Slashdot Mirror
Asus Slaps Linux In the Face
vigmeister writes "From Techgeist, 'Linux just got a major slap in the face today from Asus. One of the highlights of Linux going mainstream was the wildly popular Asus Eee PC preinstalled with a customized Linux distro geared towards web applications. While I personally never got what the big deal was, I was still happy for all the Linux people out there waiting for this day, but it looks like the cause for celebration won't be lasting much longer.
Asus and Microsoft have teamed up and have made a site called 'It's Better With Windows.' The page touts how easy it is to get up and ready with Windows on an Asus Eee PC, while slyly stating that you won't have to deal with an 'unfamiliar environment' and 'major compatibility issues.' While it is silly to state such a thing since Asus built the Linux distribution specifically for the Eee PC, I give Microsoft two points for snarky comments.'"
fuck you! i wont be buying your products anymore. i can squeeze a few more years out of that old thinkpad.
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I first post while you suck the cum out of my cock, fondle my balls, and eat my asshole.
Meh. I'll just install linux over the windows install as usual.
https://www.speakservers.com/
"Tell me lies
Tell me sweet little lies
(tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies)"
I thought it was already pretty easy to "get up and ready" with my EeePC. Well, Asus will have to live with their decision.
My next motherboard will be a Gigabyte.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It is difficult to believe that Asus did this out of love for Redmond. I wonder how much MS paid for this special treatment, or did they threaten Asus with higher prices?
It is better with Windows.
Squirrel!
This might actually make sense economically for ASUS:
_Maybe_ less support calls.
_Very deep_ discounts/kickbacks from Microsoft.
Personally I am very glad that I got the Linux version of my Eee PC 901: More flash disk and more ram, for a little less money.
Currently I run the latest Ubuntu Netbook remix, and I'm very happy with it. The last time I booted it into XP must have been during Easter, to debug a Windows problem.
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
Linux is a concept. It's a theory. It's a dream. That's what makes it so powerful.
And it's also what makes it so frustrating for anyone who wants to see it succeed. What is success for an Open Source project? A child learning to walk takes the first step and the parents celebrate the moment, but what is that first step if nothing more than the first of countless more steps?
So what is Linux success? Is it dominating Windows? Domination of Windows is a worthy goal, but there is no one behind Linux to make that a reality. There is Ubuntu, sure. And RedHat. And MontaVista. And IBM. But are they behind Linux? No, they are out for themselves. Linux is the vehicle which they believe will take them where they want to go.
When Asus says they want to use Windows, let them. No skin off our backs.
Michael Sharp 12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd. Box 238 Kent, Washington 98030 United States Administrative Contact: Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com 12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd. Box 238 Kent, Washington 98030 United States (877) 788-8066 Fax --
Well then,
that's me never buying an Asus product again, unless it's so exceptional I really have to have it (that's :P).
fanatism combined with a bit of practicality
Just so that I can cost the bastards some money by demanding a Windows Refund on it.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
How do we know Asus and Microsoft, were both involved, other than the article's assertion?
Additive identity, multiplicative cancellation, distributive multiplication over addition: pick any two (unless 1 = 0)
Don't get me wrong, I like my EEE but Asus completely screwed up. The interface was poor, the updates were rubbish and in fact some of the updates would break it. It's quite possibly the worst Linux distro I've seen. I might as well buy a normal smallish laptop with an SSD as I still have to uninstall the OS and put my own on with an EEE.
In a way their Linux distro is more of a slap in the face for Linux than not using Linux.
I've had much better luck since putting my own instance of Ubuntu onto the machine which I prefer much more than I would Windows or that custom Xandros OS.
Love,
That percentage of the world that doesn't want to have to compile an OS and install a virtual box just to fucking play Half-Life.
This isn't the end of the world. Can't we all realise that there's a market for both Windows and Linux?
Those who want Windows on their netbook can buy it, those who don't can buy Linux. See?
Ultimately this is business, and it ain't pretty.
ilovegeorgebush
Despite my desire to see Linux being the most popular OS, I fail to see why it should be so worrying to see that MS keeps using what seem to be underhanded deals to keep Linux away from the market. After all, it is not like Linux hasn't been making great progress in spite of a small userbase. Things have come a long way since I started using it around the beginning of the century; I don't have to fiddle with my machine everytime I want to try a new distro; all major distros look quite polished and mature, etc.
Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise to not have "familiarity" as the most important feature of the OS for Linux. Developers can decide to go with the completely radical way of doing thing (Sure it does not happen that often, but with a larger userbase even the possibility would become a challenge).
Flame war in...
......
3
2
[beep]
ill probably see a trollmod for this, but what the hey. this article isnt really news at all, as corporations have been keen to align themselves with the market leader for centuries. this is no different.
its still a computer
it still has an option to install an operating system
you can still order an ASUS with linux preinstalled
windows can be returned for a refund
there are market alternatives.
and just because a corporation appears to align itself with your ideals and interests doesnt mean it likes you or said ideals...its just business.
Good people go to bed earlier.
the two versions were never alike.
Linux was always heavily locked down ( I was told by the sales assistant) to prevent poeple from messing it up.
Nice little detective work. And I must say that there is no indication on itsbetterwithwindows.com that this is sponsored by ASUS. So give me proof instead of inflammatory headlines! (but of course this is slashdot, blah, blah, blah)
So what is an Eee PC?
Not exactly a well researched or even factual story this, even for /.
A quick check of the domain registry shows that the site isn't owned by either Microsoft or Asus. In fact it appears to be some kind of ad agency, probably hired to increase sales of Asus equipment for a third party.
Don't let me stop the conspiracy theories though. I suppose the site is badly designed, looks awful and doesn't actually do anything useful deliberately? Perhaps to instil doubt as to whether such a large and evil corporation would actually publish a web page as crap as this? Microsoft do a lot of stupid crap but I don't think you can blame this on them. I'm sure plenty will continue to do so though.
You can advertise in this sig from as little as £99.99 a month!
... stop being such a sanctimonious fuck. We didn't write the article, and most of us really don't give a shit.
Love,
That percentage of the world that doesn't care about playing fucking Half-Life.
And so we put it in the same state as Washington. Now, I'm guessing this is a PR company and we have a perfect match of Arbitron Ad agency listing Michael Sharp as Manager, Agency & Advertiser Services for several different regions of the US. Ok, from there if you google Arbitron Asus and Arbitron Microsoft you come up with two very juicy powerpoints from Microsoft on Arbitron's site.
I just noticed those two powerpoints only come up because they're Microsoft Powerpoints so that's not a very strong link.
But that linking is probably unnecessary considering I just found this bio on Microsoft of a Michael Sharp as Director with the Information Security Team. Yes, it's a pretty common name but I'm pretty sure this ad work reeks of Microsoft and not Asus.
My work here is dung.
Because nothing is sweeter then fanboy tears.
-Calbrenar
I was introduced to the eeePc when a friend bought one. It came with their version of Linux installed and he called me for help. I have been almost exclusively Linux since the early on and I was literally unable to help him. We were on the phone and with the graphical shell they put on the Asus, he couldn't find anything. He got frustrated and installed Windows. He ran for a short time before he screwed up Windows. At that point, he brought his Asus over and I installed eeebuntu. It has been a love affair ever since. I even offered to make his machine dual boot and was turned down. Now I have my own Asus running eeebuntu.
Check it out, a company has a marketing campaign, and you heard it first here on Slashdot! Oh, wait, no you heard it first on Techgeist, but they got it from a forum somewhere so... where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, did I mention Microsoft was evil? It said so in a blog I read once, when I wasn't reading actual important news stories that have content and meaning.
This should be posted in the "Need More Spin" category. I don't see how Microsoft funding a marketing campaign targeted at a threatening competitor (Linux) is really news. In fact, it's not so different from techgeist.com creating an inflamatory article with some spin on it to generate clicks. I guess everyone has to make money.
Don't think of it as a flame, more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage.
Not exactly a well researched or even factual story this, even for /.
