Asus Slaps Linux In the Face 644
vigmeister writes "From Techgeist, 'Linux just got a major slap in the face today from Asus. One of the highlights of Linux going mainstream was the wildly popular Asus Eee PC preinstalled with a customized Linux distro geared towards web applications. While I personally never got what the big deal was, I was still happy for all the Linux people out there waiting for this day, but it looks like the cause for celebration won't be lasting much longer.
Asus and Microsoft have teamed up and have made a site called 'It's Better With Windows.' The page touts how easy it is to get up and ready with Windows on an Asus Eee PC, while slyly stating that you won't have to deal with an 'unfamiliar environment' and 'major compatibility issues.' While it is silly to state such a thing since Asus built the Linux distribution specifically for the Eee PC, I give Microsoft two points for snarky comments.'"
Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Meh (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Meh (Score:5, Funny)
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No way! Resell it as it is. They can't tell the difference anyway [zdnet.com.au].
Re:Meh (Score:4, Funny)
Xandros can jump off a cliff.
Is that a feature or a bug?
That's a damn shame (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought it was already pretty easy to "get up and ready" with my EeePC. Well, Asus will have to live with their decision.
My next motherboard will be a Gigabyte.
Re:That's a damn shame (Score:5, Insightful)
This website is such a hack-job. I can't believe MS or Asus was involved. The video player is FlowPlayer, the tracking uses Google Analytics, the fonts are all wrong for a MS job. There's no copyright, disclaimer, contact. Nothing. I call bullshit.
That, and I don't believe MS would be encouraging people to use XP with Vista taking so much heat and Windows 7 just on the horizon.
Re:That's a damn shame (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with you, I think its bullshit.
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This website is such a hack-job. I can't believe MS or Asus was involved. The video player is FlowPlayer, the tracking uses Google Analytics, the fonts are all wrong for a MS job. There's no copyright, disclaimer, contact. Nothing. I call bullshit.
To be fair, it is better designed than Asus' own website.
Re:That's a damn shame (Score:5, Informative)
http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?Domain=ITSBETTERWITHWINDOWS.COM [godaddy.com]
Check out the owner's Expert-Exchange profile
http://www.experts-exchange.com/M_1301691.html [experts-exchange.com]
"I am an independant web and application developer, specializing in Content Management and Collaboration. My company, CollaborationPeople, Inc. serves clients in Seattle, Washington and the greater Puget Sound Region, although I have clients as far away as Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA and Portland, Or."
Registrant:
Michael Sharp
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ITSBETTERWITHWINDOWS.COM
Created on: 05-Dec-08
Expires on: 05-Dec-09
Last Updated on: 05-Dec-08
Administrative Contact:
Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
(877) 788-8066
Technical Contact:
Sharp, Michael rdcpro@hotmail.com
12932 SE Kent-Kangley Rd.
Box 238
Kent, Washington 98030
United States
(877) 788-8066
Domain servers in listed order:
NS61.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS62.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Re:That's a damn shame (Score:5, Funny)
His actual name is Microsoft Visual Michael#, but he was not able to register under that name due to technical restrictions.
Re:That's a damn shame (Score:5, Funny)
This website is such a hack-job. I can't believe MS or Asus was involved. The video player is FlowPlayer, the tracking uses Google Analytics, the fonts are all wrong for a MS job.
They didn't. But we are meant to think they did. These trackers are by Google Analytics. The MS advertisement execs always use a single tracker to hide their numbers.
And these talking points, too trollish for MS advertisement execs. Only Apple Fanbois are so precise.
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Re:That's a damn shame (Score:5, Insightful)
One should note that this is the UK division not the corporate offices in Taiwan. I think someone's doing some cowboy marketing within their UK sales division.
I'm none to happy about this little song and dance they're doing (I liked my eeePC with Linux on it... Can't wait for the Cortex-A8/A9 netbooks to show, though. Double the battery life, same power and capabilities- literally.)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, I am quite aware that the website in question is linked on a single page on a single division website of the company. Allow me to step through the evidence again:
How much money changed hands? (Score:4, Insightful)
It is difficult to believe that Asus did this out of love for Redmond. I wonder how much MS paid for this special treatment, or did they threaten Asus with higher prices?
Re:How much money changed hands? (Score:5, Informative)
It is difficult to believe that Asus did this out of love for Redmond. I wonder how much MS paid for this special treatment, or did they threaten Asus with higher prices?
