Comments on: How the ASUS EeePC showed me I was wrong about Linux

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:48:37 +0000

Linux is a very good OS, I am using it for many years. But it’s still not ready for the normal user.

By: Donnie

Donnie — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:04:43 +0000

there is a new forum starting up for Linux distros i believe there are several posts about the Linux eeepc Linux, you know for general help and what not, check it out. its brand new and needs content i know a few of the posters are really good with linux and actually have the eeepc

http://www.linuxtechforum.com

By: wolfen69

wolfen69 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:42:46 +0000

those who care about their computing experience and want full control over their computer will always be drawn to linux.

i don’t care if it overtakes microsoft. it is perfect for me and millions of other users.

By: tony t

tony t — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:26:51 +0000

I am glad that there are alternatives to windows. I am so tired of windows problems and want to send a message that windows are not getting the support to help there customers. I say thanks to all that help to this cause. I will talk to my tech guy to see how long will it take to get it working. tony t. Nov 2008.

By: dick hole

dick hole — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 06:27:34 +0000

linux doesn’t need to be ready for the mainstream. who gives a fuck if it’s used by the mainstream? i certainly don’t care if you use it, as long as the community of developers that have contributed to it continue to.

if you want some fancy gui shit that lets you operate a computer with only a mouse and never having to read a man page, then stick with windows or mac os (which by the way is not like linux at all, it is based on some version of BSD which is significantly different). that’s what those developers are paid to do. linux and all of the packaged GNU tools are desirable because of the superior amount of control you have over what you’re machine is doing for you. learn to use the computer well and you’ll never be able to use a windows system again. it is just too terribly inefficient to get anything done.

on a final note, linux isn’t open source so that you don’t have to pay for it. it’s open source so that if it doesn’t do something you want it to, you can change it yourself, and contribute that enhancement to the community. certainly can’t do that with windows or mac.

By: armk

armk — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:44:24 +0000

Same thing happened to me! I used to like the phrase “Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing”. And I would laugh when Linux geeks would show me those horrible GUIs and say that they’re “just like Windows” (Yeah, right!). But, again, the Eee PC showed me that Linux can actually be made good. So much so, that the next thing I did was dust off an old laptop and install Ubuntu as its only operating system!

I still use Vista to be sure (and I actually kind of like it), but with things like the Eee PC, Open Office (I dropped Word because Microsoft removed the equation editor and then discovered that OO is a pleasure to use), and Ubuntu (Linux for dummies) it is ever clearer that the end of Microsoft Windows is near. As soon as Linux learns to do good hardware plug and play I just might ditch it altogether!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:27:56 +0000

It’s worth mentioning that Xandros has a packaged distribution which is not very expensive and should replicate your Eee experience on a laptop or desktop. The packaged version comes with Crossover, I believe, which lets you run MS Office natively and directly under Linux.

By: winter

winter — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:17:53 +0000

why in the hell do people go on and on crying about how hard it is to get things initially set up with linux os’ like ubuntu? I went straight from xp to ubuntu and within a few hours with help from the multitude of forums and websites, everything was going fine. In fact it was better than fine, it was spectacular and I never looked back. I wonder how I ever lived without linux. I have several pc’s in the house and they are all running different variants of linux or unix now and I’m much happier having taken control of my own computers and not having some bloated corporation unconcerned with my interests telling me what to do.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:06:36 +0000

To sum up:

1. Pre-installed Linux is good, since the manufacturer does all the hard part for you.

2. Hard part: Linux driver is hard to install/configure correctly. Linux software may have too many configurations before you can use it.

3. Running windows program on Linux is OK, but the hard part is to get it working. If someone does it for you (Just like point 1, the pre-installed work), it will be easy to use. Otherwise, prepare to spend hard time to configure it.

4. I believe that point 2 and 3 are gradually improved. Some Linux distributions do better in this aspects (more user friendlier, e.g. Ubuntu Linux) than others.

By: davecs

davecs — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:40:54 +0000

What you have discovered is that the easiest Operating System to install is the one that someone has installed for you!

If you are installing onto an empty machine these days, one of the user-friendly Linux variants, and I concur with Edwin, (PCLinuxOS), is actually easier to install than Windows. The only concept you have to get your head around at that stage is Partitioning.

Once installed, as Linux tends to use Free Software, you can install new programs from the internet through a package manager (PCLinuxOS and all the *buntu’s use Synaptic), which will be kept concurrent with each other so they all use the same libraries (think of dll’s), thus keeping everything nice and stable.

The KDE desktop would not confuse a Windows user, and Linux is very scalable — it can use all the power of the latest, fastest hardware, whilst it can easily be adapted to run on older systems.

Of course for a project like the eeePC Linux is ideal, as the manufacturer can hire some geeks to strip out everything that is not needed, code anything that is needed and isn’t already there, and tailor the OS and software to the hardware and intended use. Possibly this is the way forward for Linux, particularly on laptops.