[davea]

Thanks Jason... In for one at eXpansis.com. Similar units (dark blue) on ebay with Windows xp tend to be at least $240 and up. (I tried to get three different ones for less). Plus with eXpansis you get a full 1 year warranty.

[davea]

Thanks Jason... In for one at eXpansis.com. Similar units (dark blue) on ebay with Windows xp tend to be at least $240 and up. (I tried to get three different ones for less). Plus with eXpansis you get a full 1 year warranty.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Hmm, I hopped over to my local branch of Expansys and they also have some for sale. Not as cheap, but still a decent deal. Might get one to toy around with. Or not.

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Most people have a license for Windows kicking around - and it's far faster to install the trial of Vista then upgrade it to the full version than it is to install XP. That's the only reason I suggested it - I'm not advocating anyone breaking licensing rules.

Hmm, now that you've mentioned it, if chain upgrading is alright, I think I can secure 3 very cheap versions of Windows 7 in accordance to the licenses.

[srsabu]

FYI: I put the RC of Windows 7 as another partition on my daughter's Aspire One, and it works great except for the wireless networking. The drivers are still pretty flaky, and I've had limited success connecting with it.

[jdmichal]

Originally Posted by mtd19

Oh sure it does, and Linux is designed much better than windows. Windows command line is a PITA and Linux is much easier to use (heck I'm even comfortable on the Mac terminal because it's unix).

Sorry to nitpick on one point, but anyone saying what you just said has clearly not used PowerShell. It is by far the easiest, most expansive command-line tool I have ever used. And I've used them all.

Now I'm going to politely excuse myself from the rest of this, as the *nix vrs Windows wars are too much a waste of my time.

[mv]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Well, the most common thing I get asked about, by far, is whether or not Microsoft Office will run on a netbook. People want to use Word, and Word/Excel/PowerPoint all run just fine. OpenOffice also runs fine, but it doesn't seem to me to be any faster than Office so it's not like there's a speed advantage to open source software in that way. I haven't benchmarked OpenOffice on Linux vs. Word on Windows, but on my HP Mini 1000 Mobile Internet Edition (Linux) OpenOffice seems pretty sluggish. In fact, everything seems pretty sluggish.

Well, adding MS Office to the bundle will add at least another $200 to the final price - too expensive for a netbook. Having that in mind, unless you are not paying for the software, using netbooks with linux and open office makes a lot more sense. You just need to learn a few new things, and that may take you a few weeks, but in the end, linux is a much better choice for very under powered machines like those offered for $200 to $300.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by mv

Well, adding MS Office to the bundle will add at least another $200 to the final price - too expensive for a netbook.

Not really - if a home user has the "Student and Home" version of Office 2007, they get three installs...so someone could add Office 2007 for their netbook for free. Or, buying a new copy of said software is $91 USD from Amazon. Not free, but not outrageous either.

Originally Posted by mv

Having that in mind, unless you are not paying for the software, using netbooks with linux and open office makes a lot more sense. You just need to learn a few new things, and that may take you a few weeks...

Well, here's the thing: most people don't like learning new things. I think Linux is great for some people, but I've yet to see a netbook that is easy enough for an average person to figure out - unless they only use the browser.

[jdmichal]

OK, so I lied. Here's how I look at it. First, a semi-logical proof:

AXIOM: A simplification is a subset of the expressiveness of a system.
THEOREM: All simplifications of a system is therefore not complete for the underlying system.
PROOF BY CONTRADICTION: Assume that all the expressiveness of a system can be represented by its simplification. Then that simplification is necessarily a superset of that system, not a subset of it. This contradicts our axiom. QED.

So, what does this have to do with the current discussion? Simple: There is some part of the system which a simplification does not express. If a user wishes to do something inside this space, they must therefore deal with the underlying system. This is exactly why Jason's statement rings true:

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

I think Linux is great for some people, but I've yet to see a netbook that is easy enough for an average person to figure out - unless they only use the browser.

Meaning that the Linux simplifications used for netbooks cover the task of using the web browser and maybe some other common tasks, but the instant the user wants to do something different, they are thrown directly into Linux-land. And while Linux-land has been improving in this regard, I don't think anyone would suggest that a common person would be able to figure stuff out in its current state. (Remember, these are the people who get scared when a dialog box comes up that they have not vetted with their "computer guy" to see which button to press.)