Is it just me, or does it seem like Linux is dead on netbooks these days? Is Microsoft giving XP away for free?

gumptyIs it just me, or does it seem like Linux is dead on netbooks these days? Is Microsoft giving XP away for free?

Yep, pretty much. Microsoft realized that Linux was gaining too much popularity on the netbook market, so they started giving XP Home licences away for practically free to be used on Netbooks. The netbook manufacturers had to follow some restrictions to use the licences though. The max hard drive size being 160GB is one of them, it was originally 80GB but Microsoft raised it to 160GB. I believe there is also a limit on the amount of memory also, I think 1GB.

Of course the end user is free to upgrade as far as they want, it is only the OEMs that have to follow the rules to get the licencing for next to nothing.

Personally, I got rid of XP Home the day I got my netbook, and installed Vista on it.

I dont know about popularity. People bought these very pretty PCs at a very low price, and now the market is flooded with used linux based netbooks that people want to get rid of, because aside from surfing the internet, the public has no idea how to use it. Linux on netbooks was an utter fail, and is going to be released entirely in the future.

I really hope the dual-core atoms will be out by the summer, as they said.

The dual core atoms are already out, they just aren't using them in netbooks as there really isn't a need for a dual-core atom in a netbook.

newtekie1The dual core atoms are already out, they just aren't using them in netbooks as there really isn't a need for a dual-core atom in a netbook.

isnt a need? what? it is the only thing they need! (aside from a dedicated GPU anyway, and maybe a slot loaded dvd, but then we are getting a bit ambitious.).

newtekie1The dual core atoms are already out, they just aren't using them in netbooks as there really isn't a need for a dual-core atom in a netbook.

The TDP of the dual core atoms is too high for current netbook cooling solutions. Too much heat in too little space. Intel puts the dual core atom in the nettop category, not mobile computing.

The 32nm pineview system on a chip will bring dual core to netbooks.

wazzledoozleThe TDP of the dual core atoms is too high for current netbook cooling solutions. Too much heat in too little space. Intel puts the dual core atom in the nettop category, not mobile computing.

The 32nm pineview system on a chip will bring dual core to netbooks.

Now how is that possible? The Atom takes about as much power as a turned off monitor.

What about the SSD versions? i havent even been able to find the 1000 series with linux/SSD in europe, saw them on newegg though. Its what made netbooks special besides being smaller and no dvd-rom.

3870x2isnt a need? what? it is the only thing they need! (aside from a dedicated GPU anyway, and maybe a slot loaded dvd, but then we are getting a bit ambitious.).

No, there is no good reason to put a dual-core Atom in a netbook with the current Atom processors. It would only lead to reduced battery life, with little to no noticeable performance enhancement to the end users. For the purposes netbooks are supposed to be used for, and the market they are in, the single core Atom with HT is more than enough.

WeerNow how is that possible? The Atom takes about as much power as a turned off monitor.

If you have seen the cooling used in netbooks, you would understand. There is no heatsink, just a metal plate under the keyboard that is responsible for drawing heat away from the CPU and Chipset.

PaintfaceWhat about the SSD versions? i havent even been able to find the 1000 series with linux/SSD in europe, saw them on newegg though. Its what made netbooks special besides being smaller and no dvd-rom.

The SSD versions don't sell as well as the HDD version. The SSD was originally only used to save space. However, the smaller netbooks that needed the SSD to save space, also didn't sell well once the larger version came out that could use regular HDDs, this is why ASUS has dropped the 7" Eee all together. And now that the larger netbooks can take a normal sized 2.5" laptop hard drive, the cheaper HDD solution is more popular due to the extra space(160GB vs. 40GB) and the cheaper price.

People tend to forget, most of they buyers of these laptops are not buying them for the performance. They are buying them for 4 reasons: They are small, they are light, they get really good battery life, and they are cheap. Cheap being the most important part. General people see a laptop for under $300 and they fall in love with it, they don't care about much else other than the fact that it does what they need it to, and the netbooks do that without issue.