A quick check of the domain registry shows that the site isn't owned by either Microsoft or Asus. In fact it appears to be some kind of ad agency, probably hired to increase sales of Asus equipment for a third party.
Don't let me stop the conspiracy theories though. I suppose the site is badly designed, looks awful and doesn't actually do anything useful deliberately? Perhaps to instil doubt as to whether such a large and evil corpora
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges, Degrees, and Programs
Also excellent reasons not to use Vista and Windows 7.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Just make sure this isn't a ploy by Micro$oft to push the Linux fans away from a company that supports them.
"Our goal each year should be to increase the number of goals we set for ourselves!"
As compatibility with other stuff. On a windows netbook you can run the same software on your desktop (resources permitting of course but office should be fine as should quite a bit of internal and specialist software and some older games). Without too much messing arround you can use any cheapshit printer you pick up in a big chain, any mobile broadband dongle and so on.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
These tech writers just don't seem to get it. They are treating FOSS as if it is a corporation that has some master plan. Granted there are parts of FOSS groups that have plans. Canonical or RH have goals that they want to do but 'Linux' or the FOSS idea works on different overall principals than deals with hardware vendors.
Of course writing about all that nuance would require actual thought and work so...
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
I'm sure Linux is a fine OS, but why force the world to adopt it?
Be happy with your free OS and move on. Don't bother trying to convert me. You guys are worse than a cult.
I don't know. The whois says that domain is registered to GoDaddy... Last I checked MS and Asus owned their own domains. It doesn't seem legitimate to me...
While I'm a fan of Linux I have installed the Windows 7 RC on both my primary desktop and my EEE recently and it is working wonderfully. Finally MS will release a decent OS.
Got rid of Linux...
Now why not get rid of the Eee altogether.
I sat through nearly all that rubbish and there is nothing that they were doing that I can't do on my phone (And I've got a 2 year old SE k610i).
Oh wait! I couldn't run Microsoft Works....
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
"Tell me lies Tell me sweet little lies (tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies)"
Someone should make a site like that. It wouldn't be hard at all to make a site better than itsbetterwithwindows.
Fcuker
Ah, money. Is there anything it can't buy?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
If Asus and Torvalds had put up a site to help people put Linux on Windows machines, would it be as Evil?
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Yes as in Astroturfing?
"The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity"
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
and I guess this applies to the large majority of netbook manufactures as well. I don't own a netbook, but there are stories all around the Internet about Linux netbooks being shipped with broken distributions that don't even support the netbook's integrated hardware properly. I'm perfectly aware of the fact that Linux doesn't support all hardware in the market, but manufactures have control over the hardware they put in a computer, so this should never happen (as long as they care about it, that is).
Sadly, this netbook Linux story seems to have been just an attempt from computer manufacturers to force Microsoft into compliance. And, as today's story shows, they are being quite successful in their pursue. We can now expect most manufactures to ditch Linux in favor of Windows 7, since MS seems to be bending under their pressure by giving them special Windows 7 pricing.
It's hosted by godaddy.
I've worked on an asus netbook running windows once. The proprietary interface was nightmarish, and it took me about 20 minutes to even find a terminal window. Trying to get a printer installed was a joke - especially considering that these machines were marketed to the "browse the web and check email only" crowd, I can't blame them for moving to windows. It sucks, but I have to be fair. If you're going to put on a linux distro and expect the doubleclickers of the world to like it, make sure its easy, and it 'just works.' No finding drivers, no anything special. Just work.
That was a dodgy MS/Unisys website stunt (directed at Solaris, whose customers needed no reminders about their strategic options). While touting the virtues of Windows, the site was actually running on a Unix/Apache box.
At least this time they actually used a Windows/IIS server.
The whole thing traces back to Washington, which means the stench of MS marketing is in the air.
You would think they would learn from the parody websites that sprang up from the "wehavethewayout" debacle, but those marketing guys are slow learners.
Somebody really needs to tell MS marketing that the PC guy in the Apple commercials is NOT some kind of Steve Ballmer brainchild that should be emulated. You would think that a company that has a marketing budget like MS would learn to stop shooting itself in the foot.
Money makes the world go around The world go around The world go around Money makes the world go around It makes the world go 'round. simply disgusting!
I have a Linux magazine at home, with an ASUS ad for their laptops on the back of it, saying "ASUS recommends Windows Vista".
But they are going to lose my patronage with this slap in the face of the people that helped make the new netbook segment a success.
80 CC D8 AF AE D3 AB 54 B7 2E CE 67 C7
The data contained in GoDaddy.com, Inc.'s WHOIS database,
while believed by the company to be reliable, is provided "as is"
with no guarantee or warranties regarding its accuracy. This
information is provided for the sole purpose of assisting you
in obtaining information about domain name registration records.
Any use of this data for any other purpose is expressly forbidden without the prior written
permission of GoDaddy.com, Inc. By submitting an inquiry,
you agree to these terms of usage and limitations of warranty. In particular,
you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible,
dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any
purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and
solicitations of any kind, including spam. You further agree
not to use this data to enable high volume, automated or robotic electronic
processes designed to collect or compile this data for any purpose,
including mining this data for your own personal or commercial purposes.
Please note: the registrant of the domain name is specified
in the "registrant" field. In most cases, GoDaddy.com, Inc.
is not the registrant of domain names listed in this database.
Registrant:
Michael Sharp
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ITSBETTERWITHWINDOWS.COM
Created on: 05-Dec-08
Expires on: 05-Dec-09
Last Updated on: 05-Dec-08
Administrative Contact:
Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
(877) 788-8066
Technical Contact:
Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
(877) 788-8066
Domain servers in listed order:
NS61.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS62.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Ignoring for a moment the fact that there is probably no direct link from this site to either Asus or MS, as pointed out by many above, and that the site is presumably by some low-on-work designer trying to get attention...
If any company were to publish a site like this the community or another manufacturer could easily hit back with a similar "Linux works better on XYZ than it does ABC - look, even the people who make ABC say their hardware doesn't support anything but Windows properly!". OK so many won't care directly because they want Windows irrespective, but such a site could make a link between hardware not working well under all OSs to quality issues (it works fine on our hardware, I wonder what is wrong with theirs?) or lack of future proofing (will they make a version of proprietary custom driver X for future versions of Windows?)
The above is just one reason that a company like Asus would not support a site like this one - it could too easily back fire and lose sales. It would also open them to litigation in some territories with people who bought one without Windows before such a "Linux won't work as well" campaign being able to claim that their version with Linux was mis-sold to them as the manufacturer now admits the arrangement is not adequate.
With other options out there shipping with ubuntu, who needs Asus?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Seriously, they are taking Microsoft marketing money (just like Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM, etc.) and stating simple facts.
Their custom version of Linux (or ANY version of Linux) IS unfamiliar to windows users. There ARE major compatibility issues between Linux and Windows - Applications from one can't run on the other, and documents from one CAN be incompatible with the other. Do workarounds exist for most issues, CERTAINLY, but those are just that WORKAROUNDS, that, you know, work around incompatibilities.
Additional claims on the site are:
"Trusted - Windows delivers a dependable experience that Microsoft and a worldwide community of partners stand behind" - this is true, there are countless MS partners and MS does provide a "dependable experience" (even MS detractors can't argue with that!)
"Familiar - Windows is easy to use and familiar so you can be up and running right away" - with 94% market share (Mac at 5% and Linux at 1%) it is reasonable to assume that most people are familiar with the Windows environment.
"Compatible - You can be confident that your devices and applications will work with Windows - more than any other platform" - the MS Windows ecosystem has more applications than either the Linux or Mac environments, and there are Windows-only devices in the market (printers, modems, on-board RAID controllers, etc.) that it is trivial to prve that there are more devices that work with Windows than other OSs.
Now, having said all that, this is not an MS or ASUS website - this is a troll to see how much traffic this site can generate.
View the source of the HTML - no copyright asserted, no authorship claimed, only some "google-analytics.com" javascript voodoo at the bottom of the page. There is no way either organization would develop a webpage annonymously.
Michael Sharp went to Godaddy and registered the domain 5-Dec-2008 - I know, he lives in Washington state, but he's having a bit of fun...
