4 ms·

It depends where you live. There are certainly new netbooks available in the UK from, for example, Amazon.co.uk. Asus and perhaps others still supply them in ma

by scholia 13y ago

It depends where you live. There are certainly new netbooks available in the UK from, for example, Amazon.co.uk. Asus and perhaps others still supply them in markets where there is demand, but I guess those are mostly poor countries. Asus Eee PC X101CH 10.1-inch Netbook (Purple) - (Intel Atom N2600 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 320GB HDD, LAN, WLAN, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 7 Starter) First available 30 Oct 2012 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-X101CH-10-1-inch-Netbook-Purple/dp/B00A15DDKS/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-X101CH-10-1-inch-Netbook-Purple... However, the netbook specification is very limited (by Intel and Microsoft), and you get better screen resolution and more memory by buying a very slow laptop. This very slow laptop may even be called a "netbook". However, if it uses an AMD chip (ie not an Atom), then it is not bound by Intel's netbook specification. This is basically a netbook with an Atom-speed AMD CPU: Acer Aspire V5-121 11.6-inch Laptop (Blue) - (AMD C70 1GHz Processor, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, LAN, WLAN, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 8) First available 17 April 2013 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-V5-121-11-6-inch-Laptop/dp/B00CFHP6FU/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-V5-121-11-6-inch-Laptop/... The price difference is £13 ($21) which gets you Windows 8 instead of Windows 7 Starter, and 2GB instead of 1GB of memory. Weight is the same (998g vs 1kg). Microsoft basically killed the netbook market when it stopped selling Windows XP Ultra Low Cost PC edition for peanuts ($15 or less). Windows 7 Starter was offered very grudgingly at much higher cost, and I suspect most netbook buyers would prefer XP. All the OEMs knew this was coming. Microsoft said the ULCPC offering would be "available until the later of June 30, 2010, or one year after general availability of the next version of Windows." (ie Windows 7) http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2008/apr08/04-03xpeos.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2008/apr08/04-0...

nkorth 13y ago
Silly computer manufacturers still haven't figured out that they can preload Ubuntu for $0 per device... :P
- scholia 13y ago
  Acer, Asus and MSI all tried pre-loading Linux on netbooks. It caused them no end of pain and cost them loads of cash, so they mostly stopped. I did actually suggest to all three that they should combine and pre-load a common version of Ubuntu but they weren't interested. In 2008, in Taiwan, Asus's netbook boss Johnny Chen told me that part of the appeal of Linux was that they could control their own OS. However, at the time, they didn't know how much pain there was in getting Linux drivers for, for example, a couple of dozen USB modems to work with dozens of ISPs in 32 languages across 50 countries, or whatever. (I'm quoting from memory.) They also didn't know how much money they would lose trying to support Linux for non-technical buyers. Netbook prices included so little profit that every support incident put you deeper and deeper into the red. It was actually much cheaper and more profitable for them to install XP ULCPC than to install Linux. With XP they got marketing support (money!) from Intel and Microsoft plus cash-in-hand for installing crapware. They also knew just about every new peripheral in the universe would work out of the box, and that if it didn't, most buyers would get support from friends, the people next door, the IT guy at work etc. So maybe they're not actually as silly as you imagine ;-)
- sheng 13y ago
  Silly customers won't buy them, unfortunately. It has to be Windows7 or OSX, everything else seems to be a deal breaker. No offence here, i'm a linux user myself. Everywhere i go and look all i can see are macbook{air,pro} and i can't really understand why anyone would go with such a cage.
  - jodrellblank 13y ago
    How is it a cage? What can't you run if you owning a Macbook {air,pro}? (Especially with VirtualBox + Linux on it(!)).
- samspenc 13y ago
  Software makers pay PC manufacturers top dollar to install bloatware on PCs, which pretty much negates the Windows cost and allows them to price Windows PCs lower than any Ubuntu alternative.

by scholia 13y ago

nkorth 13y ago

Silly computer manufacturers still haven't figured out that they can preload Ubuntu for $0 per device... :P

scholia 13y ago
Acer, Asus and MSI all tried pre-loading Linux on netbooks. It caused them no end of pain and cost them loads of cash, so they mostly stopped. I did actually suggest to all three that they should combine and pre-load a common version of Ubuntu but they weren't interested. In 2008, in Taiwan, Asus's netbook boss Johnny Chen told me that part of the appeal of Linux was that they could control their own OS. However, at the time, they didn't know how much pain there was in getting Linux drivers for, for example, a couple of dozen USB modems to work with dozens of ISPs in 32 languages across 50 countries, or whatever. (I'm quoting from memory.) They also didn't know how much money they would lose trying to support Linux for non-technical buyers. Netbook prices included so little profit that every support incident put you deeper and deeper into the red. It was actually much cheaper and more profitable for them to install XP ULCPC than to install Linux. With XP they got marketing support (money!) from Intel and Microsoft plus cash-in-hand for installing crapware. They also knew just about every new peripheral in the universe would work out of the box, and that if it didn't, most buyers would get support from friends, the people next door, the IT guy at work etc. So maybe they're not actually as silly as you imagine ;-)
sheng 13y ago
Silly customers won't buy them, unfortunately. It has to be Windows7 or OSX, everything else seems to be a deal breaker. No offence here, i'm a linux user myself. Everywhere i go and look all i can see are macbook{air,pro} and i can't really understand why anyone would go with such a cage.
- jodrellblank 13y ago
  How is it a cage? What can't you run if you owning a Macbook {air,pro}? (Especially with VirtualBox + Linux on it(!)).
samspenc 13y ago
Software makers pay PC manufacturers top dollar to install bloatware on PCs, which pretty much negates the Windows cost and allows them to price Windows PCs lower than any Ubuntu alternative.