After an attempt in the first with Xandros Eee PCs, ASUS has now partnered with in a distro better known and with a higher technical base to install on their netbooks: Ubuntu netbook will be three with plans to expand for more releases!
Leaving the factory with Ubuntu 10.10, netbooks EeePC models 1001PXD, 1011PX 1015PX and should be available for purchase very soon, and with one important difference: the installation already comes with multimedia codecs and Flash installed on your machine.
Although it may seem strange to use an older version of Ubuntu, it is worth remembering that this is a common practice, those versions usually already have all the bugs fixed, and the team that has made all possible tests on the hardware.
Penguin Powered
In a statement to the website The Inquirer, the VP of OEM services at Canonical, Chris Kenyon, commented on the partnership with ASUS and said it's an important partnership for Canonical:
This will put Ubuntu into the hands of a much larger audience, not necessarily people who would like to download Ubuntu, but would be happy to buy a computer knowing that it will work perfectly on that hardware.
We hope that the factor of great lightness and design of the Eee PC, combined with the great performance of Ubuntu can produce a great competitor in the market
Since Stanley Chang, director of ASUS products, said this partnership is "a situation in which absolutely everyone wins, and that these netbooks fill various needs of a diverse market and a defined user base."
The question is whether, in a market increasingly interested in tablets, sales of these models to achieve a significant mark. Xandros Linux distro used by ancient ASUS on their netbooks, had a series of problems and made many people prefer to install Windows on top. With a more robust and with Ubuntu properly configured, users may feel more comfortable to continue with Linux.
As always, only time can tell. ASUS seems to be pretty confident, since it has plans to launch new models with Ubuntu.
