Asus Eee PC with Windows XP

March 8, 2008 in hardware
Tags: asus eee, cebit, hardware, linux, microsoft, rant, windows xp

I’ve been reading the past two days that Asus will soon be releasing an update to their Eee PC that will include Microsoft Windows XP, instead of Linux. The Asus Eee PC 900 will not only come with Windows XP pre-installed, it will feature a larger 8.9 inch screen, 1GB of memory, and a increase storage capacity over the previous Asus Eee PCs coming with 12GB of storage. According to X-bit labs, the new Eee PC 900 will have a price tag of around 399 euros (or about $600 US Dollars).

In my opinion, this new ultra mobile PC from Asus probably won’t be as successful as the current generation Asus Eee PC. The reason being, I’m not so sure people will pay $600 for a laptop that has low performance and storage capacity when the same amount of money can get you a brand new, low-end laptop with much better performance specifications and storage capacity. Asus should stick to the sub-$500 range.

Something else striking me as strange is Asus moving to Windows XP as opposed to a Linux operating system. Don’t get me wrong, Windows XP is far easier to use than Linux when you first start out. Not to mention it has wider support among hardware vendors, and doesn’t give you any problems when trying to use peripheral devices, but is it really worth the cost? The added cost of a Windows XP license only hurts the customers, which probably aren’t going to be using the Asus Eee as an average laptop. The idea is a low-cost, ultra mobile, Internet ready machine; and quite frankly adding XP to that equation just doesn’t make sense to me.