I still don't see any conclusive evidence thi was Asus' work. I think your anger should be directed at Microsoft. I can't prove it for sure but the whois of this domain itsbetterwithwindows.com [domaintools.com] reads:
And so we put it in the same state as Washington. Now, I'm guessing this is a PR company and we have a perfect match of Arbirtron Ad agency listing Michael Sharp as Manager, Agency & Advertiser Services for several different regions of the US [arbitron.com].
Ok, from there if you google Arbitron Asus [google.com] and Arbitron Microsoft [google.com] you come up with two very juicy powerpoints from Microsoft on Arbitron's site.
I would put my guess at 95% that this is a Microsoft run and funded site with little to do with Asus other than get their permission.
Also a Michael Sharp at Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
And so we put it in the same state as Washington. Now, I'm guessing this is a PR company and we have a perfect match of Arbitron Ad agency listing Michael Sharp as Manager, Agency & Advertiser Services for several different regions of the US. Ok, from there if you google Arbitron Asus and Arbitron Microsoft you come up with two very juicy powerpoints from Microsoft on Arbitron's site.
I just noticed those two powerpoints only come up because they're Microsoft Powerpoints so that's not a very strong link.
But that linking is probably unnecessary considering I just found this bio on Microsoft [microsoft.com] of a Michael Sharp as Director with the Information Security Team. Yes, it's a pretty common name but I'm pretty sure this ad work reeks of Microsoft and not Asus.
Re:How much money changed hands? (Score:5, Funny)
Excellent work.
Now can you do something about the Lindbergh Kidnapping?
Re:How much money changed hands? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, from there if you google Arbitron Asus [google.com] and Arbitron Microsoft [google.com] you come up with two very juicy powerpoints from Microsoft on Arbitron's site.
Errr, where exactly? I see a couple of Powerpoint links on Google. Newsflash - all Powerpoint files linked on Google say "Microsoft" next to them because that's who made Powerpoint. Neither of the presentations actually seem to be from, to or about Microsoft.
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I'm positive that it's not a Microsoft or ASUS site. If it is, it's definitly marketed much differently than other sites I've seen.
For one, I didn't see any Microsoft or Asus Logos or links anywhere on the site. MS can't help but slap a Microsoft logo somewhere on their site. Asus is no different. All I see is Windows and EeePC.
Both companies have distinct styles on how they present their advertising campaigns, and this site follows neither.
MS and ASUS would have links everywhere taking you to all of their
Re:How much money changed hands? (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's have a dramatic reenactment, shall we?
Hi, Mike Sharp here. We've got a site going where we will talk about the benefits of running XP on your devices. Can we get you to link to it?
The ancient operating system you keep trying to kill?
Yeah, (ha ha), exactly.
I haven't heard the magic words....
Please?
No, the other magic words
Oh, your next 15,000 OEM licenses are essentially free.
There we go!
And... scene.
Re:Mod parent up! (Score:4, Informative)
I can't imagine why it would be sponsored by Asus but they certainly link to it: http://www.asus.co.uk/eeepc/1008HA/features.html [asus.co.uk]
Re:Mod parent up! (Score:5, Funny)
Unless of course somebody hacked into Asus's website and added that link. You can tell it was hacked because if you play the video on itsbetterwithwindows.com frame by frame, there is one frame in the middle where if you squint you can see the reflection from a sign saying "p0wn3d by D4 Cr3w". A quick search of Google will turn up the fact that "D4 Cr3w" are the same folk who faked the moon landing in the 60's.
By the way, cattle mutilations are up.
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Except it's linked from the Asus website [asus.co.uk] in the UK.
Re:How much money changed hands? (Score:4, Informative)
Someone's already on the case (Score:3, Interesting)
http://itsbetterwithlinux.com/ [itsbetterwithlinux.com]
Re:How much money changed hands? (Score:4, Interesting)
Asus is a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer. They fund Linux because they know it drives Microsoft crazy and they get better procurement conditions. So when they say "windows is better" than mind that before it was "no choice", and as all competitors know it advises to the opposite. Microsoft will not stop Asus' wise Linux investment, and Taiwanese open source efforts like LXDE.
Hardware manufacturere need a Linux strategy to get like Asus a super return on investment. AOL invested in Mozilla and Microsoft paid them a shitload of money to stay with their browser engine, a few years later the IE dominance is gone. The business of open source with Microsoft, you invest a bit in open source and Microsoft gets really scared and throws money at you.
