Linux is Part of Asus’s Long Term Plan
Obviously, the Eee PC has been a huge success for Asus, as well as for Linux, but until now it has not been clear if Linux is really a part of Asus’s long term plan. It seems quite likely that Asus intends to use the Eee PC as a way of becoming a better known computer company. (If you ask a random person what Dell or HP does, they will know. If you ask them the same question about Asus, chances are they will not.) What has not been clear, however, is if Linux was just a temporary plan for the Eee or if it is a long term plan for Asus. With the recent announcements, it has become clear that Linux really is part of Asus’s long term plan.
Now that Asus has released three new Linux products, some of which (mostly the E-TV) are clearly designed to start a whole new class of product, they have shown a commitment to Linux. If their plan was to do the Eee with Linux and than start offering Windows, they would have done it by now. There have already been some calls for Windows on the Eee (which Asus plans to answer, by the way), so it would be a perfect time. Instead, Asus announced three new Linux products.
I would even go so far to say that if Asus keeps up its support of Linux, it may be the company that is credited with bringing Linux on the desktop to the masses.
February 4th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
The EEEPc just went on sale here in Japan. NO Linux version was available. Asus appears to be using the Japanese market to prop up itself with its windows support. Every time they have been asked about the OS they just say unsolvable problems were experienced (In Japan that’s a euphemism for business kickbacks or business “giri”)
How long until other places get the same no Linux deal with Asus?…
February 4th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
So… does this mean I can start expecting some action in response to Linux-related bugs with other Asus kit? Such as the terrible network and frequency scaling issues with the P5WDG2?
February 4th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
this might finally fix bug #1! and it’s a company I’ve supported for years for the quality of their product. Asia can do good too! go asus!
February 4th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
It’s too bad Asus doesn’t update their repositories very often. We’ve only seen one update to skype. Also, really too bad they didn’t use Ubuntu and instead chose that Xandros variant without network manager. No network manager on a mobile device seems very… dumb!
Thankfully, many people use Ubuntu and there’s a simple ubuntu-eee script out there to work out the eee pc Ubuntu kinks.
February 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
A huge success without Windoze
February 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
That’s good news I’d say! I must admit that I would never buy the EEPC (I don’t really like laptops, let alone if they are tiny), but surely the next computer I will buy, will be one with GNU/Linux installed!
February 5th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Linux is far more powerful than Windows. The fact that ASUS is supporting Linux is really good. Although I haven’t seen any Linux based Eee PC here in India. But I hope that they’ll be launched soon. At my site, I generally ask people to switch to Linux. Especially when it can be customized a lot! Anybody know which distro of Linux they provide?
February 5th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I just went to a giant TESCO/LOTUS superstore here in Bangkok the other day, and every laptop and desktop on sale was preloaded with Linux in various distros that i had never heard of. Not sure if people are buying these machines and sticking with linux, or if they’re loading up XP from the freely available bootleg CDs in shops around town.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I _really_ hope this leads to greater use of linux in bios:
http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot
That is from boot: graphical, more useful, w/ grub, etc, etc…
Imagine if all you wanted to do was listen to music/watch a video. What if all this existed in bios with no need to boot a full fledged OS….
February 5th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I am suprised that Asus does not sell the Eee with Linux in some other countries. Thanks for pointing that out. Here in the US, you can only get the Eee with Linux. (Asus does plan to introduce an XP version soon, though.)
Reshadat - Here in the US, the Linux Eee PC comes with a customized and simplified version of Xandros running KDE.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:31 am
@cybersekkin
yes, the Japanese eeePC is also $70 USD more expensive because it comes with win XP … (USD $470)
am sure many stores will start importing the linux version (USD $399)