Asus Eee PC - breakthrough Linux product faces threat

By Stan Beer
Friday, 23 November 2007 11:15

Opinion and Analysis

The market has spoken and it clearly wants a consumer Linux computer. The sub-notebook Asus Eee PC has not been able to meet demand and is predicted to sell up to 5 million units worldwide next year. If that comes true a single product will have on its own shifted consumer Linux market share upwards a notch or two. However, there is a threat on the horizon for this break-through Linux product - and it comes from Asus itself.

Taiwan-based Asus has promised to bring a Windows version of the Eee PC out before the end of 2007. Why could that be a threat to the Linux version already on the market? The answer is obvious.

Consumers are not interested in what operating system a computer is running. Unfortunately, they don't even care all that much about which operating system offers the best security. All  they're interested in is what a computer can do. And without a doubt they'll have more applications at their disposal with Windows. In many instances, applications common to both platforms, such as Skype, are more advanced on Windows.

This is not the fault of the Linux development community. There are plenty of good products developed specifically for the Linux platform. Unfortunately, however, many of the most popular  software products for PCs have simply not been developed for Linux.

Many well-known software companies have only just got round to developing versions of their product for the Mac, which has a considerably larger market share on the consumer desktop than  Linux.

It's doubtful whether Asus Eee PC owners will care that they can't get Quicken for their new computer. However, one application in particular could be a Linux deal breaker for a consumer  faced with a choice between a Linux and Windows version of the Asus box. And the big irony is that this particular software product is free. While it may be free, however, it is anything but trivial. CONTINUED