

Linux on Netbooks: The Smoking Gun - sadiq
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090619161307529

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michael_dorfman
_That's_ what passes for a "smoking gun" these days-- that somebody says they
were frightened?

I enjoy PJ and Groklaw, but this time's she's really over-stepping.

 _If I say my horse is faster than yours, and you says yours is faster, and we
let our horses race around the track, that establishes the point. But if you
shoot my horse, that leaves questions in the air. Is your horse _really_
faster? If so, why shoot my horse?_

Except that in this case, nobody shot the horse. One of the jockeys got scared
that somebody was going to shoot the horse, used that as an excuse to pull out
of the race. Not quite the same thing, smoking-gun-wise.

~~~
scscsc
So you explain it better. Why can't I get a Linux "netbook" with the same
configuration as a Windows "netbook" ?

~~~
Zak
That does tend to be annoying. A lot of times certain hardware configurations
aren't offered, even though there are mature drivers for the hardware in
question.

Still, it's better than five years ago.

~~~
rbanffy
Probably it's a question of support. Supporting a given config costs money.
While I never called Acer's for the Ubuntu I use on my netbook, it's fair to
say I am not a typical user.

That said, the netbooks in question not only don't come with Windows, they are
as Windows-proof as can be.

~~~
Zak
I'd be content with zero-support[0] PCs sold without any OS. At a guess, some
5% of the market would go for that, including most Linux users as well as many
Windows power-users who have a wipe-before-use policy on store bought PCs.

[0] There would still be a hardware warranty.

~~~
rbanffy
It's still cost until you discover the hardware problem was not a hardware
problem.

As much as I love Linux, I recognize there is a legitimate reason to bundle
Windows with many models - the support and remote diagnostics infrastructure
is already deployed whereas with Linux OEMs would have to build one. It would
be a better one, of course, but with the razor thin margins they operate, they
may not be able to afford it.

~~~
dhimes
Seems perfect for a startup: a linux support group that supports all flavors
and geared toward the newbie/non-hacker computer users.

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brfox
The linux distro that came with my Asus EEE PC was very bad and was worse than
Win XP in many ways - especially for a general user. I think that might have
something to do with why linux is not seen on many netbooks. (I switched to
ubuntu after a couple weeks)

~~~
Create
I still can't decide, if it is in a genuine good-will to make it "look"
familiar, but in any case, in practice it created an illusion of a cheap XP
knock-off, which certainly didn't work like, and wasn't Windows. What is
certain, is that they have signed a patent deal with MS, so I guess it was
very much in consideration.

This is why I went Acer instead of Asus.

Could it have been just Intel behind the scene, to force MS into accepting
reality, that most people don't need Microsoft Windows Vista Home Ultra Basic
Premium on their P5 class Atom, which it wouldn't run decently anyway?

Creating a world-wide desktop distribution is tough: RedHat gave up, SuSe is
an MS proxy ["Keeping up appearances" series comes to mind], and Ubuntu is
still the only desktop that has some traces of passion to drive it (its
wallpaper always makes this point readily apparent).

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edw519
That's some gun. It's been smoking for 30 years.

~~~
rbanffy
30? No. In 1979 Microsoft was a tiny company that paid the bills by selling
BASIC interpreters to computer manufacturers. Nobody was afraid of Microsoft
in 1979.

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trezor
If that is a "smoking gun", I hope nobody from groklaw will serve jury duty,
ever.

This was reallly, really weak and an embarassment to read.

