Well, posting this from an EEE 900A under Xubuntu (if used as a Desktop replacement) or PuppyLinux (if used as a netbook), let me say this:
You are wrong.
I have thrown quite some serious stuff at this thing. Encoding several thousand PNG images to mpeg4 while running FF3.0 and coding/compiling (albeit in VIM - but that's just personal preference) at a 1680x1050 desktop resolution is a typical workload - and the fan does not even ramp up.
Configuring effort: Almost zero. (X)Ubuntu even sets up a ramdisk (/dev/shm) for your convenience, which is very convenient with the slow SSD. I did install Adam's "lean"-kernel ( see www.array.org/ubuntu ), as without this wireless is defunct. However, the effort needed for that was no less than tracking down a driver for Linux. Additionally, I modified fstab for noatime and added entries for my SD-Card and my USB-Thumbdrives. But this is not necessary for the typical user.
And I really want to see XP [fully patched!] on a machine with 128 MB. Back in the day when I was using XP, I started out with 512MB and did notice significant improvements after upgrading to 2 GB.
And you did not mention disk space which is very important on low-end machines. Currently, both operating systems and all programs take 2.5 GB.
On WinXP a 5 GB partition that was used solely for the OS was not enough even before SP3, which probably added another couple of hundred MB.
Why are you using a Computer to essentially play educational games?
Get some real stuff, that the children can touch, mess around with, break (and get reprimanded for), hit each other other the head with, whatever?
Why on earth does anybody want children to lay a "virtual lab"? What happened to simply go out to the school yard and blow the stuff up as a demonstration? That was far, far more fun to ma as a "virtual lab" could ever be.
My school (in Germany) had a cobbled-together pick-of-the-litter CIP-Pool running under Suse. When I went through physics the CIP Pool ran on Suse and DEC Alphas. I did my diploma thesis in an MPI and we were/are running Suse on P4s and the number-crunching is done under Suse on some old Alphas and Opterons. Now I am on Xubuntu on an EEE - well, that's what you get when you head out for a year abroad.
So there was definitely no shortage of Linux in my education.
However, e.g. most of the Architecture department has never heard of Linux - the CAD vendors make sure of that. The same with the Business department. And I know that the CS-department gets free licenses from Microsoft to avoid them "going Linux" [many still do].
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Well, posting this from an EEE 900A under Xubuntu (if used as a Desktop replacement) or PuppyLinux (if used as a netbook), let me say this:
You
are
wrong.
I have thrown quite some serious stuff at this thing. Encoding several thousand PNG images to mpeg4 while running FF3.0 and coding/compiling (albeit in VIM - but that's just personal preference) at a 1680x1050 desktop resolution is a typical workload - and the fan does not even ramp up.
Configuring effort: Almost zero. (X)Ubuntu even sets up a ramdisk (/dev/shm) for your convenience, which is very convenient with the slow SSD.
I did install Adam's "lean"-kernel ( see www.array.org/ubuntu ), as without this wireless is defunct. However, the effort needed for that was no less than tracking down a driver for Linux.
Additionally, I modified fstab for noatime and added entries for my SD-Card and my USB-Thumbdrives. But this is not necessary for the typical user.
And I really want to see XP [fully patched!] on a machine with 128 MB. Back in the day when I was using XP, I started out with 512MB and did notice significant improvements after upgrading to 2 GB.
And you did not mention disk space which is very important on low-end machines. Currently, both operating systems and all programs take 2.5 GB.
On WinXP a 5 GB partition that was used solely for the OS was not enough even before SP3, which probably added another couple of hundred MB.
You do know that Graphene is made out of Carbon?
And if you can not grasp the implications of that with respect to "cheap" oder "efficient manufacturing" please close your browser now.
What scientists are politicians? And which one of those are poor?
The chancellor of Germany holds a PhD in theoretical quantum/molecular mechanics.
Why are you using a Computer to essentially play educational games?
Get some real stuff, that the children can touch, mess around with, break (and get reprimanded for), hit each other other the head with, whatever?
Why on earth does anybody want children to lay a "virtual lab"? What happened to simply go out to the school yard and blow the stuff up as a demonstration? That was far, far more fun to ma as a "virtual lab" could ever be.
There is a real world out there. Use it.
My school (in Germany) had a cobbled-together pick-of-the-litter CIP-Pool running under Suse.
When I went through physics the CIP Pool ran on Suse and DEC Alphas.
I did my diploma thesis in an MPI and we were/are running Suse on P4s and the number-crunching is done under Suse on some old Alphas and Opterons.
Now I am on Xubuntu on an EEE - well, that's what you get when you head out for a year abroad.
So there was definitely no shortage of Linux in my education.
However, e.g. most of the Architecture department has never heard of Linux - the CAD vendors make sure of that. The same with the Business department. And I know that the CS-department gets free licenses from Microsoft to avoid them "going Linux" [many still do].