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[News] The Guardian on the GNU/Linux Threat to Microsoft (on the Laptop)

  • Subject: [News] The Guardian on the GNU/Linux Threat to Microsoft (on the Laptop)
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:54:33 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Freelance
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Why falling Flash prices threaten Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| Until now, the received wisdom has been that GNU/Linux will never take off 
| with general users because it's too complicated. One of the signal 
| achievements of the Asus Eee PC is that it has come up with a front end that 
| hides the richness of the underlying GNU/Linux. It divides programs up into a 
| few basic categories - Internet, Work, Learn, Play - and then provides large, 
| self-explanatory icons for the main programs within each group. The result is 
| that anyone can use the system without training or even handholding.      
| 
| This combination of good functionality and out-of-the box ease of use with a 
| price so low that it's almost at the impulse-buy level could prove 
| problematic for Microsoft. Until now, there has been no obvious advantage for 
| the average user in choosing GNU/Linux over Windows on the desktop, and 
| plenty of disadvantages.    
| 
| The price differential has been slight, and there has always been the problem 
| of learning new ways of working. The Asus Eee PC changes all that. Because 
| the form factor is so different, people don't seem to make direct comparisons 
| with the desktop PC, and therefore don't expect the user experience to be 
| identical.    
`----

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/06/opensource.olpc


Related:

Accessories Start Plugging Into Asus' Eee PC

,----[ Quot  ]
| Asus' compact laptop debuted in October, but accessories aimed at the 
| ultraportable have just started to ship. 
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142987-c,thinandlightnotebooks/article.html


Sony leery of the Eee PC?

,----[ Quote ]
| If the Eee PC just catches on with Linux developers, enthusiasts, and the 
| tech-savvy early adopter crowd, that's fine by him. "But if mainstream buyers 
| buy it, then, whoa," Abary said.  
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9879798-7.html?tag=newsmap


Linux is about to take over the low end of PCs

,----[ Quote ]
| Opinion -- Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same 
| time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a 
| tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs 
| in users' hands.   
| 
| [...]
| 
| Microsoft will fight this trend tooth and nail. It will cut prices to the 
| point where it'll be bleeding ink on some of its product lines. And Windows 
| XP is going to stick around much longer than Microsoft ever wanted it to. 
| Still, it won't be enough. By attacking from the bottom, where Microsoft can 
| no longer successfully compete, Linux will finally cut itself a large slice 
| of the desktop market pie.      
`----

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2414535067.html


Small Linux Roundup

,----[ Quote ]
| I was really blown away. Who knew you could fit so much in an old machine? 
| Like DSL it had everything you need. But in addition everything worked out of 
| the box, and what was really neat is SeaMonkey came with Flash9 installed. I 
| could watch YouTube and even DVD’s (although some I tried didn’t work.)   
| 
| I ended up sticking with Puppy on a laptop install. Before I installed I used 
| Puppy and the mount tool to copy all the existing files off the computer. 
| These I burned onto a DVD and gave back to it’s owner. I then installed to 
| hard drive and after a bit of tweaking it was a brand new computer. I could 
| play music and even Super Nintendo games after I found the .pup file online.    
`----

http://www.wmtoolbox.com/tools/small-linux-roundup/

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