Summary: Update on the ASUS 'contest' situation, more on Vista 7

ABOUT a week ago we wrote about ASUS generating positive coverage through incentives to bloggers. This was particularly relevant because Microsoft is doing the same type of things. Well, it was only yesterday that The Inquirer offered some follow-on coverage of what ASUS had gotten itself into.

The INQ reported that Asus had chosen six reviewers, laden them with its kit - laptops and netbooks - and dropped them into the bog(osphere). The idea was that readers would be able to vote for the bogger they liked best. The winner would receive an Eee PC 900.

This is worth mentioning because of the warped perceptions of Vista 7, which SJVN has just insisted would not work properly with sub-notebooks. He had reviewed the operating system at an earlier stage before it got even heavier.

No matter how Microsoft spins it, Windows 7 is not suitable for a netbook. It's lighter than Vista was in terms of its impact on system resources, but then, what isn't? If you want a cheap netbook with decent performance, you want Linux. And, if you want one after Windows 7 starts shipping, you'll want to check ones running Moblin or Google Chrome OS.

And here is another new example of people losing control of their computers because Windows is installed on them.

So thank you, Microsoft. Your "awesome" Windows Update process needs some work. Why is System Update not really done installing patches until you shut down? This doesn't make sense to me. It should have installed those other patches while the system was up, then let them take effect after reboot. I'm most shocked that System Update had to "own" my machine when I was trying to shut down.

When it comes to operating systems that one truly controls, there is no substitute as good as GNU/Linux. ⬆