(The website is too thin, and there are small issues that scream fake to me - kerning, lack of contact info, no mention that Windows ia a registered trademark, links to additional info, etc.)
Ken
The campaing is a fake. Somebody took Asus EEE commercial videos and slapped a crappy looking badly aligned 'It's better with Windows' Slogan over it. Fonts aren't MS branding and the layout of the website is notably amatureish. You all have been trolled, so chill. It's a compareatively elaborate troll though, I give him that.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Administrative Contact: Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com 12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd. Box 238 Kent, Washington 98030 United States (877) 788-8066
Because, that was difficult...
do Linux any favors with the half-assed customized version of Xandros they chose, anyways. At least, not on the 900A. It was crippled, and after the first update, you didn't have any disk space left with a 4GB SSD!
ASUS would have made a more palatable choice had they chosen an OS configuration that was actually usable, as well as being more customizable than the almost broken OS they installed on there.
I don't moderate anymore. Karma penalty for 90% fair mods? Can I mod that unfair?
It would be a funny experiment to see, on one hand you'd have the group who only uses Linux and they'd be fine and everyone else would finally have to learn how to use a computer with a proper OS installed, because to quote the greatest developer of the 20th century
I don't think they're equally flawed. I think Leopard is a much better system. On the other hand, (I've found) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary. I think OS X is nicer than Windows in many ways, but neither can hold a candle to my own (Linux). It's a race to second place.
Personally I agree 100%, it's a race to second and Linux will always have first.
Was the Kool Aid tasty when you swallowed it?
Certainly they're taking Microsoft marketing money; there is little question of that. However, you've succumbed to the message, which in and of itself, is deceptive.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Linus Torvalds isn't.
What is your next stupid question?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Or somebody in Asus UK is having a big laugh.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
There is no way that this website is endorsed by Asus/Microsoft.
I think you've been had, Slashdot.
Amnesty International
nuke this propaganda website
I'm sorry, I thought this was a kdawson post.
The smart Linux people will carefully assess the entire picture. And I mean the whole thing.
When in the real world, people return the product, you don't squeal about MS, Windows, or anything else. What you do is really assess and work the problem. If they are being returned - why, and beyond why, what could be rectified, and what needs work.
Unix advocacy is utterly pointless and meaningless in the consumer space. Its not going to cut ice with users, and people.
After it shipped, people had to spend time making things work, new distributions have had to be built to cover short comings, and problems, and at the final point, companies that bought into what they were told 'Linux' is ready - have found the real world picture to be a rock and a hard place.
Linux companies I presume made the OEM deals with these companies, if people want to vent, vent at the product shipped.
It_is_not the users job to fix your broken, none working OS.
So, after having high returns, vendors turned away from you.
Learn a lesson. In the meantime, the reality of this is a harsh one. Within the limited confines of 'netbooks', a controlled, limited hardware base, and small requirements in terms of apps and OS, Linux came up short. Its an area where Linux should have hit for home runs everywhere. Absorb the lesson, learn from it, take some humble pie, quite blaming MS, The users, The vendors. This is an area where you should be kicking the absolute crap out of Microsoft, AND you should have been bending over backwards with vendors to ship higher spec machines, given MS's attempt to limit and lock it down.
Wether lessons are learned or not will reflect wether any vendors come back. Bringing them back will take double the work now.
We`re all equal
They did it out of love for sales.
Look around you.
WalMart has tried to make a go of every flavor of OEM Linux. Every form factor.
No-name and the Dell brand name.
The dearly departed include Lindows, gOS, Sun Java, Xandros...
and so on endlessly.
Oh, the Merry-Go-Round broke down
It made the darndest sound,
The lights went low,
We both said "Oh!"
And the Merry-Go-Round went
"Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah, Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah!"
WalMart has tried every known sleazeball sales gimmick: the mini board in the maxi case: sold like a flea market BoomBox stereo.
The only customer is the ever-hopeful geek - the sheep who can be sheared as often as you like.
WalMart with its fantastic, enormous, unprecedented, purchasing power has never been able to consistently undersell OEM Windows by so much as $50.
Even when the Linux product is overstock purchased in carload lots. Sweepings off the warehouse floor.
It all comes down to this:
The Windows netbook has better specs than XP desktop of 2001 with integrated graphics. The dual core Atom with ION graphics is not far off.
The back list of MSDOS, Win 9x and Win XP titles that will run on this platform is immense.
You have a viable platform for mobile PC gaming. The legacy PC game. It works with your USB or wireless printer. Your camera.
It is the perfect compliment to your Windows laptop, your desktop replacement, your XBOX 360, your Zune.
That's your sales pitch - clear, concise, easy to understand, and it does its job damn well.
It's a really awkward ad and there is a guy at 1:43 mark doing the nazi salute.
Indeed. Everybody has gotten so used to Windows "standing still" that many developers have got lazy and users are well into the comfort zone. Promoting familiarity and backwards compatibility has actually harmed Microsoft in the long run, since they now have trouble with uptake of their newer products.
I swear we should be allowed to give mod points to sigs... "-1, Offtopic"
I personally run Linux on ASUS laptops since 2004. More or less happily. ...) left me with a usable system.
But the point here is quite simple: Linux does it better, but it takes time and sweat to.
In 5 years no single distribution I tried (Gentoo, KUbuntu, Ubuntu, Fedora
From time to time, the NetworkManager, the Bluetooth, the graphics card, the audio chip, the optical authoring, the webcam and so on awarded me with headaches and troubles.
Linux can be made more secure by far, it can sqeeze every single CPU cycle and can provide the best experience ever.
But not all at once and not with a single installation and not completely.
This is the dark part of the Linux. Resource fragmentation.
Too many projects trying to do more or less the same things, and none succeeding at 100%, and not even 75%.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
If you pay me shitloads of $$, I'd say that all day long too. I'm quite sure whatever Microsoft is paying Asus is > $$ spent on developing/porting linux for the EE
while slyly stating that you won't have to deal with ... and "major compatibility issues.'
Great! Now we have it from Asus itself that it ships hardware that has major compatibility issues... with software pre-installed by Asus itself. Given that the company is obviously so inept, who tells us that there aren't any similar compatibility issues between the hardware and its BIOS. Well probably there are, and we should warn friends, family and employers to shy away from such a lousy brand.
Ok, so in reality Asus was probably paid by Microsoft to say this. Like the so numerous companies that were paid to display an "XXX recommends Microsoft Windows" on their website. But if they sell out their judgment so easily, why should they be trusted on anything else that they say? That too would be a reason to run.
And strategically this whole thing is really really stoopid on Asus' part, especially now after all the competitors (even Acer!) have brought out similar mini-laptops running Linux.
I mistakenly ordered a laptop with Vista and the new Microsoft Office installed. Both present a new user environment. I am a power user with Excel, and found it very difficult to use the new Excel. They replaced all of the menus with icon panels, with beautifully redrawn icons, and scrambled the locations up. I'm playing a game of guessing what the icon does, hovering, and reading the "tool tip" to be sure. Talk about an "unfamiliar environemnt".
My entreprenurial landlord teaches classes for small businesses on how to switch to Open Office instead of the new Microsoft Office. If they're going to have to retrain anyway, why not go to something that is free?
(Alternatively, it could just be that I am getting "old". When I was a teenager I shifted from WordPerfect to Emacs with less difficulty.)
And who cares? I work in the IT sector (90%+ dominated by windows and i mean mission critical servers) and Im hearing since 2001 how in 5 years linux will gain ground, and laugh at it. any new linux user 1000 new windows users (legal or not, people prefer to steal software than use free). So stop whining. Asus does what people wants, not what a less than 1% minority of their marketshare wants. Regards.
Oh, right, Asus and Microsoft are going to permit this Joe Nobody to video and broadcast promotional videos with both Asus and Microsoft splattered all over without prior authorisation? Give me a break. The registration and godaddy shonkiness are just shabby behaviour, you can't even think it would pass the plausible denaibility test. There's no info at all - it's just a platform to host some adverts strung together. Cute enough MILF, one must admit, but I'll be removing their cookies quick smart so I don't get tagged as a "prospect". I feel all unclean after watching MS adverts - bleccchhhh....
