thelinuxlink.net

http://blog.laptopmag.com/msi-to-releas ... in-january

With next month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) approaching, we thought to check in with MSI’s Director of U.S. Sales Andy Tung. Tung was very forth coming about the company’s plans for the show and the first quarter of 2009. He revealed that:

The Wind U100 and U120 will be parallel products in the U.S. The U120 will have a new design (which we got a hands-on look at last month) and WiMax/3G options. The U120 will hit the U.S. market in January.

The Wind U110 and U115 will be released at the end of January and have the newest Intel Atom platform (Intel Atom Z530). The U115, as rumored, will have both an SSD and a hard drive. You will be able to turn off the hard drive completely to save battery power. He expects the U115 to get 10 hours of battery life.

MSI will unveil the 13.3-inch U300 at CES. It will not be a part of the Wind line, but will be a very thin, light and affordable ultraportable. Tung says he expects people to be “shocked.”

Going head-to-head with ASUS at the show, MSI will show a touch enabled-Wind at CES.

MSI will not bring Linux netbooks to market in the U.S.

Contrary to previous things we’ve heard, upgrading the Wind’s RAM will not void your warranty.

One of the things we talked about the last time we spoke was return rates of Linux netbooks. What is the evolving strategy for MSI and Linux, are you planning on a new Linux OS, or are you steering away from it?

Linux is a focus but it depends on the market. In the U.S market people are well-educated and people have experience in terms of operating computers. And people are very much close to the Windows look and feel. But in some regions, people don’t have the same experience. In emerging markets, Linux will play an important role because of price point. Also, people there don’t really have any preference or experience with Windows. We are working with some of the Linux companies like Novell and Ubuntu but for other markets, but not for the U.S.

It's too bad there's no future for GNU/Linux in the US. We're just too "well-educated" and too "experienced" to ever settle for that poor excuse for a Windows replacement.

F*** them, there are other companies who would be happy to take our money.

That's right, there are plenty of other companies that won't have stupid assumptions about the US market and who will be able to create a profitable business plan for marketing Linux to the common desktop user. Infact, I think that it's really just about getting the word to people that there is an alternative and delivering that message with confidense. For instance, my friends mother just bought a Dell Ubuntu system. But he had to talk her into it the whole way because the Dell website kept telling her to choose Windows. And so did the support person that she spoke with on the phone. If a cost effective way can be found to educate and make available Linux to more people in the US, I think that adoption would fair very nicely in this market.

You know what's funny? The fact that there were so many short-sighted companies back in the 80s when the clone explosion came out. Where are they now? Either not in the PC space anymore, or completely out of business. I guess those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it with the netbook market. It's very short-sighted of MSI (and other netbook manufacturers) to not offer a GNU/Linux option just because "everyone runs Windows." Well, not everyone runs Windows. And those that have the option of GNU/Linux are the ones that will be benefiting from customers who purchase those products. It's quite obvious that people are frustrated with Windows, but they don't know what their options are other than getting a Mac (which despite my use of them, is for all practical purposes completely out of the question). Windows users have been so conditioned to expecting crap from a computer that when something comes along that seems too good to be true, they think that it is too good to be true....until they actually use it. Taking that into consideration, I don't understand why MSI doesn't see that offering a GNU/Linux option means KEEPING that customer that purchased your product to begin with....and not letting that customer move to your competition for the better option.

Me to MSI - "no money from me"

It's too bad. Linux works well on these platforms, and Windows sucks. I believe it was the MSI with XP on it at Best Buy I briefly looked at, and after the slow menu response I just walked away. The eeepc with Linux was fun and I played with it briefly. Sometimes its just not the sell, but the customer satisfaction you have to look at. I don't think any Windows version of the netbooks is a positive experience.

Bugz

NOt sure if this is the right address....
http://www.msicomputer.com/company/Marketing_Public.asp