Asus thinks Windows is better because they now get it almost for free. But the very reason for that was their progressive Linux embracement.
Paranoid much? (Score:3, Insightful)
They did it out of love for sales.
Look around you.
WalMart has tried to make a go of every flavor of OEM Linux. Every form factor.
No-name and the Dell brand name.
The dearly departed include Lindows, gOS, Sun Java, Xandros...
and so on endlessly.
Oh, the Merry-Go-Round broke down
It made the darndest sound,
The lights went low,
We both said "Oh!"
And the Merry-Go-Round went
"Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah, Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah!"
WalMart has
I agree (Score:5, Funny)
It is better with Windows.
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Re:I agree (Score:5, Funny)
I'd rather use an OS that doesn't have a security model that resemble Swiss cheese requiring that it ship with an anti-virus application.
Can you say "Bought by Microsoft"? (Score:5, Insightful)
This might actually make sense economically for ASUS:
_Maybe_ less support calls.
_Very deep_ discounts/kickbacks from Microsoft.
Personally I am very glad that I got the Linux version of my Eee PC 901: More flash disk and more ram, for a little less money.
Currently I run the latest Ubuntu Netbook remix, and I'm very happy with it. The last time I booted it into XP must have been during Easter, to debug a Windows problem.
Terje
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Um have you ever tried to call ASUS tech support? They are not going to get less support calls. You cant get to anyone at tech support to begin with.
Now I'm definitely going to buy one! (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't plan on buying another Asus EEE anyway (Score:5, Interesting)
In a way their Linux distro is more of a slap in the face for Linux than not using Linux.
I've had much better luck since putting my own instance of Ubuntu onto the machine which I prefer much more than I would Windows or that custom Xandros OS.
Re:Didn't plan on buying another Asus EEE anyway (Score:4, Informative)
I've got an Eee that I ordered with Linux. Their version came off in about an hour. I tried Easy Peasy for a few hours till I found Ubuntu Netbook Remix. (I've been a Gentoo fan for years, so I haven't followed that really closely.) Everything about UNR is fantastic except for one thing: browsers crash on it very frequently. And by "very frequently," I mean every time I use it. Unfortunately, running a browser is the single biggest use case for a netbook. I've read the forums; I've tried the suggestions; nothing works for me. I can't even get gdb to give me any useful info. At this point, I'm hoping that a big update comes out that magically fixes it. Until then, I keep looking for something else to try. Maybe Moblin? Maybe Win7? (Yeah, yeah, I know, but I have 9 computers at home. I just want the thing to WORK.) I'd put Gentoo on it, but I don't want to thrash the SSD, and I can't figure out how to get a cross-compiler going on my workstation. (Well, that, and I know I'd spend a MONTH tweaking everything to get it to the same level of functionality -- laptop-wise -- that UNR has out of the box.)
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Remove Flash completely! Then try it in safe mode. If it stops crashing, try it without safe mode, but still without flash. Chance of non-crashing: 99%.
I found Flash to be the problem for those 99% of all my Firefox problems. Plugins like that should run decoupled from Firefox, in a separate process, or a virtual machine.
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Wow. I couldn't disagree more. I usually swear by openSuSE, but I could see from the first moment that ASUS had done an amazing job with the EEE. Granted, I had to activate the "advanced" mode to get full KDE and add the Debian repositories since I needed the machine for development on the go, plus the single user thing was a bit annoying, but it I was certainly not the target audience. I lent it to a friend of mine for her vacation - an average windows user - and she did not ask a single question during th
US Fanboys are still archaic (Score:4, Interesting)
Those who want Windows on their netbook can buy it, those who don't can buy Linux. See?
Ultimately this is business, and it ain't pretty.
Why bother? (Score:2)
Despite my desire to see Linux being the most popular OS, I fail to see why it should be so worrying to see that MS keeps using what seem to be underhanded deals to keep Linux away from the market. After all, it is not like Linux hasn't been making great progress in spite of a small userbase. Things have come a long way since I started using it around the beginning of the century; I don't have to fiddle with my machine everytime I want to try a new distro; all major distros look quite polished and mature, e
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Asus screwed up (Score:5, Interesting)
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Sadly, this is the norm I run into, and far too oft from people who are strongly OS-aligned; they can't keep their computer from breaking no matter what they run.
Some of us forget, computers are hard... Especially for the untrained. We didn't get "Computer Fun" degrees, after all. Although, that would be pretty sweet!
