Asus has NOT abandoned Linux

For those who have forgotten, the first Asus netbook ran Linux, to be precise – Xandros. It forced Microsoft to bring the XP back from its grave. Now, Asus does not sells any Linux powered netbooks. But, is that really correct?

We came across this article written by Steven Nichols, Computer World, who believes Linux is dead on netbooks. Well, guess what Asus Asia has been selling the Asus Eee 1201T with Express Gate which is actually a customized Linux OS. This allows them to sell this AMD NEO-powered machine under $380 because Linux does not cost a penny. It comes with AMD NEO processor, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 12.1-inch 1366×768 pixel display and a very spacious chiclet keyboard.

It is also very weird that Computer world points-out that Windows 7 Starter is a Trash. Really? Well, just because it cannot change the wallpaper? Come on, it can run any application meant to run Windows 7 Ultimate. Oh, and Asus actually has a workaround to change that ‘trash wallpaper’ too – change Windows 7 Starter wallpaper.

The yammering does not end there. They say Windows 7 is ‘awful’ on netbooks. For those who do not know, Windows 7, even with a gig of RAM runs better on netbooks compared to XP, thanks to its excellent memory management algorithms.

Wi-Fi not working on Asus Eee 1201T or 1201N?

Owners of the Eee 1201N and Eee 1201T might be already aware of the Wi-Fi issue. Unlike most netbooks, where everything works out of the box, mainly due to the fact that the innards of almost all netbooks are same, this is not the case with the Asus Eee 1201T. Wi-Fi doesn’t work out-of-the box. However, we have done the work for you and here are the steps to get the wireless to work:

UPDATE – Ubuntu 10.04 users – see instructions from this post instead

• First go to this link. Search for “RTL8192SE” on the page and download its Linux version to the Downloads folder.
• Once downloaded, right click on the file and select “Extract here” from the menu
• Rename to folder to something more user-friendly. I named it as rtl
• Fire up the terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal)

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