To answer that, we take you now, by the magic of the internet, to One Microsoft Way where we can put that question direct to Steve Ballmer.
Steve, hypothetically suppose that ASUS linked to a site both critical of Windows and, which encouraged Asus customers to purchase the Linux version of the Eee in preference to Windows. It's been suggested this may be a morally grey area. Perhaps you can give us the Microsoft perspective on this issue? How would you feel, Steve?
Sounds of flying chairs. Distant screams. One voice, clearly pleading, says "no no, please, not again..."
I'm sorry, it seems we've arrived at a bad time for Mr. Ballmer. Moving on, we have another pointless question from the audience: What if Richard Stallman was the secret reincarnation of Adolf Hitler...
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Mahatma Gandhi
Looks like I'll be looking elsewhere when I buy a netbook.
Asus is screwing up here. They seem not to realize that the eee PC is a success only because of the attention it got because it ran Linux. By getting into bed with Microsoft, they're just creating an opening for another hungry Taiwanese to make a Linux netbook.
Anybody here speak Chinese? And/or live in Taiwan? Help us find that vendor. Get them to give us the specs for their (as yet unbuilt) machine, we'll adapt Ubuntu to it, they don't need to worry about software, we'll have nice hardware with good Linux support.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
...and in this case, it's entirely legitimate.
From what I can see, it looks like the premade Linux distro for the device still exists. If it's still preinstalled on the device by default, you have even less to worry about, since that will mean that no matter how much Microsoft try and promote themselves, they will still have inertia to deal with.
Microsoft are doing what they always do; banking on the concept that most people don't want to engage in intellectual activity, personal initiative, or personal responsibility. For the most part, it's nearly always a very safe bet for them; they have human nature on their side, and they know it.
If you want to beat them at this game, what you need to do is promote the advantages inherent in doing something different. That means:-
- Hardware resource efficiency from CLI or light GUI applications that they will never be able to match. Cplay or LXMusic for music, Dillo for limited web browsing, (but enough on an embedded platform) PCManFM for file management, etc.
- Greater security. Microsoft still cannot honestly compete with the root security model, and you can laugh at them if they try. Linux simply does not get viruses.
- As long as the "big two," contemporary desktop environments and ALSA are avoided, Linux also still has infinitely greater robustness.
Microsoft's solutions are vastly technologically inferior to UNIX. Always.
Microsoft cannot hope to compete on technical merit, but where they generally do beat Linux or the BSDs is via exploitation of the most base and/or negative elements of human nature; fear, laziness, reluctance to make choices or assume responsibility for those choices.
Stop fighting amongst yourselves about how best to get the neurotypical population to drink Stallman's Kool-Aid, and then gnashing your teeth when they predictably don't want to. That isn't going to work. Linux can beat Microsoft exceptionally easily on technical merit, and if you confine things to X apps, that is primarily what end users care about.
All Microsoft ever do...all they ever CAN do...is appeal to fear and laziness. They don't actually offer their customers anything better; they just keep said customers in a state of terror about accepting anything better, if said something better is non-Microsoft.
Asus, you are on my boycott list until you somehow redeem yourselves.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I had Windows 7 RC installed on my EEEPC in under an hour and everything works out of the box.
Wireless, bluetooth, camera. No configuration needed, no drivers to download from message boards.
Average home user (most users) will NEVER use linux they will sooner go with a MAC.
Sorry guys, that's just how things are.
I realize that exact figures don't really change your argument much but market share figures are something that have long been slippery. The more appropriate figures, in my opinion, put Windows at about 88%, Mac at 9.7 and Linux around 1%.
Market share properly refers to the number of computers sold during a given period of time, which is not necessarily a good indication of the number of computers actually in use, which is called "installed base." One reason is that the time period given may or may not be representative. For example, the Mac had almost 20% market share in the month immediately following the introduction of the original iMac in 1997. That was short lived and didn't really affect the installed base that much. Another reason is, Mac advocates contend, that Mac users keep their Macs longer than Windows users keep their PCs. Therefore, the Mac's market share translates to a higher installed base. In the case of Linux, it's really hard to tell because many copies of Linux are not sold at all. They're just downloaded and installed on as many machines as the user wants.
Market share is often cited because it's something that's easy to measure. Another method that's relatively easy to measure is the percent of web surfing observed. This can be biased because of different uses for different kinds of computers and different software configurations. For example, the inclusion of RSS feeds turned on by default in recent versions of OS X gives Apple an unfair advantage because it constantly generates multiple hits to popular sites which the user is not actually going to. On the other hand, pervasive spyware may give Windows an unfair advantage for similar reasons. Linux is underrepresented in terms of these kinds of unintended surfing. Internet share also doesn't do a very good job counting the share of Linux in the server and embedded markets since these machines aren't really used that much for web surfing. Web surfing figures are often, wrongly, published as "market share," as in this article. Nevertheless, it is interesting to look at the figures.
There are at least two things on that flick which you should never do, according to the manuals they ship with their eee pcs: never put the thing on your laps or on a soft surface (i.e. the bed). I don't have the warranty with me, so I can't say for sure, but I seem to remember the latter even made your warranty void or something.
http://itsbetterwithlinux.com/
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Seriously, it's a good business decision to support the largest OS provider in the world. It may actually be unnecessary because they are so dominant, but who cares. Many companies have dabbled with pre-installed Linux, but the niche players seem to be doing the best. I bought a Lenovo with SUSE on it just to make sure that I wouldn't have to deal with driver issues. I understand that Lenovo no longer offers Linux preinstalled. Good for them, my next PC purchase won't be from them. I don't take it as a personal insult, however, as I realize that I am an outlier in a commodity market.
... has hitched their wagon to MS.
Michael Sharp (the registrant of the domain) is, among other things a "Sharepoint consultant". He is involved in operating room "live conferencing". Obviously if non-MS software attains critical threshold, his services as a peddler of expensive proprietary Microsoft video conferencing software become less needed. So obviously *his* bottom line is "better* if everyone else continues to drink the MS koolaid.
The site itself was certainly not put up by Asus, nor (at least directly) by MS. I see another comment pointed out that it is in fact linked to by Asus, so at the very least they don't mind using it to sell more Eee's.
But regardless of who made the video - here's a message for you - Windows is used by fools that shell out way too much hard-earned money, by other fools that make unauthorized copies of it, and of course by all the fools who don't know any better who buy machines with it preinstalled that arent even aware its not 'part' of the computer.
No informed, intelligent person, in their right mind, being *aware* that they *have* a choice, actually chooses to purchase and use Windows. And yes, if anyone reading this did in fact *choose* windows, I am saying you are a fool, or insane, or too stupid to know better (Sometimes referred to as 'ignorant', or [un/mis]informed')
I've had a EEE PC 1000 Linux for a little less than year. Being essentially lazy, I haven't put forth the effort needed to tweak the distro -- I've left it pretty much alone. If Asus wanted to make inroads with this, they would need to provide more than half-baked support for it. They did a good job of providing an automatic system to get updates but no way to customize it for your system so I'm continually nagged to install upgrades for Chinese input switching that I don't need, fixes to the display on the 900 models, etc. Not providing that support, it isn't surprising that the forums are filled with unhappy people.
I know it is linked on the Asus website, but I think they must have been hacked. I have never heard of the Eee PC 1008 that the asus links come from.
At least Linux has distributions specifically tailored to EEE/netbook laptops like Moblin and eeebuntu for example. These increase usability by using a window manager adapted to a smaller screen. Does Windows even have something like that?
No it's just the same old "it's not exactly like windows on a desktop, so it's bad" shit (even though MS office file formats are generally supported, so...).
Xandros linux was a horrible distribution anyway, with horribly little software in it's repository.
Someone want to buy my eee900?
No no no, you have to pay $10US per post to be an Apple shill.
Tongue firmly in cheek for the humor impaired.