Too many people expect a "toaster" or "television" experience from a rather complicated piece of equipment. Heck, some of the folk I help with PC issues have toaster and television issues!
unfamiliar environment, major compatibility issues (Score:4, Insightful)
Also excellent reasons not to use Vista and Windows 7.
Well...... (Score:3, Insightful)
Calm down, the campaing is a fake. (Score:5, Interesting)
The campaing is a fake. Somebody took Asus EEE commercial videos and slapped a crappy looking badly aligned 'It's better with Windows' Slogan over it. Fonts aren't MS branding and the layout of the website is notably amatureish. You all have been trolled, so chill. It's a compareatively elaborate troll though, I give him that.
It isn't fake. (Score:3, Informative)
Or somebody in Asus UK is having a big laugh.
I'm sorry... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sorry, I thought this was a kdawson post.
Asus, how braindead can you get? (Score:4, Insightful)
while slyly stating that you won't have to deal with ... and "major compatibility issues.'
Great! Now we have it from Asus itself that it ships hardware that has major compatibility issues... with software pre-installed by Asus itself. Given that the company is obviously so inept, who tells us that there aren't any similar compatibility issues between the hardware and its BIOS. Well probably there are, and we should warn friends, family and employers to shy away from such a lousy brand.
Ok, so in reality Asus was probably paid by Microsoft to say this. Like the so numerous companies that were paid to display an "XXX recommends Microsoft Windows" on their website. But if they sell out their judgment so easily, why should they be trusted on anything else that they say? That too would be a reason to run.
And strategically this whole thing is really really stoopid on Asus' part, especially now after all the competitors (even Acer!) have brought out similar mini-laptops running Linux.
There's a problem here (Score:5, Interesting)
We need a new mass-market/"newb friendly," distro, and we need to make sure that this one is NOT Debian based.
FreeBSD has the following technical advantages over anything Debian based that I've been able to see, and these could be recreated most easily with a non-Debian based Linux. These might be under the hood things, but they would definitely filter up to make life easier for the end user.
- Single point of daemon loading at bootup with /etc/rc.conf.
- Comparitive ease of kernel recompilation that is so much greater than Linux, and Debian in particular, that it isn't funny. The config file is tiny, and completely documented.
- Package management which doesn't subpackage, or have incomprehensibly stupid, bogus dependency declarations. Said package management also uses the directory structure of the filesystem itself as a database, so it can be used on low-powered systems which would have difficulty running an SQL database engine.
These are simplifications which, IMHO, Ubuntu very badly needs to adopt.
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The New OEM Business Model (Score:3)
1. Praise Linux.
2. Have Microsoft run to you with deals, discounts, and dump trucks full of money.
3. Praise Microsoft, Bash Linux.
4. Profit!
This also works for government organizations and prominent businesses in the process of choosing software.
Debunking Microsofts latest (Score:3, Interesting)
Can it be more anti-Microsoft than this? Let's go through the video, shall we?
1) Why is the mother laughing at the Windows boot screen? Is it booting 10x longer than her previous Ubuntu 9.04 install? I don't have a clue...
2) Why is she closing the lid after having done absolutely nothing with the EeePC? Tired of waiting for it to boot? Isn't Windows productive, or just plane useless? You tell me...
3) The people in this 'commercial' are supposed to be representative Windows users. Now what mother gives her kids their laptops to s
chool but forgets to give them bread/sandwiches and drinks?!
4) After school, presumably, the kids go to the beach to make photos with a mobile phone. Now why on earth would hey do that? Isn't there a 1,3 megapixel (can't be better than that ancient phone) webcam on the EeePC? Doesn't Windows have photo capturing software? Ubuntu/Linux -> Cheese for Gnome. So Windows lacks software. Wow how bad can advertising be? But it doesn't stop there;
5) The kids need to usb-cable-transfer the picture from the phone to the EeePC while there is a cardreader slot. Except for plane stupidity on behalf of Windows users, doesn't the commercial say Windows redefines mobility/Wireless? Strange... Why don't they do it via bluetooth file transfer? Or isn't that supported in Windows either? Talking about compatibility with devices here... (that accounts for bith the phone and the bluetooth dongle.
6) After transfering the picture (mobility equals taking cables with you?) to the EeePC they can use some Live app to cut the picture. Wow! Totally can't do that with Gimp! Try to red eye correct that picture on Windows, morons. And no, Photoshop is not a part of Windows and no it doesn't run on a EeePC, but Gimp does.
