
Long-time OSNews reader
Kaiwai has written down
his experiences with his Acer Aspire One, Linux, and Windows. He concludes:
"After a hectic few weeks trying to get Linux to work, I am back to square one again - a netbook running Windows XP SP3 as it was provided by Acer when I purchased it. I gave three different distributions a chance to prove themselves. I expected all three distributions to wipe the floor with Windows XP - after all, these are the latest and greatest distributions the Linux world have to offer. There has been at least 7 years since the release of Windows XP for Linux to catch up to Windows XP and from my experience with Linux on this said device - it has failed to step up to the plate when it was needed."
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Member since:
2007-02-17
No problem about the venting ... I have likewise felt the need to do so on some occasions when it comes to netbooks.
Just on your thought though about getting the Windows version ... be aware that the Windows version is XP Home, and it is even then made available by Microsoft under some restricted conditions (such as no more than 1GB RAM supported).
PS: I also had an issue with XP on one netbook, where I needed to repair from the OEM DVD image ... oops, no DVD drive on netbooks! I had to lash something up using a spare DVD drive and a USB external IDE disk.
XP Home also, of course, is quite limited in its networking capabilities. It cannot join a Windows domain for example ... workgroups only.
No other version of Windows (yet) is licensed by Microsoft to run on most netbooks.
So ... if we are going to vent publically about the failure of netbook OEMs to choose components such that Linux would work fully out-of-the-box as it is CAPABLE of doing ... then likewise we should bear in mind the shortcomings of the Windows version that is offered by OEMs on netbooks compared with what it is CAPABLE of doing.
Be aware also that by the end of next month there will be two versions of fully-capable Linux available to run on most netbooks, but still no equivalent version of Windows.
Edited 2009-03-02 04:49 UTC