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Acer Joins the List of Companies Backing Linux
Acer appears to be joining the ever-growing list of companies that are backing Linux, a list that currently includes Asus, Dell, HP, and others. Acer has even gone beyond many of the companies on the list by not only announcing a computer of theirs that will run Linux, in Acer’s case the Aspire One UMPC, but also saying “Microsoft has a lot of power and it is going to be difficult, but we will be working hard to develop the Linux market,” according to CNet.
OK, so it is great to see Acer’s support for Linux, but what does that quote, which is from Acer’s Vice President of Marketing, mean? Although it is hard to be sure it is more than just press, I suspect that it means two things:
- Acer probably has a bias against Microsoft – “Microsoft has a lot of power” certainly seems to imply that Acer feels pressure from Microsoft to use Windows
- We will probably see more Acer computers running Linux in the future.
Whatever this quote may mean exactly, it is good to see that Linux has another backer. I just wish the name Acer didn’t sound so much Asus – I have trouble keeping them straight!
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I wonder how many of those returns are because the machine won’t run that pirate copy of Word or Photoshop that the owner brought home from the office. Of the rest, how many were returned because the owner called his ISP’s support line for setup information and was told “We Do Not Support Linux”, or even some version of “Duh, Linux? Which version of Windows is that?” I still have a shrunken XP partition on my machine in case I have to deal with some functionary who thinks that Windows is the world, or a Web site that refuses to talk to anything but MSIE..
A major marketing flaw, in my opinion, lies with the fact that Acer will make a windows model and a linux model, but put the linux on the machine with less RAM. When I bought my Acer aspire 1 I opted for the xp version and the installed linux over it.
Looking forward to the final blow for Windows systems, the one following Vista should do the trick. Let me make a few predictions – A now paranoid Microsoft will impose stringent restrictions ans conditions for its use, it will require the purchase of a “bigger, better” computer for equal or poorer results, it will lack computability, either forwards, backwards or laterally to other systems, It will be priced just out of the range most Americans can afford in this depression, It will work poorly at best, and require many upgrades, its sales will show that Microsoft is a corporation on the unhappy side of their business curve.
Sorry, the website is
http://www.splashtop.com/
While that’s good news for Linux, people need a better understanding of the benefits of using open source and free software. I’ve read that the return rate for these mini laptops running Linux is much higher than the ones running Windows. It’s really sad that most people won’t take the time to learn to use a different OS even though it is, in many ways, superior.
Things I’ve heard are “But, everyone uses Windows”, “Linux is too different”, “Linux won’t run the programs I use” etc.
That being said, it’s good to see major manufacturers like Dell, Acer, HP, Asus and others offering Linux on some machines. Dell is now advertising their Linux UMPCs in major publications.
By the way, Splashtop is a new technology that imbeds Linux on a ROM chip on the motherboard. It allows almost instant access to the internet, email and word processing. Asus is already offering this on some of their motherboards and has stated that it will eventually be on all the boards they sell. On the website http://www.splashtop.com/http://www.splashtop.com/ there is a video that talks about Asus which they pronounce A-soos. That doesn’t sound like Acer at all ;~)