7) The Business guy is spilling coffe over himself. Is Windows targetted for idiots? Nice move Microsoft marketing dicks...
8) After that incident he can share it with Live Messenger. Wow! Webcamming is the killer feature for Live Messenger? Except for the fact that it aint, the Windows marketing dicks suck balls.
9) Then the representative Windows user also like to laugh at himself for spilling coffee all over himself and enjoyes being lauched out loud by the people who he's webcamming with. Windows is targetted for loser? FAIL!
10) Redefining mobility? Like what the hell? Given the fact that this is a commercial for not using Linux and instead using Windows, what kind of redefining is going on here? Ubuntu 9.04 works completely out of the box with the EeePC (I am typing from one) and Windows sucks at connecting to wireless. Speed eh? NOT! Ubuntu 9.04 remembers you connections and auto-connects to one, and when you lost connection (because you're on the go) you can just click on the wireless icon in the system tray and click on a network from a dropdown list and you're finnished before you can say "right-click". No fscking around with settings and no BS.
11) Microsoft works... yeah... OpenOffice 3.1 'nuff said... Don't even try running the latest Office 2007 with that ribbon crap (fills the entire screen)
Ok so that pretty much nailes it: "Are you a loser, bad mom and/or plane stupid? Do you want a sucking EeePC experience? Install Windows XP with Live and Works!
I wonder what really happened (Score:4, Informative)
"In order to compete more effectively against Linux and other providers on these deals, we can now leverage the Education and Government Incentive [EDGI [slated.org]] program to help tip the scales to MS in the deal. After engaging the regional team. the region may use funds to provide services and/or rebates to the customer with the following limitation:
"Not to exceed the estimated Windows royalties recognized by MS from the OEM selling the PC's to the customer (in the example, 50,000 PC's at approx. $100/PC for OEM Windows XP Professional would result in a maximum of $5M for the individual deal)"
It is essential, therefore, that we use this in only in deals we would lose otherwise
"Bottom line do our best to show the great value of our software to these customers and ensure we get paid for it under NO circumstances lose against Linux before ensuring we have used this program actively and in a smart way
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Informative)
They definitely lost sales from me... and I regularly buy motherboards from them.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
I love Asus motherboards and hardware. That said, the site looks very fishy to me. It doesn't look "professional" at all. The Asus and Micro$hit websites look really polished and complex. Itsbetterwithwindoze looks like an attempt to start a new flamewar between the M$ and OSS camps while putting Asus in the middle of the crossfire.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
Why was this guy tagged as a troll? I mean, despite his borderline vitriol about Microsoft, his concerns about the legitimacy of the website seem pretty sensible to me, if one bothers reading the article and following the link to said website.
Hell yes. Seriously, the site looks like it was designed by a 5 year old downs victim and while I don't like the Microsoft and Asus sites, none of those two are made nearly as bad.
+1 to the questioning legitimacy crew.
Until MS/Asus confirm or deny a participation in this, I will treat is as non-existant.
Nothing to see here, move along.
PS: And if I had mod points atm, I wouldn't have bothered to post this but instead just modded up the grandparent.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Informative)
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Insightful)
Thank you for doing homework on it. I was just gonna do the same.
Does the register's name match any other site?
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only that, but:
You'd have to be pretty naive (or blinded by Microsoft-hatred) to actually think either of these companies had anything to do with this site.
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Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Informative)
Also, there is nothing on ASUS's website to indicate that they had anything to do with this.
Actually, this page on asus.co.uk [asus.co.uk] links to itsbetterwithwindows.com, although I can't find any such links on asus.com.
need4mospd deserves the credit for finding that link [slashdot.org].
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Informative)
So there is no question of this being a fake site.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Informative)
Except that site links to www.asus.co.uk Asus's real UK website is uk.asus.com
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I highly doubt that ASUS hosts there website on 1and1.co.uk. Nor would they use 1and1 for their registrar. Especially when asus.com is registered with Network Solutions.
Not to mention that page seems to be the only page that the domain has on it and if try to snoop around it just redirects to uk.asus.com which is where asus.com sends you when you choose the UK for your country. If you check other countries on the asus.com landing page you will see that Asus puts there country sites on subdomains.
nic.uk asu [webwhois.nic.uk]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But the way the site is done.... it's almost like it was done to SAY one thing but reflect another.
Corporate Overlord #35 told Underling #3586586 to say MS is better. Underling follows the letter, but not the word.
Hrm.