I first read this as "Ass Slaps Nuts In the Face"
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
We need a new mass-market/"newb friendly," distro, and we need to make sure that this one is NOT Debian based.
FreeBSD has the following technical advantages over anything Debian based that I've been able to see, and these could be recreated most easily with a non-Debian based Linux. These might be under the hood things, but they would definitely filter up to make life easier for the end user.
- Single point of daemon loading at bootup with /etc/rc.conf.
- Comparitive ease of kernel recompilation that is so much greater than Linux, and Debian in particular, that it isn't funny. The config file is tiny, and completely documented.
- Package management which doesn't subpackage, or have incomprehensibly stupid, bogus dependency declarations. Said package management also uses the directory structure of the filesystem itself as a database, so it can be used on low-powered systems which would have difficulty running an SQL database engine.
These are simplifications which, IMHO, Ubuntu very badly needs to adopt.
1. Praise Linux.
2. Have Microsoft run to you with deals, discounts, and dump trucks full of money.
3. Praise Microsoft, Bash Linux.
4. Profit!
This also works for government organizations and prominent businesses in the process of choosing software.
Because, you know, that "unfamiliar environment" will kill your children and steal your wife!
Businesses are a good start because if they can get Windwos-equivalent software -- not "Windows-only-just-good-enough-for-most-users" software -- on their employees workstations then the home will follow naturally.
This is the second biggest mistake the geek can make.
The home is not the office. These are two profoundly different markets - and their divergence is older than Commander Keen.
You may have noticed the HDMI jack on your home PC's video card - and the pass through for surround-sound audio.
This isn't your Dad's VGA. This isn't your locked-down corporate desktop.
It is something the Jetsons would recognize.
Media and game play in two and three dimensions. Instant, free, world-wide, communication - voice, video, text and pictures. Shop at home.
Work at home.
But there will be nothing about the tools you use that will be distinctively Linux.
The port to Windows?
Absolutely.
The port to OSX?
More than likely.
Even when FOSS wins, Linux loses - because there is no longer any reason to migrate.
Well, Asus is off my shopping list now, but not for some slight against Linux. Just don't have any confidence in their products.
If the site is false and they're just linking to it because they took Microsoft's marketing money, then they're pushing shoddy product over a better product for the sake of third party cash. Who can say what other equipment they do the same thing for?
If the site is true, then they've been selling a product they know is shoddy for quite some time now, and who can say what other equipment they do the same thing on.
Win-win for them for the money, I guess. Lose-lose for me, and I don't play rigged games.
First they laugh at you. (They certainly did at that- Linux on a *tiny computer?* It'll never fly... hahaha!) ... then you ignore you. (The nettop market was certainly ignored by Microsoft for enough time to qualify.) ... then they fight you. (Current stage...) ... then you win. (Well, time will tell...)
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
it is starting to look very polished, ionescu et al are doing an awesome job, maybe to some of you it dosn't appeal too much, but from my perspective it might become a drop in replacement for windows, you know, the kind of replacement that you can actually offer to any middle bussiness thats been all its life tied and slaved to windows for one reason or another, unwillingly or not, full compatibility without any of their employees having to buy a couple of neurons to learn about a new os, keeping old data and programs at hand etc. after all asus is a bussiness like any other and ms has all the bucks in the world to buy it's way around, no doubt that if ms sees them as a threat at any moment, they will send some heat their way, just saying
Yes, that site looks fake.
I have a few Eee PC 2G Surf models, which I got cheaply from a company that bought a bunch of them. (The black ones were accepted, but their executives wouldn't be seen with the more unusual colors.) So I reloaded a pink unit from the CD, back to its factory state, and gave it to a friend of mine. She's non-technical, a horse trainer. She has a Windows laptop at home, but the 2G Surf is small enough to carry around for e-mail reading, web browsing, and Open Office work in coffee shops. She likes it and hasn't had any problems with it.
I've used Windows since version 3.1x, and when I transitioned from XP to Vista, one of my biggest gripes was the "unfamiliar environment". Everything was moved around or changed completely. The new user friendly stuff actually made things even harder to use (control panel needs a search engine now?!). The same goes for Office 2007. The tabbed toolbar that allegedly reorganized everything just made finding "left justify" a scavenger hunt. All of new the UI effects made things even more "unfamiliar" and harder to use because you were getting distracted by . Back in 2002, I tried out Mandrake Linux for the first time. Linux (and KDE) really was something I could pick up with zero experience using it and feel like I've been using it all along. The buttons and icons were all where I expected them to be from using Windows all along. Consistency is a good thing.
I can see them now: ... (trails off)
Tux: Hello I'm a Linux
Win: And, I'm a windows.
Win: what ya got there Linux?
Tux: well I'm just downloading all my RPM's configing my kernel, and patching my boot loader...
Win: sounds complicated.
Tux: nah, it's easy all you gotta do is drop to the command line and use these toggles on a
Win: huh? Really? [hot babe walks on screen]
Tux: what's that?
Win: Oh, she's my new installer wizard.
Tux: wait, it's a girl? [Tux looks dejected as we fade to black]
[signature]
(The website is too thin, and there are small issues that scream fake to me - kerning, lack of contact info, no mention that Windows ia a registered trademark, links to additional info, etc.)
It's part of a Microsoft viral marketing campaign... and it's working!
Also excellent reasons not to use Vista and Windows 7.
Not really.
SolSuite Solitaire has been quietly - and successfully - migrating players to Vista and The Ribbon.
The solitaire player is as stereotypical a portrait of the Windows user as you'll find anywhere.
If the transition has been easy for him, it will be easy for anyone.
Do you really think Asus would have made a decision like this without a reason?
They likely have a really good reason for saying the Eee is "better with Windows"... and it's because the Eee is... well... better with Windows.
The common complaint, which EVERY vendor has stated, is that the return rate of computers sold with Linux are so high they can't make a profit on them.
Nobody wants Linux. That's why even in countries without a legit software market, Linux can't gain market share. People would rather STEAL Windows than legitimately get Linux for free.
Linux either isn't competing with Windows or is competing very, very badly with Windows. If Linux was competing, we'd see lower prices from MS, a noticeably better product, or a diminishing MS market share. Those things are not happening. Windows dominates Linux in the laptop and desktop world.
Windows dominates because it can mobilize developers to write Windows programs. It is as simple as that. Developers write for Windows because they have a far greater chance of making money when they develop for Windows than they do when they develop for Linux.
If the GNU tribe REALLY wanted to compete with Windows it would EMBRACE it by making all Windows programs execute as flawlessly on Linux as they do on Windows. When that happens, competition is possible. Linux starts to kick ass then, because it is free. Then, Linux can be EXTENDED to afford greater developer power and flexibility. Only after that stuff will any competition happen. That's when things could get interesting.
But the people of the GNU (those who do all the work) are NOT doing these steps necessary for competition. Why is that? Why? Why? Maybe they have another agenda. Maybe they just want to develop something really cool that works good for their purposes? Maybe they don't care about winning corporate mindshare?? Maybe they derive satisfaction from creating a finely wrought product that generates respect for their work or that works for their employer?
The anti-MS trolls just like to whine. If they really cared, they'd do the really really hard work and fork Linux into a fully Windows-compatible environment.
But they won't do that. They'd rather whine and say how defective Windows is and how they'd never want to create a Windows clone.
This brings us back to the starting point.
If you are not prepared to embrace the enemy that is dominating you, you won't be able to extend your capabilities beyond his capabilities and you'll never be able to extinguish him. So,if you're not prepared to do this very hard (and maybe technically stupid) work. . . .
Stop all the jabbering about competition and get on with helping make Linux friendly for you and your friends.
First I thought ASUS had crossed the line, it's one thing to promote MS and it's another to trash linux. Especially since it had become wildly popular because of its linux version and all the cool things you could now do with a open system on a tiny computer. Obviously I am outraged (damnit stupid think-of-the-children types have usurped that word). Then I thought about their point of view. They get cash from microsoft, free publicity and a 0.1% of population of outraged geeks and nerds. Looks like a great strategy to sell more laptops while burning any cred they had with the open source crowd. Fuck 'em.
