Chinese Ubuntu Windows XP GUI clone

For those who want their Ubuntu with the familiarity of Windows XP, you can check out the YMLF OS, an Ubuntu distro that clones the look and feel of Windows XP. The only catch is it is Chinese, being developed by a group in China.

YMLF OS website.

Windows XP's Got Survival Skills: Will Ship Through 2010

From Gizmodo -

There are rumors HP will be allowed to ship computers with Windows XP until April 30, 2010 - way after the published expiration of the OS on May 30 this year. However, Microsoft is still supposedly ending mainstream support on April 14 and it will cost Vista users to downgrade. There is also no word yet if other manufacturers will be offered similar deals.

Turn Windows XP Into a Fake Windows 7

From Gizmodo -

If you want the look of Windows 7 but don't want to use a beta OS, you can do so with Niwradsoft Seven Remix XP. It is a free download that transforms the entire look of your OS to be all-around 7-like. You get boot screens, logon screens, screensaver, system theme, and loads of hacked resource files.

Download page here.

HIdden Movie in Windows XP

From a post by sequoia in Tsikot forum -

Do the following steps below:

1. Click START -> RUN
2. Type Telnet
3. Click OK and command prompt will appear
4. Type "o" without quote and press ENTER
5. It should go down the line and say
6. Now type "towel.blinkenlights.nl" and press ENTER

7 Tools To Make Your WinXP Netbook Shine

GigaOM has compiled a list of free tools that can help you make your Windows XP netbook a more productive device -

SyncToy: keeps any two folders in sync automatically

Tweak UI: lets you customize how Windows XP looks on small screens.

Virtual Desktop Manager: lets you use up to four virtual desktops to keep things easy to see on a small screen.

SharpKeys: lets you easily remap keys based on your preferences.

Foxit Reader: A PDF reader that handles documents better and faster than the standard Adobe Reader.

Xplorer2: A file manager that is highly configurable so you can better take advantage of the small screen and trackpad on the netbook.

Windows Movie Maker: makes it a breeze to create slide shows to using photos.

Download links here.

Windows XP allowed to live again

Per BBC News, Microsoft has moved the January 31, 2009 deadline for PC makers to obtain Windows XP licenses to May 30, 2009. Microsoft has previously extended XP's availability for netbooks until 2010.

Windows XP was originally set to be discontinued on January 30, 2008 to pave the way for Vista. But the sudden surge of low-cost netbooks, of which a significant volume use Windows alternatives such as Linux, forced Microsoft to offer XP at a discounted price to protect its market share.

Vista's replacement, Windows 7, is due to be launched late next year.

eeePC900 XP fast boot

Uploaded by MonCalibuso -

Will Win XP beat out Linux in the sub-portable market?

When Asus first announced its Eee PC around this time last year at the Taiwan Computex, it made headlines because of three things:

First, the price. At $199, it immediately changed the business model. Suddenly, small does not have to be expensive.

Second, instead of a conventional hard drive, the Eee PC was configured with a solid-state drive. Never mind if the capacity was rather limited (4GB). Having a SSD meant no moving parts, and therefore, a less fragile (and also lighter and faster) device.

Thirdly, no Windows. The Eee PC used instead a Linux distro called Xandros. What made it stand out in particular was the extremely easy to use Easy Mode Menu. And with the plethora of built-in applications, the Eee PC came out acting more like a consumer device instead of a computing device. In fact, unlike most mainstream notebooks, off the shelf and out-of-the-box, it was instantly usable.

In fact, Asus got it right early on by trying to market the Asus Eee PC as a consumer device (“It is not a notebook.”) and by selling it via consumer-oriented retail channels as well.

The pre-launch hype generated by the announcement was nothing short of phenomenal, so much so that inspite of Asus eventually doubling the price and downgrading the configuration when the Eee PC was finally released after several delays, it went on to become a bestseller as it continues to be today.

Unfortunately, Asus was soon besieged with component shortage, limiting the Eee PC’s production run. Asus was nevertheless complacent and predicted that competition will start to show up only in the second half of 2008. However, as we have predicted (given the Asus Eee PC basically used off-the-shelf components and open source software), competing products started appearing by Q2 this year.

Yet no one competing product has, to date, come close to the original Asus Eee PC 701 in terms of value for money. (The MSI Wind, which is scheduled to ship next month, might be the first serious contender.) So Asus has had an incredible opportunity for some time now to further strengthen its dominance in the low-cost sub-portable market segment that it has itself created.

