Linux is the future for budget laptops

Acer puts its Aspire One faith in Linux... but will still release an XP version too. Image: Acer.

While various ultra-portable laptop manufacturers busy themselves with making their products ever more appealing through the pre-installed availability of Microsoft’s hugely popular Windows XP operating system, Acer has broken from the pack by claiming that open-source alternative Linux is the way forward for low-cost computing.
According to a report published by industry magazine PC World, an upper-tier Acer executive has said that the Linux platform could well play a pivotal role in the evolution of the budget computer market, and that Taiwan-based Acer Inc. is looking to nurture an open-source community around its line of value laptops.
“We really need to continue our journey on Linux,” outlined Jim Wong, senior corporate vice president at Acer, the world’s third biggest computer manufacturer. “We can develop it more and we will try to develop alliances with more partners. Linux is a lonely word. We need to try to create a community.”
Wong’s comments come after Acer launched its Aspire One at last week’s Computex trade show in Taipei. The $399-$499 USD ultra-portable laptop is the company’s very first entrant into the low-cost market and is being positioned to appeal to those consumers looking to secure a budget priced computer that attends to wireless Web and processing needs while boasting extreme portability.
Weighing in at less than a kilo, armed with an 8.9-inch LCD display screen and bolstered by Intel Corp’s latest mobile Atom processing technology and 8GB-80GB hard drive options, the Aspire One extends Acer’s open-source vision by offering users super-quick start up times via the laptop’s Linpus Linux Lite operating system.
Acer’s apparent focus on Linux flies in the face of recent ultra-portable laptop scrambling that has resulted in the likes of ASUSTek and Micro Star International (MSI) revealing Windows XP versions of their respective Linux-based Eee PC and Wind mini-laptop computers.
However, not to be unduly isolated from shifting market trend, Acer is also likely to hedge its operation system bets this coming July, when it is expected to confirm an XP model of the new Aspire One.
That being said, Mr. Wong would appear to believe in encouraging users to adopt Linux rather than XP, noting that Acer’s "main message to users is about Linux because the experience is more real, it is more vivid."