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Thursday, 15 July 2010 12:55 |
The OLPC XO has been credited for the whole idea of building small and cheap computers, but from the consumer point of view, the Asus Eee PC 701 was the mini laptop that started the whole netbook trend. Moreover, it ran Linux, even if it was a rather dumbed-down version of Xandros. It was only later that Asus released a model with Windows XP; as more manufacturers began to join in it soon became apparent Windows XP Home was set to take over as the main operating system for netbooks. Whether this was due to actual consumer demand or if it was simply a move from Microsoft to get in on a thriving market is a valid question. At any rate, the Linux distros that shipped with early netbooks where no doubt much better suited for the rather mediocre hardware in the cheap small laptops. Sadly, new models with Linux pre-installed are few and far between. If it wasn’t for Dell and a few other manufacturers, Linux on new netbooks would be all but dead.But just because it is not easy to get hold of a new mini laptop with Linux pre-installed, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t throw XP on the scrapheap where it belongs and install a shiny new Linux distribution. Linux is still a great choice for netbooks. Windows XP and 7 – or even worse Windows Vista – are all too high on resources for the rather weak Atom processor, which is still the most common netbook CPU and hasn’t improved much performance-wise between the first and second generation. A positive development for Linux netbook fans, however, is MeeGo – a merger between Intel-supported Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo initiative. It is developed specifically with less powerful hardware in mind. Version 1.0 is already available, and supports lots of popular netbooks.
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