The Acer Guy

I’m not one to quote other articles. That’s because I usually like to create my own conversations. I guess that explains why I end up talking to myself.

Anyway, I just read an article over on ReadWriteWeb about the way Linux has (finally) made important inroads into the mindset of consumers thanks to the arrival of netbooks like the Aspire One.

In particular, there is a wonderful paragraph that puts the difference between what was (notebooks) and what is (netbooks) into perspective:

“In the rest of the computing world of desktop computers and mainstream notebooks, you’re typically choosing between Windows Vista or Mac OS X, but in the world of netbooks, it’s Linux or XP. Those two operating systems are perfect for netbooks thanks to their lower CPU and power requirements.

For those pinching pennies (and who isn’t these days?), the Linux netbooks are even more affordable than their XP counterparts, typically falling into the $300-400 range. If you’re already doing most of your computing in the cloud – that is, you use webmail, create and edit documents using a service like Google Docs or Zoho (or using free preinstalled office suite like OpenOffice on the Aspire One – MW), store your photos online at a site like Flickr, and, most importantly, don’t need to run a bunch of software programs on your desktop, the Linux computer is now looking more like a viable option than before.”

The article continues with a phenomenon that not only the buying public demonstrates, but also the distributors who put the things on the shelf in the first place.

“However, there are still a few folks out there who are going to go with the XP option for familiarity’s sake. There’s comfort in knowing that your peripherals will work and that you could run Windows-only desktop software if you needed to.”

And there’s the rub. Linux for the majority of customers is one hell of a steep learning curve and the distributors know this. Look around the various local Acer sites and it’s clear which versions distributors think will and won’t sell. This might cause a few flames amongst my readers but the US in particular has a surprising resistance to Linux.

Netbooks are here to stay and future generations and evolutions of them will no doubt bring Linux further into public acceptance as the learning curve softens out. But just because Acer has sold more netbooks than any other brand and intends to build on this in 2009 does not mean that it’s a done deal. There are still some huge obstacles we need to overcome.

By way of an example, I’m determined to get to the bottom of a problem raised in a previous post by Mike from England that seems to suggest that ALL Linux machines (not just the Aspire One) cannot connect to the web in the UK if the owner uses British Telecom as a provider. Certainly that’s what BT told him. If third party providers with that sort of clout don’t support Linux how much harder is it going to be to bring about change?

The Aspire One Linux edition is a brilliant mass-introduction to the world of Linux and the fact that it’s so damned cheap (when compared to equivalent Windows devices) means that Acer is already going out of its way to flatten the learning curve and thus ease public acceptance of Linux not just as a cheaper alternative, but as a viable alternative to Windows.

For me it was my first encounter with this operating system and I must say that despite being a bit of a clown when it comes to tweaking technology, it was relatively painless and actually a lot of fun. I took the red pill, made the jump. I’m ready for more.

If you want to know what real people think about switching to and using Linux, I invite you to read the comments from that article, and then of course feel free to add yours here.