Should We Think That Vendors Will Almost Always Be Exclusively Selling Linux?
May 17, 2009 by Clair Ching
Filed under 12, The Free World.
I just read this email/blog entry about Asus being a fair-weathered friend. Asus released their EEE PCs some 2 years ago (roughly) and it was initially released with Linux on it. Now the letter’s pointing out that Asus has quickly changed its allegiance.
Linux was good enough for you at the launch of your Eee PC models two years ago, and it’s even better now. How quickly you changed your allegiance when the hardware caught up with the requirements of Windows. We now know who our real friends are. Maybe you never really were our friend, maybe you just used us to steal a march on the competition. If that’s the case then you suck.
As much I’d rather have Asus sell their laptops and netbooks with Linux pre-installed, the reality is that not everyone in the market would like that. Even if the numbers are probably growing in terms of their Linux sales (not sure of this, just stating a possibility), as a manufacturer, they have probably seen that they have different markets out there. They have the crowd that wants Windows and they have the crowd that wants Linux.
Linux & Windows
Personally, taking it from another perspective, they are vendors. They are most likely out to profit. If they see that they are not yet getting a lot of profit, they would be looking for avenues that are going to give them the gains that they want. At the same time they probably think that they are giving the potential buyers a choice anyway.
Do I expect manufacturers to be totally supportive of all things open source? I am pessimistic by nature and I have to admit that I cannot say yes. Taking into consideration that businesses need to profit, it will be difficult at this time. Maybe some day but I don’t see it now. For now, at least there are manufacturers like Asus and Acer who give us choices. That’s a first step, I think.
That is true, however I feel the main issue that Alan was annoyed about was that not only has Asus stopped shipping Linux, but they have set this site up:
http://www.itsbetterwithwindows.com/
To specifically tell people that Linux was worse.
It was that ’stab-in-the-back’ that I felt was the real cause.
@Andrew
Thanks for commenting. There’s that stab in the back thing and maybe one part of me thinks that it’s natural if someone in Asus’ marketing team came up with that because it’s one probable that it is how they’d like to campaign their products now, for one reason or another. I do not like it either but I do not expect them to be totally fully supportive of Linux either, even if their Linux-powered netbooks gave them a marketshare.
Also, saying that their computers are better with Windows does not mean that it won’t work with Linux. They are spreading FUD in a different manner, true, but it doesn’t also directly say that Linux is worse. Users will eventually realize the truth.
I suppose this is where marketing and the truth will really differ. Marketing is more likely than not targeting a particular market (definitely not us) and it might have its backlash on Asus if their netbooks end up not working well with Linux. Eventually it will be their problem, if it ever it does come to that.