MSI SSD/HDD netbook spites Microsoft

You should pay more for a better OS like XP. After all, you're getting a better screwing.

Once again Microsoft is fighting inovation in the IT market. Someday people will realise that it is not a good idea to have Microsoft call the shots for other businesses' products. If it were up to them, Netbooks wouldnt exist and we'd be paying them monthly to use our own hardware.

You should ask why microsoft is calling the shots; the market demanded that XP was installed with these netbooks, as those with Linux or similar did not sell the same numbers. The end users wanted XP, and the companies had to comply with the demand - MS just sugar pilled them with lowering the price.

In my opinion it will be difficult now to persuade the market to go for a linux based netbook, even if the price difference reaches 50$ for the same model. People would probably go for the familar feeling of XP.

M$ can continue to call the shots. Linux hasn't got a snowball's chance. With Linux too much time needs to be spent maintaining the system. Window just works.

Try ubuntu. Everything *just works*. I've temporarily adopted it as my main os, before I jump back into C.L.I. hell with new releases of more serious distro's.

I'm a long time Ubuntu user. But " Everything *just works*" is a fallacy.

Here's two items for anyone considering the move. Bear in mind the slow SATA xfer bug has now been around for over a year and not fixed.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/119730
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/285392

And note I wrote "Windows Just Works". Windows has its problems, but for the average user they are nowhere near as problematic as when something goes wrong in Linux.

Cheers

When the little eeePC came out 18 or so months ago, I overheard a couple ask the salesman if the eeePC came with MS Word and Excel. The salesman said no, but then tried to explain that Openoffice was installed.

His spin didn't clinch the sale and they moved on to look at a Dell, with XP (or was it Vista?) on board, of course.

You're right. Folks want to maintain a comfort zone, which is based on all things Microsoft. No amount of talking up Linux will change that. And neither can Linux offer anything compelling that would make the ordinary want to change.

Cheers

What "just works" depends on the hardware. I have hardware that won't work with Linux. I have hardware that won't work with any Windows NT-7 RC.

On Linux when hardware is supported by an open-source driver it is usually supported forever. On Windows the manufacturer decides what to support and when. I have lots of usable hardware that won't work with Vista or 7RC because the manufacturers decided to not update their drivers. If you buy a new PC that the OEM has installed Linux or Windows on then you don't have any problems.

Installing programs that aren't in a Linux distro's repositories is more difficult than Windows programs that aren't in Windows Update, but not impossible for beginners. It would be nice if the commercial application developers would make their Linux installers friendlier (Doom3, Quake4, UT2004, Prey) but it hasn't happened yet.

The difference between the two is general performance, security, and cost. I don't see the point of needing a gig of memory to get an OS to perform adequately. Windows has too much overhead, even without Aero. I've never had a Windows system, including Vista, last more than two months without malware infection or registry corruption on a variety of retail and home-built systems. Windows security applications are a joke and just slow the system down (especially Symantec). Add in the usual licensing and authentication hassles and it's not worth it. I can install Linux on any number of systems, with any hardware configuration, for any type of user, for any purpose, without having to pay more or authenticate with anyone.

There are programs that work on Windows but not in Wine but most have free replacements. For a few critical ones I use VMware since it's easy to just delete the Windows drive image file and restore it from backup. It runs faster for most Windows programs (excluding 3D) since I don't have to bother wtih anti-malware or firewalls.

Bugs are annoying on any OS but with Linux I have a lot more influence to get them fixed than with Microsoft. If Ubuntu doesn't fix one that is causing me problems then I just switch to a different distro.

Yeah, screwed! Only $15 dollars profit? What if a million are sold (and more)? I wouldn't mind $15,000,000 if I were a business. That's $15 million more than 'Linux' gets!