--Joachim Kempin, Microsoft OEM Chief
AS we noted a couple of days go, there is already a Russian investigation into what Microsoft did to GNU/Linux in sub-notebooks. Reading between the lines, this was the interpretation of the Managing Editor of Linux Today.
“Asian manufacturers habitually admit that they are afraid of Microsoft, which uses margins to punish them.”Does anyone still remember the bizarre incident where ASUS apologised for removing an amazing Linux product during an expo? Asian manufacturers habitually admit that they are afraid of Microsoft, which uses margins to punish them. It is a tool of extortion.
Now we discover that ASUS, which was ecstatic back in the days about GNU/Linux-powered Eee PCs, has decided to no longer make sub-notebooks this year. What a difference getting "closely tied up with Microsoft" can make. Their profit fell 94% and now there is another generation of products ruined by Microsoft, maybe eternally. At least ARM is coming.
Based on the same report, sources say that Acer might be delaying/canceling its Linux sub-notebooks which its people planned and were hugely enthusiastic about. To quote:
Report: Acer Android Netbook pushed back
[...]
But if the Digitimes report is accurate, it means something has shifted at Acer HQ. At Computex in early June, company executives were very excited about the possibilities of Android on Netbooks, even saying that the majority of Acer Netbooks will come with Android as an alternative operating system to Microsoft's Windows.
"Netbooks are designed to be compact in size and easy to connect to the Internet wherever you go," Jim Wong, Acer's president of IT products, said at the time. "The Android operating system offers incredibly fast wireless connection to the Internet; for this reason, Acer has decided to develop Android Netbooks for added convenience to our customers."
--Ron Hovsepian
Comments
zatoichi
2009-07-29 19:52:22
Please don't mistake Google for a friend of the free or open source software community: they are even more cynical than Microsoft, derive more benefit from the work of others, and give back only minimally in comparison with the degree to which they've benefited. Google is widely referred to as "a black hole for open source code, and people".