I am not always negative about technology, but the second announcement today has be to be viewed objectively. Asus has announced Windows XP for the EeePC.
It could cost an additional $US30-60 for the Microsoft OS, and will come pre-installed with software such as Live Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery and Family Safety (for parental lock). These are all great, except that you will need to have internet to really take advantage of the ‘Live’ services.
It doesn’t come pre-loaded with office, and of course you will be stuck with IE, unless you install Firefox (or Opera). It also means that you have a OS that can do everything, on a machine that clearly wasn’t created to do everything. In other words I don’t think Windows XP should go anywhere near the EeePC.
It isn’t all bad news. Giving you the ability to install your favourite Windows applications to your portable companion is great. It opens up options to use peripherals that aren’t supported for Linux, and makes it easier to be hacked by the hardcore Windows geeks.
On the other hand, those things don’t balance the fact that Windows XP is a heavy OS that will take up a lot of space to do less then the Linux OS can do. It will need more memory and won’t run very nicely on a 900MHz Celeron processor.
There are advantages to many people to have Windows XP on such a device, but the device was never created for that purpose. Microsoft really need to make a lightweight OS that does a little less, but handles the lower speed processors and plays nicer with SSD’s. Meanwhile I will keep reading my Linux For F##king Idiots Books (adults version, with swear words and naked women).

For more info, click over to DailyTech.