Linux Netbooks Found At Very Unusual Places

Have you been looking for a netbook that comes without the Windows tax? It seems that it is harder and harder, because, when they want to drive away competition, Microsoft can amazingly make copies of Windows XP so inexpensive that OEMs cannot help but give in. After all, you don’t think it was all your protests about continuing to offer Windows XP for sale that did any good, do you?

It is possible to find netbooks without Windows XP, and the added cost (no matter who is reaping the extra profit), at, of all places, Toys R Us. I guess Microsoft did not think to look there, or perhaps was told that you would not.

in his column over at ComputerWorld, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols gives a rundown on what can be found, besides more fun than any kid can handle, at that chain of stores. Apparently a couple of Asus models are available, and though they are not big sellers, in any sense of the word, it is a place to start. It is easy enough to trod on down to a local Toys R Us store, and see firsthand what Linux on a netbook looks, and works, like.

One of the most annoying things, thanks to Microsoft strong-arming PC manufacturers, is finding a Linux netbook to buy at a store-front retailer. But, it turns out that there’s at least one store that still carries Linux netbooks: Toys R Us.

Why? Well, perhaps Microsoft overlooked it, but small computers, like netbooks, turn out to be ideal for people with small hands-kids. So it turns out that Toys R Us still carries 7″ netbooks.

To be exact, the chain carries the Asus 701SD, in white and black versions, and the Asus 900A. Both run Xandros Linux.

Now, neither of these computers are state of the art. Both computers, for example, uses a 900MHz Celeron processor rather than a 1.4GHz Intel Atom. The 900A, with its 8.9″ screen size, a GB of RAM and a 4GB SSD (Solid State Drive), is clearly the best of the pair. That said, no one will ever mistake either of these as great netbooks.

As someone who has used Xandros, I can say that it is very much like Windows XP – it was meant to be. It was acting, and looking, like Windows XP, 4 years ago, when Ubuntu was still a word that most people thought was the name of a city in Namibia.

So, if you want to see what Xandros, and netbooks, are like, grab the kids, and take a trip to the most fun that can be had outside of Anaheim, California.

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