News Microsoft worried over Linux ULPCs

EVE Online has a semi-native client/wrapper to run under Linux! straight after you download it.
Oblivion plays fantastic too, as Civ 4.
And nearly 90% of the games run. Don't expect SM3.0 yet, but the rest are nice and smooth.
When we have SM3.0 support, even Crysis will run faster under linux!

 

Having read this, I changed my MSI Wind preorder from the XP Home version (~20€ more) to the Linux one. :I

 

of course, it is a devlish frequency.....

 

hmm interesting.. i'm still not completely statisfied with linux as a desktop OS.. I guess I'm just lazy and have run into too many little problems that are extremely frustrating to solve even given the vast array of 'help' out there for the linux community ... that said, pff! .. a machine with 'crippled hardware' specs vs a linux machine? I'll take the linux machine thanks

 

Semi-on topic:

Is their a way to install an OS (specificly some version of linux) on an ancient rig that had its keyboard cotroller fry on the motherboard?
(ie: I can't use a freaking keyboard on this computer anymore, but nothing else is wrong and i wouldn't mind remotely controlling it if I could get a distro on board.)

 

I think MS realizes just what a threat this really is. If both manufacturers and consumers get acclimated to the idea that linux is a serviciable alternative to Windows, then they are in trouble. The reality is that linux has been ready for mainstream for probably a year now, but the perception is more important than the reality. What's perhaps more significant is that it's in a laptop, which has long been viewed as the last place where it's a PITA to get linux working.

I feel like we're right on the verge of the emergence of linux into the market. There is not going to be a single, massive switch, but rather an accelerating movementuntil one day "Which OS" becomes a significant question in buying a computer.

@faulk Wulf, can you use a USB keyboard?

 

Most Distro's allow to boot a (sometimes custom) CD that automatically starts an SSH server... If you got an Linux environment + SSH server you are set... Debootstrap, emerge, ... as you please

 

I would definitely go for the Linux distro if I were to get a miniature laptop. I've never used linux before, but the only reason for that is gaming, which wouldn't be so good on a laptop, so linux it would be!

 

100% agree with P3 being perfect. I run Ubuntu on a Dell C610 with 512MB RAM and occassionally get spikes that I need to look into, but it runs perfectly

 

all the dooms and quakes, eve online, pretty much all steam stuff. i've never had codec problems except when i used fedora core 2 (or as i call it, "Foder-o Coiro"). I honestly think that all people have now a days is a lame excuse, and devs are just lazy.

EDIT: well i don't want to be harsh on devs. sometimes it isn't their fault, its the fault of the financial directors, which simply are dumb and say "it brings no money! don't do it! also, leave work at 6pm because paying extra hours isn't lucrative!" damn ass lame financial directors!

 

I did honestly have a-lot of respect for Microsoft for their work in other fields than Operating Systems. The other products the create are fantastic! But when it comes too there UTTER monopoly of the OS market and how much they try to manipulate it, then they are a I-wish-I-could-no-go area.

 

I had an EeePC for a bit and I thought the custom Linux interface was great. I returned it because of the small screen and limited storage but if that got fixed (without a jump in price) I'd buy another in a heartbeat. IMO a purpose built interface (like the EeePC custom Linux one) is better on a UMPC than a general-purpose one (Like Windows).

The great news is that now there might be an option of a limited unit running XP or a better unit running Linux - for the same cost. The only things keeping me with Windows are familiarity and games. A UMPC is great for casual games and there are tons of those free for Linux.

 

with the way EEE is currently priced, where XP will get a much smaller disk drive, i will buy Linux without any hesitation, then install my own OS.

 

I like the way Microsoft are scared of competition

 

The RAM limitation is a little silly, especially when it is so cheap.

 

Doug, MS has always been scared of the competition, they just buy out the competition, or leverage their monopoly and try and force the competition to become irrelevant (see Netscape). This time though, people are waking up to the fact that you don't need the latest offering from Redmond in order to surf the web or write your letters. You don't even need to spend loads of money on a super laptop in order to get yourself a mobile computer any more.

The EeePC and others like it have shown the general public the way forward in low cost computing. It's only MS that wants us to take a step backwards to support their failing business model.

Andy

 

Have you ever seen VLC on OS X. Its not Linux that you hate, it is the way X Server packages the eye-candy ok. With reference to your beef about audio/video codecs, i think that is a problem that no longer exists for most formats have downloadable codecs. Even windows calls home to download codecs when necessary - albeit with more grace and stealth. Games - hey buddy, you heard of CrossOver Games? Look it up

 

ID software have made games for linux since 1994, back then linux was far smaller than now and less polished.

 

I think what we're overlooking is the fact that Linux is, whatever its undoubted benefits, a complete mess of half-standardised, thrown-together junk. Ubuntu has made huge differences of late but all they're really doing is papering over the cracks with pretty graphics and a nice UI. What I'd like to see is a massive reduction in the number of linux distros out there, and much more concentration on interopability.

Yes, it's reprehensible of Microsoft to behave in this manner, but at the moment I'd take the XP option simply for usability.

 

ls /usr/src/linux/Documentation

Ubuntu however is "a complete mess of [...] thrown-together junk. But then again, I like to control what junk I run on my system...

This is going to happen when hell freezes over, Linux is about choice remember?

Not even going to comment this, again...