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Remember that ASUS shipped their first EeePCs with Linux pre-installed. They soon ended up selling most with Windows, though, after Microsoft made XP available

Remember that ASUS shipped their first EeePCs with Linux pre-installed. They soon ended up selling most with Windows, though, after Microsoft made XP available for them and cheap. They didn't put a lot of commitment into Linux, using idiosyncratic Xandros as their distro and rarely providing any updates. Now they seem to be doing this again, with MeeGo. I'm curious whether they will manage to have the computer boot up without an ugly DOS-style cursor blinking, and also in Macbook-quality suspend-to-ram.

justincormack 15y ago
The Linux distro they used on the original ones was pretty bad. Mine runs Ubuntu now, and I still use it though it is slow, and could do with an upgrade...
jrockway 15y ago
I'm curious whether they will manage to have the computer boot up without an ugly DOS-style cursor blinking, and also in Macbook-quality suspend-to-ram. I'm pretty sure that all the "normal person" Linux distros have a splash screen until X starts these days. Also, haven't noticed any problems with suspend to RAM on any machines these days: hardware vendors have largely gotten ACPI right at this point. (If you want true OS X style suspend, use s2both instead s2ram.)
- loevborg 15y ago
  People always say this, and on my recent Thinkpad it works out of the box - but not every time. I can't completely rely on it. It's a world of difference to my friend's Macbook Air. To get these things right (polish), you have to spend some time working on this rather than rushing hardware out of the door. Non-Apple hardware vendors and particularly those who ship Linux aren't very good at this, nor at fixing things after releasing the notebook.
  - jrockway 15y ago
    My Thinkpad X220 works every time.
  - Derbasti 15y ago
    I know quite a few Windows 7 laptops that don't get hibernation quite reliable, either. I guess that could mean that hibernation is simply very hard to do if you don't know the exact hardware.
regularfry 15y ago
That they were able to force Microsoft's hand like that says a lot about the desirability of a Linux notepad at that end of the market.
- joe_the_user 15y ago
  Yes, The problem is that in a niche market that threatens to make inroads, MS has an incentive to lower their price to zero or even negative to prevent a competitor from entering the field (and Linux actually never costs zero since no one gives away reasonable quality Linux support and configuration).
pja 15y ago
The poor sales of the Linux EeePCs really only applied in the US: EU sales were 50/50 with no particular returns bias between the two if my memory of Asus' statements at the time is correct. Perhaps there was some difference in the marketing / choice of sales channels between the US and EU that led to the difference?

justincormack 15y ago

The Linux distro they used on the original ones was pretty bad. Mine runs Ubuntu now, and I still use it though it is slow, and could do with an upgrade...

jrockway 15y ago

I'm curious whether they will manage to have the computer boot up without an ugly DOS-style cursor blinking, and also in Macbook-quality suspend-to-ram. I'm pretty sure that all the "normal person" Linux distros have a splash screen until X starts these days. Also, haven't noticed any problems with suspend to RAM on any machines these days: hardware vendors have largely gotten ACPI right at this point. (If you want true OS X style suspend, use s2both instead s2ram.)

loevborg 15y ago
People always say this, and on my recent Thinkpad it works out of the box - but not every time. I can't completely rely on it. It's a world of difference to my friend's Macbook Air. To get these things right (polish), you have to spend some time working on this rather than rushing hardware out of the door. Non-Apple hardware vendors and particularly those who ship Linux aren't very good at this, nor at fixing things after releasing the notebook.
- jrockway 15y ago
  My Thinkpad X220 works every time.
- Derbasti 15y ago
  I know quite a few Windows 7 laptops that don't get hibernation quite reliable, either. I guess that could mean that hibernation is simply very hard to do if you don't know the exact hardware.

regularfry 15y ago

That they were able to force Microsoft's hand like that says a lot about the desirability of a Linux notepad at that end of the market.

joe_the_user 15y ago
Yes, The problem is that in a niche market that threatens to make inroads, MS has an incentive to lower their price to zero or even negative to prevent a competitor from entering the field (and Linux actually never costs zero since no one gives away reasonable quality Linux support and configuration).

pja 15y ago

The poor sales of the Linux EeePCs really only applied in the US: EU sales were 50/50 with no particular returns bias between the two if my memory of Asus' statements at the time is correct. Perhaps there was some difference in the marketing / choice of sales channels between the US and EU that led to the difference?