It could have easily achieved this by simply maximizing economics of scale and reduce prices downward towards the original $199. Especially since subsequent product introductions by the competition all failed to match the Eee PC’s value for money proposition.

But Asus instead chose to chase after the competition by upgrading the original configuration, adding a bigger screen, more memory, and increasing its price. Instead of letting the competition chase after its dominance with its 701 model, with its newer 900 model, it became simply one of many contenders fighting for the mid-priced sub-portable market.

But the repercussions of Asus’ strategy go beyond Asus’ potentially losing its dominance in this market segment. For in upping the hardware ante (and thereby, increasing the cost), Asus has inadvertently given new life to Microsoft Windows XP.

Previously Microsoft has announced it will cease to offer Win XP by June 30, 2008. But alarmed by the inroads Linux was able to make with the emerging proliferation of low-cost sub-portables, it decided to extend the product life of Win XP and offer it to the manufacturers at substantially reduced prices.

Still, the minimal configurations of the sub-portables meant a dismal performance by the bloated XP, especially compared to the leaner Linux distros. Moreover, the sub-portables’ low price meant Microsoft had to provide hefty discounts to the manufacturers. Even then, the licensing fee meant an increase in the retail price. Thus, most manufacturers ended up providing upgraded and higher priced Windows configurations for their respective products. The price difference allowed the Linux versions to remain attractive to potential buyers considering the Windows alternative.

But the recent introduction of newer models featuring bigger screens, additional RAM, hard drives, and higher prices have altered the playing field again. The additional computing power means better hardware hosts for Win XP. The price increase lessens the significance (in terms of percentages) of the licensing fee. Suddenly, having Win XP on a sub-portable seemed a very attractive deal again.

The newer models have also reversed the trend of sub-portables becoming more consumer appliance-like and now appear to be positioned as mere lighter and smaller alternatives to other notebooks in the mid-priced market segment. Guess what? This has always been Microsoft Windows territory. Linux seems suddenly out of the running again.

So will Win XP now beat out Linux in the sub-portable market?

While the developing trend looks very much leaning towards such outcome, we don’t think Microsoft will be able to deliver the knock-out punch just yet.

Unless Asus reverses its direction and decides to offer again an entry-level model at under $300, it will likely lose the its dominant position in the ultra-portable market by December. Its traditional rivals MSI and ECS will probably introduce entry-level models in time for the holidays and these will fight it out for market share. (Cheaper MSI Wind and ECS G10IL variants, perhaps?)

And expectedly, these entry-level models will have Linux instead of Windows XP. More significantly, they will also have very user-friendly menus directed towards the original 2nd billion user target of the Asus Eee PC. And this should give Linux renewed hope of penetrating the consumer market even deeper.

Win XP in Cloudbook in Taiwan

As the screenshot above clearly shows, Windows XP is now available on the Everex Cloudbook, previously only available with gOS. While this particular model is available only in Taiwan, the way Microsoft has been aggressively pursuing manufacturers, it should only be a matter of time before it becomes available in other countries as well.

Translated Everex site here.

Original Everex site here.

Win XP on OLPC XO

IN DEPTH: Official Eee PC with XP

APC Mag Australia has an in-depth review of the XP-based-Asus Eee PC -

The XP version is identical to the Xandros-based 701-4G model except that it has the standard XP Home Edition SP2 preloaded and comes with the XP Home OEM install disc and Asus’ XP drivers and a recovery utility DVD. It also costs USD80 more.

However included versions of Media Player, Live Messengers and other applets were not always the latest version. A special edition model that will have a trimmed down version of the XP, which will include MS Works, will be released soon.

XP Home takes up more than 2GB, compared to Xandros' 2.2GB. But the latter is also preloaded with tons of apps, making it instantaneously usable. With the XP install, you will need to load your apps, which will quickly gobble up the remaining SSD space. That is why Asus has thoughtfully included a 4G SD card in the deal.

Boot Time - XP clocked at 25 seconds, compared to Xandros' 20 seconds. But it goes into standby in 3 seconds, and awakens within 3 seconds as well. Xandros needs 10 seconds for each cycle.

The 7" screen runs at a max 800x600 and is obviously too small to be user-friendly. Above screen cap shows the Start menu disappearing off the top while also taking up half of the screen width. Hopefully Asus will come out with almost-XGA drivers to rectify the problem.




