulling out of the shoebox apartment (old Pentium 75 visible through the windows) in a rusted out Geo Metro and think "Man, I bet he's hung.".
Shame. he probably spent the rest of his wages on penis enlargement.
Wimins? On computers? What will they try next....
True story, I once worked with an ex-Dixon's manager who admitted they looked for ignorant and easily cowed staff because they could exploit them, whereas the technically capable could easily get better weekend jobs somewhere else. Of course, you can guess the kind of managers they employ.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Hey, that only makes sense.
MS Windows just can't catch with housewives until it becomes user-friendly like Linux... :P
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
I actually like WinXP SP2 despite having the knowledge to hack Linux onto a Linksys NSLU2 and compiling some of the packages myself on it. As much as folks complain that WinXP crashes, I've haven't seen that nasty blue screen in years. It comes from knowing how to set XP up and making sure your hardware isn't messed up. I haven't met many folks who actually go through the number of steps I do on a new WinXP setup which might explain why it works so well for me. When you use Opensource software such as SeaMonkey or Media Player Classic and FDDShow with WinXP it actually becomes very useful. I remember back in university when XP came out we were impressed. And these are CompSci students working on Sun Enterprise systems. Where Linux still shines the most however is as a stable server and of course it has a front-end interface (compiz) light-years ahead of Vista. XP's strengths are in games, video playback and pirating. To a geek like myself that's why I've stayed with XP. Everything works with near perfect stability and I have a blend of opensource and closed-source / pirated tools to fit my needs. For a regular person who doesn't care however and just wants to surf the web, Linux would probably work fine.
But the fact is, I have two PDAs that are Windows based and for synchronising calendars and emails, for the moment it has to be Outlook and Activesync to do that.
I also spend a lot of time minimising the footprint of XP as much as possible - I truly hate with a passion the default XP UI but I've used "Classic Explorer" for years now & can live with that.
Then I get XPLite, strip out the MS-provided apps that I never use and stick on my favourite free stuff like VLC, Media Player Classic, Firefox, Notepad++, The Gimp and a few others. And once I've thrown PuTTY on, I can SSH to my home server wherever I can get a low bandwidth Internet connection if I need my shell prompt.
To be honest, I've always thought of a geek as someone who just tries to find the best software to do the job he/she needs to and there's plenty of free or Open Source apps on Linux and Windows that are useful tools to have.
Yes, Linux does most of the stuff I need to do with computers and one day it would be nice to be able to just use one OS - but XP fills the gaps quite well and apart from a bit of extra time administrating more OSes on my PCs, I'm pretty happy with my whole computing experience.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
See, that logic fails as soon as you realize that the linux version has the larger drive.
I pwn this comment. "The Fine Print" says so.
It's shocking, I know, and AC may have just been joking, but I'll explain it any way in case someone out there doesn't know.
:)
That's normally the way it's always been, the Windows version gets some kind of perk(s) which ultimately makes it the cheaper version, even though because of the cost of the license it should of course be more expensive. Like on Dell's sit for example, somehow they end up giving these amazing perks to the Windows versions like a bigger hard drive, making the Windows one the better/cheaper deal.
For the EEE, for once, the Linux version is always either cheaper ($50 cheaper in one scenario on New Egg, which means they were charging $50 for the Vista license), or if it's the same price, the Linux version has better hardware. ACTUAL FAIR COMPETITION! Check it out yourself if you don't believe me!
Promote true freedom - support standards and interoperability.