I'm not sure that asus.co.uk is real either (Score:3, Informative)
The page you linked shows "asus.co.uk" in the address bar, yet if you go to "asus.co.uk" directly, you get redirected (as in "please wait while we redirect you") to uk.asus.com. I was unable to find this page on uk.asus.com. Furthermore, uk.asus.com is 66.238.93.162 while the page you linked (asus.co.uk) is hosted at 87.106.102.168.
A lookup on asus.co.uk [webwhois.nic.uk] shows that
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
A quick whois shows that the domain registrar is Godaddy, which seems an odd odd choice for a company as large as Microsoft.
Registered out of Kent, Washington to one Michael Sharp. A quick Google for Michael Sharp, Microsoft, shows this guy as holding or having held a bunch of management positions.
This may be legit, if its not, it was very well researched.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmm. A quick google doesn't reveal anything useful about this guy. Does he work for Asus?
Well, at least once Expert Sexchange [experts-exchange.com] was good for something:
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Insightful)
Enjoy this state of affairs while it lasts, because it won't for much longer.
They've been saying this for several years now. "'X' driver support is getting better everyday!" "'Y' new distro will solve device compatibility issues!" "'Z' developer will have perfect Windows API integration and then the average user won't notice the difference!"
Puh-lease. Mod me what you like but the fact remains that, while there have been some damn good advances towards this state, "much longer" is not a quantifiable term. The linux zealots out there are predicting The Year of the Linux Desktop but are they really doing anything to make it happen? The Users' Home is the place of the Linux Desktop and Ubuntu is the most notable distro behind the movement, but they're not going to do it alone. It needs to be a global and unified effort across the entire linux community, and this is the biggest challenge facing them against the public Windows opinion.
Businesses are a good start because if they can get Windwos-equivalent software -- not "Windows-only-just-good-enough-for-most-users" software -- on their employees workstations then the home will follow naturally.
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Interesting)
Can we all agree never to use the word 'polish' when evaluating an OS, ever again?
It does not convey any information beyond a vague dissatisfaction with UI elements; It's not a useful term. It can mean anything from, "I think brown is ugly." to "The clipboard widget has obscene error messages."
At least try to distinguish between aesthetic and technical issues. "Polish" has become a catch-all term for anything that someone dislikes about linux. The worst part of this is that it's distro-specific, or specific to one desktop environment, or specific to one WM/UI. Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Enlightenment, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and the Moblin UI are all 'linux desktops', and presumably all have varying degrees of 'polish'. All of them behave differently and look differently: the only common interface in linux is the terminal.
I think it would be extremely fair to call the terminal a very 'polished' interface, and I hope that idea will dissuade you from using the term in the future :)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Except that you may have been fooled.
The site looks like a joke. The register address is a drop box at a UPS store in Kent Washington and if you want you can even find out the guys name with a little looking on whois
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Hello, friend! I am also quite pissed.
Let's wait one year from when they purchase their Windows-disabled Eees, when their machines are clogged with spyware and malware and the registry's broken and the little Atom CPU desperately tries to actually do some work whilst constantly swapping things in and out of RAM. Let's wait until then and tell them "It's Better With Windows!(tm)".
I say f*ck this! I'm not buying another Asus product in my life!
Damn, it feels good to vent!
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Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
"Sucks that the company is "disloyal""
Well those two words have never been uttered in succession before... and never will again!
I don't know what people are getting so upset for, it's just marketting, it doesn't mean anything. It's not like they're gonna be saying on their linux pages "but you'll prob want the windows version, cuz this one's shit"... no, their linux page is gonna be bigging up their linux product (presumably, I cba to look). Is like when a waiter says "excellent choice sir" when you choose the soup, the guy who cooks the chicken isn't gonna pipe up and say "what's wrong with the chicken?!". Everything is better than everything else, depending on what you're looking at.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Interesting)
... it's just marketing....
There are some people that would like to take an organization's word for what the words mean. Asus made their own cut of Linux to work with the Eee and now they've caved to Microsoft pressure to eat their own words. Worse, it's a lie.
The integrity of such an organization then becomes suspect, as if they lied about this, then what else did they lie about? Trust is broken. And we then know them for what they are: an organization that will capitulate, lie, send mixed messages, all in the names of sales desparation. Too bad about Asus....
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some people that would like to take an organization's word for what the words mean.
And those people are incredibly naive.
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Insightful)
Or perhaps they have an expectation of truth and honesty, and not finding that, believe that integrity is in question.
