Comments

• Mikko

  2009-10-06 23:26:07

  Can't buy a linux laptop here in microsoft land

• Dennis Murczak

  2009-10-06 20:25:09

  Further reading into the comments, it seems the Asus notebooks are preinstalled with Red Flag Linux configured to boot straightly into ... bash. An Ubuntu user wrote he could make X start up, but just that; no window manager came up.
  
  Yeah, way to go, Asus.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-10-06 21:00:23

  Think of it as Dell's old FreeDOS machines, which were bought by people who installed their distro of choice. The important thing is that these laptops are Linux (kernel) compatible.

• Dennis Murczak

  2009-10-06 22:04:06

  Sorry for my rant above there.
  
  I see the long descriptions have been updated since I lasted dropped by on Amazon a month ago. For the Asus notebooks it mentions the non-graphical nature of the preinstalled OS more explicitly now. These are definitely machines for price-conscious geeks, and it's good to have them even with only a minority continuing to run Linux.

• Dennis Murczak

  2009-10-06 19:54:11

  Sadly, 80% of the product comments deal with how to install various versions of Windows :-( As a German I can tell you that no one will give you a blank stare when you mention Linux (Mac most likely will), but also that everyone has a pirated Windows CD within arm's reach or at least a buddy phone call away. Burning 20000€ worth of warez onto a single DVD and sharing with as many friends as possible seems to be a kind of questionable leisure sport, and has been the doom of *every* Linux installation (over 60 so far) I did on computers other than my own ones.