...read this as "Anus slaps Linux in the face"?
Bought it with Windows pre-installed.
For two weeks my biggest fear was when this crap will finally fry the machine. And just for nothing. The launching of some pretty secondary programs was enough to see things going really hot, stupidly slow and disk stressing.
Oh. And I didn't mention that battery lasted for less than half an hour? That's pretty powerful when you are running on public transport and get a emergency call from the office.
Linux did not solve certain risks. However, it made them completely manageable. Besides, it gave several working scenarios. Pretty important if you are looking to be on batteries for a few hours.
So, I my opinion is that "unfamiliar environment" and "major compatibility issues' are advertinsing calls for braindead jerks who really don't have a need for a netbook, except for some exciting glamour of dubious nature. No one likes to see a machine freezing in the middle of a serious issue. I had this with Windows twice in a week. And while on Windows, I had to think not only on my work but also on which next step I should not do or else the machine goes down.
On Linux, I had only one hangup in nearly a year and fortunately not related to a emergency. Just hanged up, I could not find a clear reason for it.
I'll keep using the Eee PC and probably buy a new one. They are the little powerhorses I've been waiting for long. But that "Better With Windows"... In a biomedical environment there are no "betters with". It works,,, Or it is pure crap.
Windows IS pure crap on my Eee PC.
I just love how at 3:27 in the video, they advertise "Family Safety" while displaying the family safety controls website in an IE6 BROWSER!!
So Microsoft approaches Asus and says "Hey, let's do a joint advertising campaign. We'll fund $1M (totally made up number) towards the joint effort, whaddya say?" Then someone at Asus starts doing the math and says "Whoa, that's double what the whole advertising campaign would cost! Let's do this and pocket the difference!"
Microsoft gets advertising on Asus's site, may get a few more sales, may cause Linux to have slightly less market-share, and to them it's worth it. Asus gets free advertising and a cash bonus, to them it's worth it. It's not the first time Microsoft has done this, and in today's market who wouldn't take some free cash?
Now think about it a different way. What if the link was "It's Better with FreeBSD" instead of Windows -- would it also be a slap to Linux's face? Is the only non-slap to Linux the exclusive use of Linux?
Don't read more into what happened than what it is. Asus didn't turn its back on Linux. If you could make the product work on FreeDOS and were willing to pay for an advertising campaign (with cash positive results for Asus) I'm sure you could get your own link.
Every environment starts out unfamiliar. What's important is how intuitive the User Interface is.
That said, Windows 7 is damn intuitive.
that there are more hardware incompatibilities and unfamiliar environments using Vista than Linux.
And who doesn't love using regedit to configure their system?
Hmm. A quick google doesn't reveal anything useful about this guy. Does he work for Asus? I honestly can't tell if this looks like a residential address...
Color me skeptical.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I wouldn't put it past MS to have a "viral" marketing fund for sycophants that want to support Windows. Otherwise known as "shilling".
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Can it be more anti-Microsoft than this? Let's go through the video, shall we?
1) Why is the mother laughing at the Windows boot screen? Is it booting 10x longer than her previous Ubuntu 9.04 install? I don't have a clue...
2) Why is she closing the lid after having done absolutely nothing with the EeePC? Tired of waiting for it to boot? Isn't Windows productive, or just plane useless? You tell me...
3) The people in this 'commercial' are supposed to be representative Windows users. Now what mother gives her kids their laptops to s
chool but forgets to give them bread/sandwiches and drinks?!
4) After school, presumably, the kids go to the beach to make photos with a mobile phone. Now why on earth would hey do that? Isn't there a 1,3 megapixel (can't be better than that ancient phone) webcam on the EeePC? Doesn't Windows have photo capturing software? Ubuntu/Linux -> Cheese for Gnome. So Windows lacks software. Wow how bad can advertising be? But it doesn't stop there;
5) The kids need to usb-cable-transfer the picture from the phone to the EeePC while there is a cardreader slot. Except for plane stupidity on behalf of Windows users, doesn't the commercial say Windows redefines mobility/Wireless? Strange... Why don't they do it via bluetooth file transfer? Or isn't that supported in Windows either? Talking about compatibility with devices here... (that accounts for bith the phone and the bluetooth dongle.
6) After transfering the picture (mobility equals taking cables with you?) to the EeePC they can use some Live app to cut the picture. Wow! Totally can't do that with Gimp! Try to red eye correct that picture on Windows, morons. And no, Photoshop is not a part of Windows and no it doesn't run on a EeePC, but Gimp does.
7) The Business guy is spilling coffe over himself. Is Windows targetted for idiots? Nice move Microsoft marketing dicks...
8) After that incident he can share it with Live Messenger. Wow! Webcamming is the killer feature for Live Messenger? Except for the fact that it aint, the Windows marketing dicks suck balls.
9) Then the representative Windows user also like to laugh at himself for spilling coffee all over himself and enjoyes being lauched out loud by the people who he's webcamming with. Windows is targetted for loser? FAIL!
10) Redefining mobility? Like what the hell? Given the fact that this is a commercial for not using Linux and instead using Windows, what kind of redefining is going on here? Ubuntu 9.04 works completely out of the box with the EeePC (I am typing from one) and Windows sucks at connecting to wireless. Speed eh? NOT! Ubuntu 9.04 remembers you connections and auto-connects to one, and when you lost connection (because you're on the go) you can just click on the wireless icon in the system tray and click on a network from a dropdown list and you're finnished before you can say "right-click". No fscking around with settings and no BS.
11) Microsoft works... yeah... OpenOffice 3.1 'nuff said... Don't even try running the latest Office 2007 with that ribbon crap (fills the entire screen)
Ok so that pretty much nailes it: "Are you a loser, bad mom and/or plane stupid? Do you want a sucking EeePC experience? Install Windows XP with Live and Works!
Here be signatures
One thing thats fun with laptops without a cd drive. You can install linux on them with a usb stick but you can't install windows (you can for windows 7). XP is a bitch I mean really horrible to install without a cd drive.
Let's return the favor by adding snarky comments of our own in this convenient forum.
Read down a couple of stories. Windows is so good that NASA trained astronauts can't get a windows laptop to play a DVD.
It just works. My ass.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Registrant:
Michael Sharp
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ITSBETTERWITHWINDOWS.COM
Created on: 05-Dec-08
Expires on: 05-Dec-09
Last Updated on: 05-Dec-08
Administrative Contact:
Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
(877) 788-8066 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
(877) 788-8066 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS61.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS62.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off...
MS cheats, that's why.
Corporations have at most the conscience of those at their head. Their only responsibility is to make money one way or another.
Contrast that with the FOSS tribe. We're a collective of individuals with some corporate hangers-on. Most of us have consciences, and collectively we have a very good conscience.
We compete on our own terms, that's why. Eventually, the market will wise up. That's why MS cheats, to push that day off for as long as possible.
I just looked at the sites registration details and it looks even more sus. Microsoft and Asus register a domain name with godaddy to an individual and not a company?
Also, and more importantly, look at the whois record:
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.
Under Nominet rules a registrant's address cannot be withheld if any commercial use is made of the domain name. I have reported this to Nominet.
So far as I can tell, asus.co.uk is not Asus' UK website. If you go to asus.com and select the United Kingdom, you are sent to uk.asus.com.
The page you linked shows "asus.co.uk" in the address bar, yet if you go to "asus.co.uk" directly, you get redirected (as in "please wait while we redirect you") to uk.asus.com. I was unable to find this page on uk.asus.com. Furthermore, uk.asus.com is 66.238.93.162 while the page you linked (asus.co.uk) is hosted at 87.106.102.168.
A lookup on asus.co.uk shows that it is registered to Asustek, but it was updated very recently (May 22, 2009) and the nameservers are now at 1and1.co.uk (never heard of them).
Is it possible that someone has intercepted the domain in order to provide "proof" that the site in the summary is legitimate?
They must really really needed for the ASUS Linux experiment to fail. I just wonder what really went on behind closed doors, and what it cost MS in monetary value to squelch the deal.
