On Mar 28, 1:26 am, peterwn <pete...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mar 28, 3:23 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > Ases Eee PC with XP - special discount for schools?
>
> > ,----[ Quote ]
> > | So, hold on a second! A special tender for educational institutions? And this
> > | is only for the XP version of the Eee PC, not the Linux version? I wonder who
> > | managed to line up this deal? Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft
> > | would be the one sponsoring this. Probably giving away the copies of XP more
> > | or less for free. If anyone has any information on the details of this,
> > | please let me know...
Microsoft has very good reason to be nervous about the ASUS EEE 4g and
8g systems. The little laptop packs a lot of "bang for the buck",
especially for the Linux version. No problem browsing using FireFox,
no problem playing videos (including wmv and RealMedia) and you also
get a full blown OpenOffice 2.0 based on the new industry standard
Open Document Format.
If the ASUS EEE 4G makes it into the hands of millions of users, as it
appears poised to do, it would mean that Millions of users will be
getting a really good first-hand experience of Linux on a fully
functional laptop for the first time ever. With the system booting in
less than 15 seconds, and actually ready to do real work, not just
showing a desktop with a few icons while the actual system remains
frozen, waiting for everything to stabilize and become ready to
actually run an application, which could take several minutes to load,
the way XP and Vista have been doing it.
The ASUS EEE will probably be seen as a supplement to a Laptop rather
than as a replacement. It's great for just carrying around, like a
PDA, and it's small enough and light enough that you can actually do
real work while flying in regular coach seats on any US airline, you
can bring it into a meeting and take notes that are ready to be
distributed minutes after the meeting is over, and you can capture use
it with WiFi, cellular WAN cards, and traditional ethernet
connections. You can also use it with USB devices.
I've been using mine for a couple of weeks now, and have been able to
bring MS-Office documents to the meeting and take notes during the
review of those documents, without having to drag a big laptop
everywhere, or unplug the laptop and lose a bunch of critical
connections and contexts.
I've also reached that point where I'm ready to take another shot at
Linux as the primary operating system, using Windows as the secondary,
especially now that Driver support for my Atheros 5008 chipset is now
supported.
Everybody on my development team now has Linux in some form, cygwin on
all the XP systems, VMWare running Linux appliances on the XP and Mac
machines, and connecting to AIX servers, which is our target
environment. As a result, we can write scripts in standard shell (ksh
or bash) and run them equally well on both the Linux environments and
the AIX environments. We have also been doing perl scripts for quick
and dirty solutions to problem analysis and statistical summaries.
Then we also support the proprietary solutions such as WebSphere
Message Broker and DataPower gateway. The FOSS software has helped us
to accelerate a solution that had previously been stalled due to
incompatibilities between Windows and AIX.
> Unfortuntely AFAIK the NZ Education Ministry pays Microsoft an annual
> lump sum to licence Windows and Office on PC's for state schools
> regardless of number of 'seats'.
Which is revenue Microsoft doesn't want to lose. If schools are able
to deliver results and adhere to published and public independently
managed and controlled standards that are supported by numerous
vendors, there is a very good chance that they would stop paying for
support of Microsoft Office, because they wouldn't need the
proprietary versions. They wouldn't need to purchase Windows upgrades
either, and might just opt to stick with whatever support Microsoft is
willing to offer for free, to all users. They might even opt to
follow the lead of companies like IBM, who have purchased their
licenses and no longer pay annual support costs.
Microsoft is looking at the bigger picture, and even if the ASUS EEE
doesn't immediately trigger a mass-migration to Linux-only systems, it
could trigger an erosion in demand which would mean reduced prices to
stay competitive, reduced profits for Microsoft, and less willingness
on the part of OEMs to accept the "Windows-Only" offering as a
solution.
Looking at how effeciently the Mac and Linux run Windows XP as a
client system, I can't understand why anybody would rather go with
Vista for a business oriented computer. Vista may have features that
are nice for video games, but corporate customers really aren't buying
laptop and desktop computers to play video games, in fact, they try to
discourage employees from using them that way.
When Microsoft "pulls the plug" on Windows XP for the OEMs, sometime
in June or July, there may be a corporate moratorium on PC purchases,
or possibly even a migration to platforms such as Mac or Linux-Only
systems, with the post-market installation of the corporate XP
licenses as VMWare clients.
> Hence AFAIK suppliers can supply
> Eee's with XP to schools without need for indiidual licences.
Not according to the memos leaked in the Ohio vs Microsoft case. It
was made very clear to the marketing organization that they must "Win
against Linux at All Costs", but that they were to insist that the
free licenses only be offered for machines purchased with OEM versions
of Windows. Appearantly, they are afraid that if Microsoft starts
giving away licenses, the schools might by "White Box" systems that
don't come with ANY form of Windows preinstalled.
Remember, Microsoft's primary revenue sources are the OEM licenses and
the Corporate Volume Managed Licenses. Microsoft is trying very hard
to make sure that companies like ASUS and others feel that they must
purchase those OEM licenses to make their product viable. If the ASUS
EEE 4G has already sold almost 1/2 million units in less than 3
months, even in the face of VaporWare, and they have done so WITHOUT
ANY form of Windows, that's a really bad message to the industry.
Remember, ASUS as a full-function OEM has previously been a very small
player. Their business has previously been the Motherboards and other
components, but now they are offering end-user products based on Linux
instead of Windows, and they have been doing remarkably well for a
newcomer.
It wasn't so long ago that Acer was a minority player, and yet their
willingness to produce "Linux Oriented" workstations, laptops, and
accessories, has enabled them to capture markets that were shunned by
the "Vista Only" systems.
> Incidentally Dick Smiths in NZ (similar to Radio Shack) already sells
> XP loaded Eee's for an extra $NZ100 (about $US80-90).
Sounds like Microsoft is trying to dump on the market. It's almost as
if Microsoft is willing to pay over $200 per PC just to have Windows
on the box. Keep in mind that you still don't get Office, nor do you
get most of Microsoft's other premium products. About all you get is
a bare-bones version of XP and a stripped down version of Internet
Explorer. It must have been a real challenge to try and get this
crammed into a 4 gigabyte "drive" with only 512 megabytes of memory.
For Linux, that's plenty, more than enough for most distributions, and
even gives you a pretty generous collection of additional software.
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