Linux on Netbooks: The Smoking Gun | Hacker News Reader

Linux on Netbooks: The Smoking Gun

groklaw.net

37 pointssadiq21 comments

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.

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

For a brief period Asus offered better Linux models than Windows ones (for example a 20gb SSD instead of an 8gb SSD, for the same price).

Now that seems to have changed, sadly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I think the percentage should be bigger. Besides the obvious powerusers, most companies do their IT in-house...

Having called support in my life very few times, and having received the answers I did, I have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of time to even consider calling. I have a hard time imagining what people see in tech support and how they help.

Most people who call tech support do so in lieu of reading documentation, rather than because something they know how to operate isn't working properly.

How is it any better?

hm ... I understand your point but I'm wondering if it is splitting hairs since Microsoft has shot such horses in the past (for example, Dell) so the "fear" is not totally unjustified.

I agree, but justified fear is still different than a "smoking gun". PJ is spinning this as "the definitive proof of improper behavior by Microsoft with regards to netbooks", when it is no such thing.

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)

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).

The design of OLPC's XO laptop might have been the root cause. That had Sugar, a custom icon-based desktop environment. Asus is a hardware company; it made sense to take whatever software design choices were made by the OLPC team as a good set of defaults. Even Ubuntu Netbook Remix took some time to bake properly.

There was also the initial confusion over what consumers really wanted out of a netbook -- a minimal laptop, or an internet communication device. The XO and original eeePC interfaces fit the latter, but feel a little strange in the former case. (UNR hits a nice middle ground, I think.)

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

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.

The monopoly has been the game of "education" all along. Educating justice, regulators, business partners... How many can StrongARM the DoJ, FTC, whole countries (in this case Taiwan) and always have a get-out-of-jail card ready each and every time just because of "education"? For one thing, they do have backing [goog://"economic hitman"].

"I think it is absurd that the lawsuit is taking so long and that we are educating the third federal judge on the case. I am pleased with our work on this case. Our view that we will almost certainly prevail remains unchanged."

[...]

"I hope we can quickly educate the FTC on our business."

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.

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