Comments on: Debian To Replace Xandros on the Eee PC?

By: zygmunt

zygmunt — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:18:12 +0000

The choice of Xandros for the eee PC was I think unfortunate. The repositories are fairly restricted in content. I have gingerly added some Debian “Etch” for a development environment and so far have no breakages!! Ubuntu rather than Debian would perhaps be the best OS at present with its less restrictive software policies. Currently running CentOS5.2, Debian-etch, Fedora 8, Fedora 9, Knoppix 5.3.1, Mandriva 2008.2, openSUSE 10.3, openSUSE 11.0, PCLinuxOS, Sidux 2008.2, Ubuntu 7.10, and Ubuntu 8.04 on Desktops. Some have better stabilty but the bleeding edge is often required to run some hardware: e.g. USB DVB-T.

By: Rob Enderle

Rob Enderle — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:56:41 +0000

IT started off as a 7incher, now we are at 9 and they are already leaking pictures of the 10 inch model.

By next year, the EEE will be the same size as the Macbook.

But I cant wait till they drop Xandros.

By: Arky

Arky — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:31:16 +0000

Sounds like a good news!

By: Debianero

Debianero — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:45:17 +0000

“t would still make me laugh to see how people reacted to seeing a program called “Ice Weasel” on their new UMPC.”

# InTheLoop, people who buy an UMPC with Linux instead of winblows doesn’t afraid by a name changed

By: orlando_ombzzz

orlando_ombzzz — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:57:58 +0000

“Debian’s security policy, however, requires that they be able to apply their own security patches. ”

Yes, they want to be able to suppress the entropy of SSL handling in Firefox if they want but Mozilla don’t like that.

By: InTheLoop

InTheLoop — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:53:35 +0000

“Um, Iceweasel *is* FireFox with a different name.”

I know, but it would still make me laugh to see how people reacted to seeing a program called “Ice Weasel” on their new UMPC.

By: David Bruce

David Bruce — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:21:00 +0000

>so the eeePC will come with Iceweasel instead of Firefox ??

Um, Iceweasel *is* FireFox with a different name. However, the Mozilla team won’t let Debian call it FireFox if it has any modifications whatsoever. All modifications would have to be approved by Mozilla before they can be distributed. Debian’s security policy, however, requires that they be able to apply their own security patches. Hence, FireFox gets called “Iceweasel”, and all the legal obligations are fulfilled, at the cost of potentially confusing newcomers.

btw, Ubuntu handles this by agreeing not to release any modifications without first getting them approved by Mozilla. Being a company with paid developers, Canonical can handle a little more red tape.

>Debian is great, but they will need to fork from it if they don’t >want Debian’s “restrictions” on proprietary stuff…

They can always put their own stuff in as well. Lots of derivative distributions do this, including Ubuntu, which of course is just a Debian derivative, albeit extremely prominent.

By: InTheLoop

InTheLoop — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:17:25 +0000

“so the eeePC will come with Iceweasel instead of Firefox ??”
Guess so.

“i think if they go with a custom (”Asus-fy”) version of ubuntu remix, it would be best.”

That would be just plain awesome. I have to say, though, Debian + Asus does not sound too bad. I am hoping the ultra-free of Debian and the not-ultra-free of Asus will cancel out.

By: manny

manny — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:09:46 +0000

hmm,

so the eeePC will come with Iceweasel instead of Firefox ??

Debian is great, but they will need to fork from it if they don’t want Debian’s “restrictions” on proprietary stuff…

i think if they go with a custom (”Asus-fy”) version of ubuntu remix, it would be best.

also they would have access to support from the ubuntu community