Netbooks and Linux

102

I managed to get an Acer Aspire One a couple months back for £150 brand new.  I was interested to see what Acer’s Linpus Lite was like and what I found was shocking.

Acer’s edition of Linpus Lite is a horrifically simplified interface, almost as if it were designed for children.  A few big icons in 4 categories, and that’s it.  I never did find out if I could actually install anything else.  I was also astonished to find that Firefox was only version 2, and so was OpenOffice.  Overall, it was a very disappointing experience, and naturally I wiped the whole thing off and installed the awesome Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Now I can begin to understand why so many consumers have returned their Linux netbooks and asked for Windows instead: because the version of Linux they were given was awful!  I cringe at the thought of the number of people who finally decided to give Linux a try, and their first and only experience of using it was Linpus.  Linux’s reputation must have taken a beating.  I’m quite sure that the returns would have been dramatically reduced if UNR had been installed instead.  It’s far more user-friendly, looks better, performs better, comes with a lot more software, is more configurable and has a huge repository of software to install at the user’s will.

 I really hope Acer will ditch the monstrosity they currently use and help restore Linux’s reputation to that of a fast, stable, agile and capable platform.

On a related point, I’m also disappointed with many manufacturers who offer Linux netbooks with a lower spec than their Windows counterparts.  They half the memory, or offer 8Gb SSD harddrive instead of 120Gb, or exclude Bluetooth.  Why?  Linux may not be as resource-hungry as Windows, but the public’s impression will be that they won’t be getting a good machine if they buy a Linux version.  No wonder Windows has won the netbook market: the industry has failed to deliver the right spec and the right OS.