Naivety, once vanquished, leads to skepticism. Skepticism leads doubts, doubts make us look somewhere else for truth.
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Insightful)
Along the way, I've found that trust-based relationships can be made. Often, it's more with individuals than the organizations that they represent. You build mutual trust, then go from there.
Without trust, we're a bunch of warring autonomous micro-nations.
For many of us, integrity is above making a buck. Yes, we have to survive, but we can do so without lip farting, lies, FUD, and so on. The gift of communications has incumbent upon the gift, the onus and responsibility to do the best to speak the truth.
In this context, Asus has demonstrated their sense of that responsibility. In turn, we take note of that. We file that information for decisions made later. Perhaps they'll listen that we now categorize them as lackey sycophants of Microsoft. Perhaps not.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps they'll listen that we now categorize them as lackey sycophants of Microsoft.
Since when we're they never not that? Did you honestly think that Asus put Linux on their EEE PCs because they really believed in the ideas of GNU and the GPL? Seriously? They put it on there probably to lower margin costs and to make money on some gullible GNUtards who are apparently just now realizing that Asus was out to make a buck and not to spread their ideology.
Re:hey Asus (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you somehow missed the last 100+ years of corporations lying, cheating and doing whatever it takes to make a buck? Based on what history should anyone think that a corporation isn't going to do anything it takes to inflate the bottom line?
Have you really never worked for a company that actually practiced what it preached when it comes to ethics and responsibility?
I've had bad bosses and good bosses, but only once have I had a scumbag boss. Outside of the scumbag, everyone wanted to treat our customers fairly and be able to sleep nights. To a certain extent that is self serving because we wanted to keep our customers, but we often spent many hours trying to resolve a problem for a customer, or implement a feature they wanted. If a customer was unhappy we tried to make them happy. If they felt we had let them down we tried to fix that.
That behavior goes up the chain. If you are not a scumbag chances are you don't want to work for a scumbag, and that is a recursive relationship.
Now, every place I have ever worked has tried to figure out how we could get our hands on more money, and that includes charging whatever the traffic will bear for our products. But that is not lying or cheating. We set a price upfront, and if what we produced was worth it to our customers, they paid it and felt like they got value for their money.
I can't believe my experience in business is that different from most peoples. What makes you think that if you work for a corporation (which most people do) you suddenly turn into a scumbag?
Re:What is the lie? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, they are taking Microsoft marketing money (just like Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM, etc.) and stating simple facts.
Their custom version of Linux (or ANY version of Linux) IS unfamiliar to windows users. There ARE major compatibility issues between Linux and Windows - Applications from one can't run on the other, and documents from one CAN be incompatible with the other. Do workarounds exist for most issues, CERTAINLY, but those are just that WORKAROUNDS, that, you know, work around incompatibilities.
Additional claims on the site are:
"Trusted - Windows delivers a dependable experience that Microsoft and a worldwide community of partners stand behind" - this is true, there are countless MS partners and MS does provide a "dependable experience" (even MS detractors can't argue with that!)
"Familiar - Windows is easy to use and familiar so you can be up and running right away" - with 94% market share (Mac at 5% and Linux at 1%) it is reasonable to assume that most people are familiar with the Windows environment.
"Compatible - You can be confident that your devices and applications will work with Windows - more than any other platform" - the MS Windows ecosystem has more applications than either the Linux or Mac environments, and there are Windows-only devices in the market (printers, modems, on-board RAID controllers, etc.) that it is trivial to prve that there are more devices that work with Windows than other OSs.
Now, having said all that, this is not an MS or ASUS website - this is a troll to see how much traffic this site can generate.
View the source of the HTML - no copyright asserted, no authorship claimed, only some "google-analytics.com" javascript voodoo at the bottom of the page. There is no way either organization would develop a webpage annonymously.
Michael Sharp went to Godaddy and registered the domain 5-Dec-2008 - I know, he lives in Washington state, but he's having a bit of fun...
(The website is too thin, and there are small issues that scream fake to me - kerning, lack of contact info, no mention that Windows ia a registered trademark, links to additional info, etc.)
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Insightful)
Hope you bought your Thinkpad used; IBM's PC division has always been in bed with Microsoft, and I doubt Lenovo is any better. This is just more of the golden rule, "He, who has the gold, makes the rules." in action; it will continue as long as Microsoft maintains it's ill-gotten monopoly.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Has anybody checked whois database? Guys, it's fake, somebody made a website (hosted on godaddy) just to stir a hornets' nest.
