Top Reason To Use Linux On Your Netbook

windows-vs-linux-as-os-for-netbook

Why would you need Linux as an operating system in the era of Microsoft products? Well, even though Microsoft brags about their software’s to be the best with excellent user experiences and ease still there are lots of things which are pretty annoying. Following is a list of top reasons why you need Linux as your Netbook operating system.

1: Hardware of Netbook is so close to run Linux perfectly.
Microsoft lover’s use to argue that netbook hardware where you can play games etc. is built to run Microsoft operating system but it’s not entirely true. Linux with Eeebuntu OS installation can easily run games, photoshop and other prime softwares.

2: Security for Netbooks
If you are using Windows XP on an ultraportable piece of hardware, you are a mobile risk for viruses. And you won’t be installing Norton’s or McAfee on your netbook — especially if you are using a flash-based storage netbook. With Linux, you won’t need those tools in the first place. Your Linux-based netbook can travel anywhere you want and you won’t have to worry about picking up viruses or spyware like you would with a Windows-based netbook.

3: Better Improved Interface
If you have limited screen real estate, why not use a desktop interface designed for that real estate? Instead of using the standard desktop metaphor, the Eeebuntu Netbook Remix desktop introduces an interface that is perfectly suited for the desktop size offered by netbooks. This interface makes the netbook experience far more efficient than any Windows interface. Sure, it’s not what you’re used to. But it’s cleaner, faster and more user-friendly, and it will soon become familiar to you. And this interface isn’t different just for the sake of being different. It’s obvious that the interface was well thought out and aimed at the new PC user as well as the new netbook user.

4: Your netbook can be more than just a slow laptop
When I purchased my last netbook, one of the first things I did was install Eeebuntu (over the purchased Xandros Linux). Why did I do this? Because Xandros is a limited operating system, whereas Eeebuntu is a full-blown Linux distro that happens to install on an Eee PC. When using Eeebuntu on a netbook, you really feel like you have the power of a full laptop at your fingertips. You can even install a full-blown LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server on your netbook if you like.

5: Low Cost
One of the reasons why netbooks are so popular is that they’re cheap. Where, other than eBay, can you find a PC for near or under US$300? And soon, the magical US$200 price tag will be reached when Freescale releases its Linux-only ARM-based netbook. Remember, Linux is open source, so any software you are installing will be free. Because of the cost of the Linux operating system, the cost of netbooks can continue to fall. If Microsoft were to attempt to use Vista or Windows 7, the cost of your average netbook would not fall. And any extra software you want to install — or any antivirus or firewall software you’ll want to use when you’re running a Windows operating system on your netbook? You’ll pay for it.

6: Linux offers more flavors to choose from
There are plenty of Linux varieties to choose from. Even with netbooks, you can go with the basic Xandros or even try the full-blown 3D Elive+Compiz — yes, even on a netbook! I have witnessed the 3D goodness of Compiz running on a netbook and it’s impressive. Of course, it’s not for everyone. But that’s OK, because there really is a Linux distribution for everyone. Just be careful when you make a choice: some of the distributions (such as Eeebuntu and OpenGeeeU) include the array kernel, which has wireless for netbooks built in by default. Some of the others will require you to take a few extra steps to build in wireless support. And with some of these distributions, there are different sub-variations. Eeebuntu has the standard release, which is just like a standard Ubuntu desktop, along with the Netbook Remix, which is a special desktop designed with the Eee PC user in mind.

7: Speed
I have used the same netbook running both Windows XP and Eeebuntu, and there is no comparison. The Eeebuntu desktop was noticeably snappier than the Windows XP. The web browser and mail clients opened nearly twice as fast on the Eeebuntu install than they did on the Windows XP install. Of course, there are differences between the various Linux flavours. For instance, the Xandros distribution is slower than the Eeebuntu distribution, but the Xandros is noticeably faster than OpenGeeeU and Elive.

8: Faster upgrades and Improvements
Just like any software in the open source community, the Linux netbook operating systems will continue to improve at a much faster rate than the Windows operating systems for netbooks. For one thing, more people are working to improve the experience. It is well known that open source bugs are found and fixed far faster than Windows bugs. This will help improve the Linux netbook OS far faster than anything Microsoft can manage. Open source users are more apt to submit bug reports, and open source developers implement patches faster. These patches and bug fixes will not come in the form of Service Packs (as they do in Windows), which are released infrequently and in large chunks. Because of this you are less likely to fubar your network when updating a Linux-based netbook.

9: The next version will work
Are you sure Windows 7 will work on your Eee PC? And if it does, how well will it work? You can be sure the next release of Eeebuntu will work on your Eee PC because it was made for that hardware. From release to release, you never know what a Windows operating system will work on. Vista was a total bust on the netbook. Windows 7 has yet to be released or to even prove it can work well on the netbook hardware. And XP is eventually going to meet its demise. So why take a chance on purchasing hardware that Microsoft will make irrelevant with its next release? Instead, rest assured your Linux OS will continue to work whenever you upgrade it.

10: Support is better (believe it or not)
Finding support for a Windows-based netbook isn’t as easy as it is for a standard laptop or desktop. The nice thing about the Linux netbook community is that the developers are interested in making sure the OS works well and are quick to listen to their users. So you know if you have a problem with your Linux-based netbook, a quick search on Google will most likely find a simple solution to your problem. And if you don’t find an answer on Google, you can go to the website of the distribution developers, where they’ll either have a support forum or a contact form (or email address). Getting help on your Windows-based netbook will require a call to the company that sold you the netbook or a call to Microsoft — or you’ll have to hope your problem has already been reported and fixed so you can find it on Google.

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