ASUS Delivers a Sexy Netbook, But is it Ditching Linux?

by Sam Dean - Jun. 04, 2009Comments (4)

In conjunction with the CompuTex tradeshow, ASUS has announced a new "Seashell" line of netbooks, with larger screens and a whole lot of battery life. The 1101HA (shown) has an 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution. There is a 160GB hard drive, and the company offers 10GB of online Eee storage. The new netbook comes with 1GB of RAM, has a Z-series Intel Atom chip, and ASUS is claiming it gets a whopping 11 hours of battery life. That's hard to believe given the size of the display.

ASUS is making other announcements at CompuTex too. It's not clear, though, how committed the company remains to shipping Linux-based systems.

Technically, you can still get all of ASUS' netbooks with Linux, but the company has created something of a firestorm with it's "It's Better With Windows" campaign. Many people have interpreted the marketing campaign to represent  ASUS joining forces with Microsoft against Linux. There is no clear language in the announcement of the new 1101HA netbook about Linux availability (or pricing), although I assume it will be an available option.

Notably, the new netbooks from Asus come with 802.11n "Draft-n" Wi-Fi built in, not just 802.11g. This new netbook looks like it has a lot going for it.

It's unfortunate that ASUS is choosing to push Windows so aggressively, when low-cost Linux machines helped the company sell millions of netbooks last year. There are strong signs of momentum for Linux on other netbooks, and Acer has just announced that it intends to put Moblin on all of its products--netbooks, laptops, and PCs. Moblin may also gain momentum because Android Market will run on Moblin 2.0 devices.

Bruce Byfield does a good job of questioning the ASUS/Windows marketing campaign:

 

"An Asus Eee loaded with Windows is a central part of modern, loving family life...By contrast, I assume, an Eee loaded with GNU/Linux belongs to the worlds of terrorists, trade unionists, S&M clubs, and other renegade loners such as atheists and evolutionists."

 

I get the sense that Microsoft has a lot to do with this ASUS campaign. InfoWorld and other have suggested that the financial hits that Microsoft has taken from the rise of netbooks have brought on aggressive reactions from the company. At the very least, ASUS should continue to make pre-loaded Linux an option on its systems.


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4 Comments
 

Is this guy serious...


"An Asus Eee loaded with Windows is a central part of modern, loving family life...By contrast, I assume, an Eee loaded with GNU/Linux belongs to the worlds of terrorists, trade unionists, S&M clubs, and other renegade loners such as atheists and evolutionists."


I'm not antiWindows and all, as I am a Windows user AND a DSL user, but putting "S&M clubs, and other renegade loners such as atheists and evolutionists" in that wording, and in the same sentence, with terrorists is mightily stupid, not to mention flagrantly antiAmerican.


AND, YOU'RE RIGHT, they sold millions of those ridiculous things BECAUSE of the dreaded Linux. I hope, for their sake, the reason most buyers chose ASUS wasn't specifically because of the operating system, otherwise Asus is toast.


0 Votes

Settle down, dude! I am quite impressed by the 11 hour battery life claim. There has been a lot of talk that Netbooks are their own beast, but if you are going to act like a notebook, you better be able to carry my data like one. My big issue with all the SSD-based netbooks is that the frikking drive is so small. I can deal with a slightly heavier machine if you give me 160GB of storage.


And did I mention an 11 hour battery?! I can almost make it to Australia with those figures!


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Microsoft's days are already numbered. They'll continue these scare tactics as long as they can, but the fact is that we live within a strong capitalist economy that favors agile and inexpensive solutions. You certainly can't beat free. Microsoft spreads FUD about TCO, but it's a straw man argument.


The operating system platform itself (resources, scheduling, GUI, etc.--the stuff you learn about in Computer Science) is getting to the point where there are fewer evolutionary changes each vendor can make. Microsoft likes to bundle value-added software, but similar if not better versions of paint, windows media player, etc. can be found in open source alternatives.


Ubuntu's Shuttleworth (amongst others) is calling for much needed standardization within Linux (such as asking Gnome to move to Qt), and we're now at the point where complete computer novices are faced with a similar learning curve regardless of which OS they choose to start with. Networking just works, and installation is arguably easier on Linux than Windows, and the UI is far more advanced and pioneering with Compiz.


Linux continues to pick up steam...


0 Votes

The truth of the matter is that Desktop Linux is making huge strides, but simple tasks can still be quite cumbersome to do. Ubuntu has made serious attempts to abstract the complexity but it is still difficult for the novice user who just wants a simple system to replace their notebooks or supplement them.


0 Votes
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