If you ask me, the Asus Eee PC put netbooks on the map. For around $400 USD you can buy a fully functional laptop. One of the reasons that the Eee PC was so affordable was due to the fact that the netbooks were running Linux. Even though you could format the machine and run a Windows OS on it, the purchase price was kept low by supplying a free OS. Asus took the stance that the Xandros based distribution supplied with the Eee PC was stable, easy to use and customized to work with the hardware on the Eee PC.

Now it seems that Asus has changed their stance because they have launched a website with Microsoft called It's Better With Windows. The website describes how easy it is to use the Asus Eee PC with Windows. It states that you will not have to deal with an "unfamiliar environment" and "major compatibility issues". That is a strange comment when Asus claims that the Linux distro on the Eee PC was customized for that particular hardware.

The funniest part of the It's better with Windows campaign, is that the Eee PC really is not suited to run Windows Vista. Therefore most people are running Windows XP on their Eee PCs. Primarily, the reason people do not run Vista is because it is a memory hog and the Eee PC does not have a lot of horsepower in terms of memory and CPU. So I guess if your idea of compatibility is running a 8 year old OS then go right ahead. I suppose you could wait for Windows 7 to be released but who knows how stable that will be on the Eee PC hardware. 

Anyway, it is kind of disturbing that Asus jumped on the Microsoft bandwagon so quickly. I really hope that Asus will continue to allow people to choose which OS they want installed on their new PC. Furthermore, if you choose to use Linux then you should definitely get a lower price!