[clug] Anyone used or seen the Asus Eeepc yet? [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Lana Brindley]

2008/6/27 Arjen Lentz <arjen at lentz.com.au>:

> Hi Antti, all,
>
> On 27/06/2008, at 1:22 PM, Roppola, Antti - BRS wrote:
>
>> I know of a number of people who have bought them and love them.
>> Lots of them have installed Ubuntu. Good value for the money.
>>
>
> Got one for Phoebe and I concur. Although I kept the original OS (Xandros
> with ASUS foo).
>
>  My other half overheard the sales dude at JB suggesting one as a
>> solution for a grey nomad couple, including installing Ubuntu instead. :o)
>>
>
>
> Got for suggesting this machine.
>
> Not-so-good for suggestion to reintall the thing with Ubuntu. For that
> couple, what's the point? Replacing the OS is geek indulgence.
> The default setup is quite functional, can be tweaked without replacement
> (stuff added and menus enabled), and provides a good system without the
> usual clutter that confuses regular users.


Arjen,

Very valid point. In the little story I told earlier about my parents using
the machine, I believe the reason they found it so easy had to do with the
Xandros OS. There's no reason whatsoever for a <quote>grey nomad
couple</quote> to want to install a different OS. Not only would it be
potentially difficult for them to perform the install, but it could also be
potentially difficult for them to get the new OS up and configured
successfully too. All points which would eventually turn into a situation
where it gets given to a relative with the request "just put windows on it
for us, we know how to work that one".

Linux is perceived as a "geek culture" thing and, for many, it is, and
there's no problem with that. For those that want to se widespread adoption
and increased use on the desktop (and I count myself amongst that group),
then we need things like the eeepc and Xandros to help us achieve that.
Anything that makes linux accessible and easy to use, is a point in our
favour.

Cheers,
Lana


>
> I don't anticipate any "regular users" on this list, but let's try to see
> this from their perspective before making such funky suggestions.
>
> The default OS is Xandros (Debian based) with some tweaks. People may
> dislike it for all kinds of geek reasons, but I'd suggest that all those
> reasons are completely irrelevant for the average user. In addition, the
> risk of installing something else and having the users trip and move away
> from this machine or the Linux-based OS (i.e. going for Windows) is rather
> high. Past evangelisation and zealous deployment exercises have proved this
> in abundance. Let's not keep making that mistake.
>
> Mind you, of all the distros, Ubuntu is probably the most sensible one for
> average users. However, ASUS has done a nice job with their tweaks on
> Xandros, using IceWM and various settings to declutter and provide a pretty
> neat functional system. The wifi setup is even easy, the printer setup
> works, and so on. It's good! So for this particular machine, let's not try
> to convert the world. It's already Linux!
>
>
> Cheers,
> Arjen.
> --
> Arjen Lentz, Founder @ Open Query
> http://openquery.com.au/   (ph. +61-7-3103 0809)
> Training for MySQL in Brisbane,Sydney,Canberra,Melbourne,Adelaide,Auckland
>
>
>
> --
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>



-- 
Cheers! Lana

When I get a little money, I buy books.
If there is any left over, I buy food.
-- Deciderius Erasmus

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