Asus: alas poor Linux Eee PC we fare thee well?, Mar 17, 2008

Question: Asus makes an innovative cheap little Linux computer that takes the world by storm but decides to fix what isn't broken and make it more expensive, why? The power of Microsoft of course! And so yet another attempt by a Linux purveyor to carve a niche in mainstream consumer computing looks set to fall to Windows. Or will it?

... can the likes of Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mongolia and a myriad of other impoverished countries stump up with the cash needed to join the OLPC bandwagon? The sums are not that difficult to do.

The news that Dell has now released Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on its boxes (and about time too!) has been tempered somewhat by a potential storm of controversy caused by a couple of software packages that come bundled with the Dell Linux PCs.

Mozilla Foundation, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, has defended itself against claims from sections of the Linux community that it has ignored Linux in the development of Firefox 3, the next generation of the browser. Mozilla's chief interface designer says Linux is very much included in the development project.

The word from our ear on the ground is that the Asus EeePC sub-notebook, which made its Australian debut in the Myer department store chain on 2 December, was sold out completely across stores in the major capitals by Sunday.

Members of the Linux community have complained that the hot new sub-notebook from Asus, the eeePC, may have violated the spirit of the Linux General Public License (GPL)

Last night I downloaded the latest beta release from Mozilla, Firefox 3 Beta 1, meaning to just have a look-see so that I could pen a few impressions. Since then, I haven't bothered to load up Firefox 2 because, even though it's a pre-production test version, Firebox 3 Beta 1 is a mighty fine browser.

Just as as I was getting comfortable using Ubuntu on my desktop, enthusiastic readers have assailed me with stories about how I should give other Linux distros a try - particularly the KDE pair PCLinuxOS and SimplyMEPIS.

Linux desktop users looking for good financial software to run natively can forget about Quicken and Quickbooks. One glance at Intuit's website should be enough to convince even devout users of that company's products that despite Quickbooks for Linux servers showing strong growth, a port to Linux desktops is a long way off and a Linux version of Quicken is not even on the radar. So what are the alternatives?

For any parent, myself included, setting your kids loose on the net is a daunting prospect. We have to do it because the net is a fact of life - it's in our schools, the workplace, public libraries and in many if not most homes of the developed world. Therefore, do we really have any option but to give them Linux?

Well the Linux desktop is certainly here and I can prove it because as of today I'm officially an Ubuntu user and even though things aren't perfect, I feel like I've finally escaped from jail. Those of you contemplating the move from Windows, however, had better be prepared to make some compromises and even a few sacrifices.

While Windows advocates may smirk and say here we go again, as 2007 draws to a close I get the strong feeling that we may look back upon this year and recognize it with hindsight as the year that the Linux desktop finally arrived.

It's hard to believe that Dell is serious about its well-publicised program to put Linux computers on the global market when there are blatantly obvious instances where the limited range of Ubuntu notebooks and desktops are more expensive than their Windows equivalent. However, is pricing as important as some may think?

Is the year of the Linux desktop finally upon us or is this just another flare up generated by the Linuxworld conference in San Francisco?

The world's largest Linux vendor Red Hat will release a pre-installed desktop version of Linux globally in September. The new Red Hat desktop targeting primarily small business users will be available on cheap whitebox Intel PCs and, according to Red Hat, will not try to be a Windows clone.

Mozilla's Firefox (FF) web browser has made dramatic gains on Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) throughout Europe in the past year with a marked upturn in FF use compared to IE over the past four months, according to French web monitoring service XiTiMonitor.

At a time when much of the world is salivating with excitement over the release of Dell's new Ubuntu Linux computers in the US, it's ironic that the market in which Ubuntu originated, Europe, still has not received word on when the new Dell boxes will be available.

"Under the guise of trying to bridge the digital divide, Microsoft will instead aim to extend its desktop monopoly by using the same technique it's used for years through software piracy: platform addiction. An addiction it will milk in future decades,"

Having had a go at a few more Linux installations than the average newbie, I can say that Ubuntu is probably about as easy an install as it's going to get.

... it appears that winds of change are afoot, with a growing rift between some old guard stalwarts and the stewards of the increasingly popular Ubuntu distribution.