The Netbook War

Since Asus introduced the Eee PC to the world, the company has gone from a relatively unknown to the general public computer manufacturer to almost a household name. The netbook turned out to be a huge success for Asus due to its low cost, portability, and ease of use.

This success has not gone unnoticed and most other big-name computer manufacturers, such as Dell and HP, have scrambled to release netbooks of their own in an attempt to grab a pie of the lucrative mini-laptop market.

These companies have for the most part copied Asus’ recipe when it comes to designing their notebooks. This translates to devices that are inexpensive, small enough to be easily portable and feature a choice of either Windows XP or Linux as the operating system.

Dell in particular has followed this winning recipe to create its own line of netbooks called Inspiron Mini. They offer a selection of three models: the smallest one comes with an 8.9” screen, the mid-size model has a 10.1” screen, and the largest one a 12.1”. Dell chose to keep the cost low; the cheapest model costs only $249. Buyers can customize their devices to come with either Windows XP or Ubuntu.

Dell opting for a different distribution of Linux -Asus uses Xandros on its Eee PCs- is one of the key differences between the two competing devices. And in the end, this might be a good thing for Dell considering that a number of users have reported a number of annoyances with the Xandros OS that ships with Eee PCs.