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Acer Launching Dual Android/Windows 7 Netbook

Posted by Soulskill on from the now-make-them-fight dept.

Barence writes "Acer has unveiled an Aspire netbook that dual boots Google Android and Windows 7. 'User demand is not there for [other forms of] Linux [but] we never give up. We adjust,' said Jim Wong, Acer senior corporate vice president. 'We introduce Android with the Windows OS, and why Android? Because it has the best connectivity built into the OS.' Acer has also talked up Google's forthcoming Chrome OS. 'Chrome can be a viable alternative to Microsoft's OSes for web applications on different mobile devices,' he explained."

11 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. From the article by sopssa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "The Android browser offers most of the things people need. But I think today IE is still dominating the online world, a lot of websites are still optimised for IE"

    This is probably just some intranet sites inside companies or schools. Chrome and other browsers should be just fine for all web browsing (though yeah, sometimes I do need to switch to IE for some site to work - but it's not often)

    Interesting thing is that Android is also available for PC's. Can it be downloaded from somewhere?

    1. Re:From the article by IBBoard · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Either that or 1) they're old and haven't been updated in ages, 2) use ugly table layouts that work okay in IE6 or 3) use properitary tags that only work in IE (also known as "old ASP/ASP.Net code" or "Frontpage Code", which were ugly as hell).

  2. Linux by jackharrer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wouldn't be better to offer fast booting Linux (Moblin?) and dual boot with Win? Then users can access nice and quick Linux environment or wait for Win if they "really" need Office.

    Android is good for phones, but that's how far it goes...

    --

    "an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often, quite often, picturesque liar" - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Linux by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you're going to propose that Moblin is somehow better than Android for non-phone devices, it would be nice to have some backup information to prove your point.

      The fact of the matter is that Linux is not designed to be an embedded OS, and the efforts that Moblin and Linux are making are significant but not wholly complete. When, as you say, the OS boots faster, is transparent, and exists invisibly to users (though clearly to developers), then we will have a true "mobile Linux" distribution.

      Acer seems to be tempting fate here and begging Microsoft to raise their licensing costs. If they pass their costs onto consumers, will their cheap hardware keep prices low enough to attract customers, even with the higher-priced desktop OS? I don't know, but it seems very dangerous for them to be making such claims at this point.

    2. Re:Linux by rs79 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      "Wouldn't be better to offer fast booting Linux (Moblin?) and dual boot with Win? Then users can access nice and quick Linux environment or wait for Win if they "really" need Office."

      A client sent me an xls and doc file to my android phone.

      They just worked.

      I don't use spreadsheets and always refuse doc files replying with "I don't use proprietary formats, send me txt or html".

      Apparently my Android phone is a part time xls/doc consumer appliance.

      I was gobsmacked frankly.

      --
      Need Mercedes parts ?
  3. Wow really? by aceofspades1217 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The key reason he used for keeping windows around was productivity and IE....

    I mean there are plenty of reasons for keeping windows around such as gaming, users are used to it, etc.

    But productivity and IE? I really don't know anyone who has used other brothers and still says that IE is a better browser, its basically that people just don't know about other browsers. As for productivity that is so far gone I can barely even respond to that...one word. "Openoffice" schools and businesses have been using it for years.

    1. Re:Wow really? by jDeepbeep · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're more productive with tools you're familiar with and used to working with.

      I will second this. It is a (potentially disturbing) fact that a huge slice of the workforce is using Outlook, Excel, M$Word, Sharepoint, Exchange, IE, etc, to be productive. They are accustomed to using the products, and spend 5 days a week immersed in that world. I lose sight of this fact during much of each workday (on linux 98% of the time), that is until another email comes in from marketing, or purchasing, and it's got another Excel spreadsheet and a Word document attached. A sobering truth, but a truth nonetheless. The moment I step one inch out of my pleasant Linux bubble, it's an ocean of M$

      --
      Reply to That ||
  4. Re:Other forms of Linux... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Unfortunately, it's not easy to find Linux-only netbooks.

    HP Mini 5101 is one of the best netbooks around in general (IMO, obviously), and you have an option of getting it with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop if you want (and yes, it'll be cheaper than if you order it with Windows).

  5. When will operating systems become commodities? by MobyDisk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am still waiting for the day when operating systems will become interchangeable commodities. Or at least, when software development does not depend on the OS.

    Debian now supports running with multiple kernels. Apple's POSIX compatibility layer runs on their customized Mach kernel. Most packages run on BSD and Linux. I can write software using Java, .NET, or C++ (Qt, Boost, APR, ...) and it will run on almost anything. So why do we care about operating systems any longer? Why is this the #1 thing when buying a piece of computer hardware? Should we not be at the point where any half-competent developer can just code to one of the many many cross-platform "platforms" and be OS-independent?

    Yes, there are certainly features that are OS specific. But usually, those are hardware-specific. I can't expect every app that runs on my XBOX 360 to run on an iPhone. But I should expect that basic common tools can run on any netbook, regardless of OS. Or that a simple PDA application will run on any cell phone with a keyboard and touch screen.

    If the world was filled with the kind of programmers who hang around on Slashdot, then this would have happened 10 years ago. I am sometimes amazed that it is still happening today.

  6. Year of the Linux on desktops? :) by ivoras · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As Apple took FreeBSD and Mach and slapped a pretty GUI on top, making millions on the new product, so now it happens with Android and ChromeOS. On the other hand we have Gnome and KDE and Linux distributions that use them like Ubuntu and SUSE, which constantly fail to take foothold with users.

    Some things clearly need both money and firm guidance...

    --
    -- Sig down
  7. Re:Other forms of Linux... by pmontra · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm not as optimist as the GP but it was the year of Linux on the desktop for me. I formatted my Windows PC back in January and installed Ubuntu. I've got a few Windows VM for testing sites with IE6/7/8 and it's not something I do daily. I even bought a Linux EEEPC a few months ago. In my job (web development for the open source stack) more than half of the people I know use a Mac (because it's Unix and because it just works, they say, but they have still to install a lot of things to be productive) and the remaining part is split between several flavours of Linux and a few flavours of Windows. More Linux boxes than Windows ones I'd say.