"In order to compete more effectively against Linux and other providers on these deals, we can now leverage the Education and Government Incentive [EDGI] program to help tip the scales to MS in the deal. After engaging the regional team. the region may use funds to provide services and/or rebates to the customer with the following limitation:
"Not to exceed the estimated Windows royalties recognized by MS from the OEM selling the PC's to the customer (in the example, 50,000 PC's at approx. $100/PC for OEM Windows XP Professional would result in a maximum of $5M for the individual deal)"
It is essential, therefore, that we use this in only in deals we would lose otherwise
"Bottom line do our best to show the great value of our software to these customers and ensure we get paid for it under NO circumstances lose against Linux before ensuring we have used this program actively and in a smart way
davecb5620@gmail.com
No mention of anyone walking off with all your financial information, merely by clicking on an URL or opening an email attachment. Oh, wait, at 3:30 a bit about family safety, just how long will it take young Juan to bypass it and find the pjorn ? I see at 3:38 tobacco is deemed unsafe to even look at on a web site. Assault rifle I guess gets through no problem. Who would stoop to exploiting parental fears to sell product :|
davecb5620@gmail.com
At 3:28 they show a screencapture of them doing day to day tasks in windows, but the resolution presented is at least 1280x720, definitely higher than the AsusEE pc's screen res. Apparently windows is so much better that it can alter hardware!
> It is difficult to believe that Asus did this out of love for Redmond.
Everyone is missing the point. If this one turns out to be a troll/trial balloon the next one won't. Reason? ASUS is departing the 'netbook' market as fast as they can do it and avoid anyone noticing.... sorta. Netbooks are small, inexpenensive, flash based, net centric devices. Now go look at ASUS's EeePC line and tell me how many of their recent offerings fit that description. $500 small laptops are going to ship with Windows, its just the way the monopoly works and ASUS has been in the game long enough they understand that. But since the term 'netbook' has a hotness associated with it they want to prevent most customers from realizing the bait-n-switch that is happening.
Why are they doing this, since they created the netbook in the first place? Several reasons. $500 SKUs have more profit in them than $300 ones, so follow the money right off. Second they have a very long term established relationship with Intel that will prevent them from being one of the first ARM vendors and they are smart enough to realize that once those ship the sub $350 space will go almost 100% ARM+Linux or ARM+CE and to compete there they would have to throw Intel under the bus. Finally, look at their contract manufacturing division (Pegatron) which is ramping up cheap ARM netbooks under a variety of badges that don't say ASUS as we speak.
Democrat delenda est
Well, face it kids, Windows is a BETTER product than Linux. Especially, for entry level Netbook users. The interface is smoother. Everything is integrated better. There's no building and compiling apps. Driver installation is a breeze. There are thousands and thousands more applications. Aside from price, there's absolutely no reason to use Linux, and with Microsoft lowering the Netbook OS prices to 15 bux, what reason would you have to use Linux on Eee?
Did anyone notice the "All rights Reserves" at the bottom of the page? You'd think Microsoft or ASUS would proofread their sites.
"Meh. I'll just install linux over the windows install as usual."
+5 Insightful. I feel sad for what this says about slashdot moderation.
Odd that it took this long for this to get posted. I first happened upon that propaganda over a month ago when I was looking at an eee pc ad on newegg that linked to it(which either makes it real or one of the biggest trolls ever). The hilarious part is if you were to add "XP" to every instance of "Windows" it would make a pretty convincing anti-vista ad. When I think it over though, I could care less about Asus ditching linux on netbooks, considering the version that came with the eee pc was lousy IMHO. I'm surprised they would risk pissing off the linux fans, though, considering they make up a pretty big chunk of their customer base. When I first got into linux I swore I would never become another anti-M$ zealot, but I start to see why there are so many. The way they smear my choice of OS and pull strings to make sure I have a pain of a time using anything but their product is a real thorn in my side. I just hope that with decent distros like moblin and ubuntu netbook remix it will make big enough comeback to make asus smack their foreheads and say "DOH!".
I got my EEE with Windows yesterday, and I will be installing Ubuntu on it tonight. I still have some uses for a copy of WIndows, so if I can pay the same price for one with Windows pre-installed and then install Linux myself, why wouldn't I? The Linux distros that ship on these things does not meet my needs, so I would wind up installing Ubuntu anyway.
I'm sure I'm not the only one doing this. Let Microsoft brag about their sales numbers. My machines (which have Ubuntu/Windows on them) spend 90% of their uptime running Linux anyway.
I seem to be the only one on the planet who wants a standard GNOME or Windows desktop on these little things and not an interface resembling a PDA.
Wow, Why is everyone upset? Up until last year I have used every version of Windows since day one, and now use Linux on my desktop and Aspire one. I think it great that someone out there is worried enough to post anything anti-Linux. Linux is stepping on some toes!!! Bring it on! Being a seasoned, and I mean seasoned user of MS products since the days of DOS, I can do anything in Linux that I would be doing in windows. Gee, I'm just as old as Bill Gates, that is scary!
Microsoft has it, OSS doesn't.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Go there and look for the Seashell product.
http://uk.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=15908
It clearly advertises GNU/Linux as an option.
Copy & paste:
Go Anywhere in Style with Eee PCâ Seashell 1008HA
Display 10" LED-backlit WSVGA Screen (1024x600 pixels) with Color-Shine (Glare-type)
Operating System Genuine Windows® XPâ Home GNU Linux Processor Intel® Atomâ N280 Default Memory 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM
I think Microsoft might be making another push to get Windows on more netbooks. There was a poorly-written piece in the Wall Street Journal today warning consumers not to buy netbooks with Linux. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346723960760371.html Once, just once, I would like to see a column from them warning consumers that their Windows netbooks will not work out-of-the-box with Office documents -- which is true (what netbook comes with an Office license?).
I realize that exact figures don't really change your argument much but market share figures are something that have long been slippery. The more appropriate figures, in my opinion, put Windows at about 88%, Mac at 9.7 and Linux around 1%.
"Appropriate"? Only if you enjoyed the Kool-Aid. The marketshare.hitLink site is owned by NetApplications, whose business model was selling rebranded Windows executables to track Windows visits to Windows websites. No bias there, eh?
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/05/1-linux-market.html
"Matt Assay said it was at 2.02%
ZDNet reported on Feb 24th, 2004 http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=5334 that the 2003 Linux desktop market share hit 3.2% and expected it to hit 6% by 2007.
In 2005 they reported that the 2004 saw the Linux desktop at 4%.
I believe that the all the ZDNet figures were spot on. If anything, the Linux desktop market share has continued to increase and is probably currently at 8-10% and rising. Dell and the other PC OEMs wouldn't have invested in selling Linux pre-installed if it appealed only to less than 1% of the desktop market.
It is quite obvious that NetApplications latest "report" is merely Microsoft's continuing attempt to control the news about Linux's success in replacing Windows on the desktop...."
The best evidence that the NetApplications "report" is fake is from Ballmer himself. In a Feb, 2009 presentation he displayed a graph showing the percentages of desktop marketshare for Windows, Linux and Apple. HE puts the Linux pie slice at around 10%, and slightly larger than Apple's.
http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Competitor_than_Apple
Ballmer can't listen to his own PR pulp. He has to plan using real data. Fortunately, he let it leak.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
Especially since I just replaced my last Windows XP desktop running on my wife's computer last week. She's sick and tired of Windows issues that she asked what's Linux like?
She's in multi boot right now in case she needs anything and I showed her how to access her windows partition for files she's missing. In a few weeks we're flattening the Windows partition and we're done.
Sorry charlie.
Has Comcast disconnected your Internet account? Same here. You can read about it at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com
I first noticed this site a few days ago - linked from an ebay auction.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/NIB--Asus-EeePC-1000HE-10"-160G%2F1GB-BLUE-EBONY-XP_W0QQitemZ290318394892QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090520?IMSfp=TL090520166001r25703 was one
(ended) auction. - I was searching to find any 10" eeepcs with linux.
Perhaps this was an experiment in "slashdotting" - to test how much traffic can be driven by a bogus slashdot article pointing to a bogus website.