Have fun being played...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The link to the site is on the Asus website.
http://www.asus.co.uk/eeepc/1008HA/features.html [asus.co.uk]
Re:hey Asus (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.asus.co.uk/ [asus.co.uk] is not Asus UK website. Check out http://uk.asus.com./ [uk.asus.com] Also check whois info for both.
For asus.com [www.who.is]:
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com/ [networksolutions.com]
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Expiration Date: 2011-10-24
Creation Date: 1995-10-25
Last Update Date: 2007-03-29
Name Servers:
dns3.asus.com
dns7.asus.com
For asus.co.uk: [www.who.is]
Domain name:
asus.co.uk
Registrant:
Asustek Computer Inc
Trading as:
Asus
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.
Registrar:
1 & 1 Internet AG [Tag = SCHLUND]
URL: http://registrar.1und1.info/ [1und1.info]
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 23-May-1997
Renewal date: 23-May-2011
Last updated: 22-May-2009
Registration status:
Renewal request being processed.
Name servers:
ns59.1and1.co.uk
ns60.1and1.co.uk
Furthermore, if you look around the fake site, you'll see that it redirects to uk.asus.com for all URLs that you feed to it (thus creating the illusion that it is indeed an official Asus site), except for that one URL which opens the webpage linking to the site in TFA.
Re:There is no "Linux" (Score:4, Interesting)
OK, but that's very 80s and 90s thinking. The whole idea that systems have to be static, fixed, rigid is very much in the past.
There is no reason why releases have to be so long apart. That thinking comes from a license fee driven mentality; when you charge people for an upgrade, they must have something for it. So there is a huge incentive for feature bloat; look at "ribbons" v. "menus". I've yet to see a substantive difference in use but it's a brand new feature that's used to justify the huge cost of an upgrade.
Now look at the way linux develops. It's incremental, it's fast, and it relies on repositories. It doesn't have an attachment to the past. So a vendor doesn't have to customize the software to each distro, that's the distro maintainers' job.
Distro maintainers in linux are much like the OEMs in the MS world. They're ultimately responsible for making stuff work. The problem currently is that the major commercial vendors just plain don't understand how linux works, and so don't want to trust, support, or even acknowledge the package maintainers' role in making their product work.
The flip side is that the linux community has a short bullshit fuse; with flux and change being the norm, a commercial vendor has to be just as nimble, just as competitive, just as flexible as an open source project. Most of them simply cannot do that as they have too many internally competing goals.
So a piece of software that is not being actively developed is likely to be dropped in favor of some other. Look at what's happening to MySQL right now.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, it looks like a troll, nothing to do with Microsoft or ASUS whatsoever.
If you google rdcpro@hotmail.com email address from the WHOIS record of that domain, you'll find this:
"I am an independant web and application developer, specializing in Content Management and Collaboration. My company, CollaborationPeople, Inc. serves clients in Seattle, Washington and the greater Puget Sound Region, although I have clients as far away as Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA and Portland, Or." ...
Regards,
Mike Sharp
rd
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"A) Slashdot has a very vocal group of whiney emotionally reactive girls"
You, you... you INSENSITIVE CLOD!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Mahatma Gandhi
This quote might have looked intelligent the first time it was used; it doesn't now.
Also, remember something else. Gandhi, like Stallman, had a martyr complex. Martyrdom is a tactic which relies on a certain assumption about the moral nature of the opponent in order to be effective. If the opponent is amoral and doesn't care about your stance, then the moral high ground, and thus martyrdom as a tactic, is worth
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, of course the Eee PC is a success because of the attention it got for using Linux and because it was the "first" netbook. However, the number of netbooks sold with Windows vastly outstrips the number of netbooks sold with Linux.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Which has been shown to NOT be asus's UK web site, but is yet again a fake. The correct Asus UK site is uk.asus.com. Do a whois on asus.co.uk.
Domain name:
asus.co.uk
Registrant:
Asustek Computer Inc
Trading as:
Asus
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their address omitted from the WHOIS service.
Registrar:
1 & 1 Internet AG [Tag = SCHL
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
MS cheats, that's why.
Corporations have at most the conscience of those at their head. Their only responsibility is to make money one way or another.
Contrast that with the FOSS tribe. We're a collective of individuals with some corporate hangers-on. Most of us have consciences, and collectively we have a very good conscience.
We compete on our own terms, that's why. Eventually, the market will wise up. That's why MS cheats, to push that day off for as long as possible.