This is called an advertising Micro-site, where one of the companies tasks and agency to create a small site for them. They handle the hosting, creating the site, etc...
It appears that the budget they used for this was very small.
And this is any worse than what kind of thing Apple is doing to Microsoft in their Apple vs PC commercial? Actually I would agree with what the ad portrays because for the regular person PC's are easier to use than Linux. If you get a Linux PC and just use it and don't try and change it, update drivers and such, you're fine. Windows is easier for the regular person to use. Its easier to add a printer, its easier to add a scanner, easier to do different things that Linux at this present time makes it difficult to do. You can put any kind of mask over linux and its still the same OS. Its like Windows Mobile 6, people complain that its not as simple to use as other mobile OS' and even thought handset developers will put overlays over it to try and mask the OS, its still Windows Mobile. You still at times have to use the ugle interface in the background to do stuff. Just like with Linux you will have to use a command prompt to do certain things, no distro has gotten past this yet. Plus Ubuntu even thought it is probably the best distro out it still isn't loaded with a lot of multimedia drivers. Maybe Asus and such can add the drivers but I'm not sure if they do or not. And other Ubuntu distros like Mint are very good but still not as easy as Windows. There is a learning curve to Linux. Until someone stops using KDE, Gnome...etc with linux and make their own desktop environment like Apple did with FreeBSD, it may never get up there. Linux is an OS for geeks and for it to be an OS for everyone it's going to have to be as simple as Windows and Mac OSX. Thats the simple truth.
Actually, this page on asus.co.uk links to itsbetterwithwindows.com, although I can't find any such links on asus.com.
Oh, yeah. I see, on a web page that details the technical specifications of their "Bettery packs".
Actually the fact that it's only on one localized page of ASUS makes it even more probable that :
- it's the action of one single manager or one small team who though they new better than the rest of the company
- or the UK website got hacked as part of an attempt to pull a practical joke.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
They've been saying this for several years now. "'X' driver support is getting better everyday!" "'Y' new distro will solve device compatibility issues!" "'Z' developer will have perfect Windows API integration and then the average user won't notice the difference!"
The fact is, Linux works, and works nice, already.
When combining a set of hardware selected by the manufacturer/installer, there's no such thing as a driver support problem. (Unlike an end-user trying to install manually Linux on some hardware put together without taking this into account).
It offers all basic needs : browsing, mailing, word processing. And that's most the needs a netbook users wants. That's why it has been already rolled out on several netbooks.
It's not a high end gaming machine. People aren't going to install exotic applications on something that only has a 9" screen. I mean who the hell in his/her right mind is going to complain about not being able to install 3D Studio Max or Crysis on a machine designed from the ground up to quickly check e-mails on the net and run with long battery life.
In fact, because it covers lots of basic needs, several motherboard publisher are pushing toward fast booting linux in BIOS. /.), you should be able to do that from within your fast booted Linux web session.
Want to just check quickly you mails ? No need to boot the whole beast. With several motherboard manufacturer, you just hit a button and under a couple of seconds, you're on the web. Under Linux.
Want to play a game with all the latest graphical candy ? Then boot the whole Microsoft OS. And with recent advances made by some BIOS manufacturer (and mentioned on
That's hardware manufacturers. Not some random FSF activist making a project out of his basement. It's real hardware manufacturer deploying Linux fast-booting solutions on all their recent motherboard. Real commercial things, marketed to end-users.
And it's something which leverages Linux' strong point : its license is free (thus it can be shipped in BIOS with no additional costs), its opensource and customizable (and thus can be tailored to the specific needs of the manufacturer) and can be light-weighted if needed (try fitting a Microsoft Vista installation with similar functionality inside a BIOS chip) while retaining compatibility with a huge software library from which to select the programs you need to make your fastbooting solution (unlike the Microsoft world, which *has* WinCE as a lightweight OS, but isn't compatible with mainstream Windows and thus you'll have to use a custom OS with custom softwares anyway).
Linux in that context (underpowered netbook - specially the upcoming ARM based ones - and BIOSes) does a amazingly good job, which can't be matched by Vista and that's why lots of manufacturer are picking it.
ASUS themselves are among those manufacturer of fast booting Linux BIOS motherboards (a fact which adds to the above controversy whether this is a scam or not).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
"Familiar - Windows is easy to use and familiar so you can be up and running right away"
~Well, until they completely replace their interface with ribbons only~ :-)
More seriously :
"Compatible - You can be confident that your devices and applications will work with Windows - more than any other platform"
Relevant for a desktop that you assemble yourself (always try to pick up hardware compatible with your OS).
Completely irrelevant there : ASUS build their motherboard and netbooks. They CAN select hardware that has Linux support.
As for the software : it's a glorified e-mail/web browsing machine. Who pays attention if can't install FarCry 2 or Maya on this ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
They've already been fucking for a while now. They were Microsoft's first and primary target to fight Linux encroaching on their turf, since the EEE PC is what largely started it all. Yes yes there was/is OLPC, but I'm talking about the "normal" computer sales realm.
Promote true freedom - support standards and interoperability.
I got my fiance an Eee PC and after fiddling with it for hours, I gave up and put XP on it. Sure, it was cool, and almost switched me over to nix' for good, but the touch pad drivers were glitchy and I dont have time to mess with that crap. My XP cd with drivers for the rest of my machines worked flawlessly, and I've left her alone on it since. StarOffice was garbage and wouldnt work on Samba shares (on my linux server none the less) so shared office spreadsheets were useless. I tried, and I wanted something free to wisk me away, and it almost did, but alas, I go to the platform that sucks less. (Windows still sucks, but its the less of the many evils out there.)
and let Darwin sort 'em out xD
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
Its Jesus on the cross all over again!! T_T
I needed a cheap computer(=netbook) this past January while I was away from home for a month to be treated for cancer. The residence (Cancer Society's Hope Lodge) had 'public' computers and also wi-fi in every room. I bought an Asus EEE, had to _pay extra_ to get Linux - and what do you know, it would not connect to the network! No way, no how, no matter what I did.
I used the public computers extensively to read the appropriate forums and hey! many people had this problem, no one had solved it.
J$R took it back for a full refund after their test found that it saw the network but couldn't connect. I wouldn't accept the Windows version because at that point I doubted Asus's good faith.
Is ASUS removing (and no longer supporting) their previously designed and installed Linux offerings? If not, I wouldn't call it a slap in the face, but just MS marketing 'Hype' attempting to compete with what may be the better performance of a Linux-installed computer.
If MS is requiring ASUS to no longer offer Linux -- it seems like this would be a perfect example of MS using their monopoly position to shut out competition, setting them up for more monopoly abuse lawsuits. If's it's only another option offered by MS -- of course MS will say their stuff is better.
The original article doesn't indicate that the Linux offerings will be discontinued -- just that ASUS is finally
allowing MS to provide an ASUS tuned version of (presumably, XP) to try to compete. I don't see that as a slap -- just S.O.P.
-linda
Right... one of my commenters is saying this is a fake as well.
I've read as many articles on this as I can find to see if this is real or not and there seems to be no official word from asus or ms about it. I did find a link to an ad on newegg.com though that links to the website, so it does seem legit. If this is the case I'm certainly not going to buy the 1000he I almost ordered from newegg today. Going to hold off on ordering until I can confirm or debunk this so any info would be much appretiated.
This is the newegg link: http://promotions.newegg.com/ASUS/041609/?cm_sp=Subcat_Netbooks-_-ASUS/041609-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fASUS%2f041609%2f478x88.jpg
iv just bought an asus 901 + linux, particularly cause linux seemed to work well with it. its a real shame asus has caved into MS in this pathetic way, still it doesn't suprise me, i will still continue to use linux on the eeepc 901 and recommend it all my friends and family.
Asus introduces Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Eee PC running Google Android
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/06/asus-introduces-qualcomm-snapdragon-based-eee-pc-running-google-android-video.html
This hardware will probably be suitable to run the Linux flavor of one's choice, I guess.
And Microsoft's out of the game here. ;-)