A utility lets you change the screen resolution on the fly in order to see more of the XP window using the 800x480 size, which rescales things so that they mostly fit on the screen. But expect to still do a lot of window dragging, especially to view the control buttons.

Performance: The 512MB RAM is sufficient to run mid-sized apps. But once you multi-task, things will slow down significantly. Thankfully, the Eee PC isn't the sort of device on which you would seriously multi-task. The Celeron chip is underclocked by default to 630MHz to help extend battery clock. You can use eeectl (from www.cpp.in/dev/eeectl) to push the clock speed back up, along with tweaking the FSB speed, fan control and even boosting screen brightness, all depending on which BIOS version the Eee PC is running.

While the XP-based 701 is good enough, a better XP fit will likely be the new 900 series, with its 9" 1024 x 600 LCD, 1 GB RAM, and Atom processor.

Windows XP Eee PC now available at Best Buy for $399

Submitted by Brad Linder -

Looks like Best Buy has put up their product page for the Eee PC running Windows XP:



You can access the Best Buy product page here.

Brad also wrote about this over at his Eee Site.

Microsoft extends XP Home 2 years—for budget laptops only

According to Ars Technica, Microsoft will continue to offer Windows XP Home Edition till June 2010 but only for low-cost portables. Microsoft says that the decision to change XP's expiration date is due to "incredibly strong demand" on devices such as the Asus Eee PC, Intel Classmate PC, and the OLPC.

You can read the full story here.

Win XP Asus Eee PC 4G at Best Buy for $399 In April

Submitted by Brad Linder -

It looks like Asus will begin selling Eee PC units preloaded with Windows XP in the US in a few weeks, for the same price it currently charges for Linux models. This makes a bit of sense, since the Eee PC 900 series which will come out in May or June will sell for a few bucks more and will come in Windows or Linux varieties and ship with more RAM and storage.

Laptop Mag has the details here.

Brad has also written about this in his Eeesite.

Thanks, Brad.

Asus predicts Windows Eee PC will outsell Linux version

From Computerworld -

Asus is predicting Windows Eee PCs will outsell the original Xandros version by a ratio of 6 to 4 by the end of this year. At a projected sales of 5 million unit for the year, this would mean Asus is expected to ship some 3 million Windows-based units. It would also mean increased revenues as the Windows version costs almost twice as much over the cheapest Linux model.

Complete article can be read here.

----------

Asus' latest projection, coupled with the announcements of the new Eee PC models costing more than USD500, might be an indication the company is losing its original focus of targeting the so-called 2nd billion users. Asus might gain additional revenue with the higher priced Windows model but it does so at the expense of diluting the Eee PC brand in the low-cost ultraportable market segment that it created in the first place. Simply put, Asus is opening the doors wide for the competition to dethrone the Eee PC in said market segment.

For more on this, read Why Windows-based Asus Eee PCs are a Mistake.

Installation of Win XP on an ASUS Eee PC with 2G RAM

For those who are interested, i64X.com has detailed instructions (complete with screen caps) on installing Windows XP on an Asus Eee PC (with 2G RAM) via using nLite. As its intro states -

"This guide will show you how to rip the non-essentials out of the Windows XP installation CD, create a new CD with just the minimums, and allows for a fully patched Windows XP SP2 install with a final installation size of under 540MB - and that includes all ASUS drivers for the Eee. Following this entire guide may take a while, but if you follow every step, it will be worth it in the end. I own a 4G Asus Eee PC with 2GB of RAM. I have installed Windows XP Pro SP2 on my Eee, all the while documenting the entire process here for you as a "how to" guide. My final install comes in at only 537MB, and takes around 17 seconds to start up from power button press to desktop..."

Complete article can be read here.

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Edited per comments. Thanks cassio, ricky c.

Should I put Windows XP on my ASUS Eee PC?

Submitted by Steve -

Here's an article [from ITWire] that asks "Should I install windows on my Eee PC?"

The conclusion is logical: If you need a cheap Windows laptop buy a cheap Windows laptop. For most computing needs the Eee PC has it all.

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Thanks Steve.

Asus Eee PC with Touch Screen Running XP

SDHC Dual Boot-y: Bootcamp for Eee PC - Run XP and Xandros

From the Eeeph Forum again, member shinrai is offering dual boot 8/16 GB Transcend SDHCs that allow users to boot up Windows XP without un-installing Xandros.

He is selling the 8GB card at PhP3000 or roughly USD73.68, the 16GB card with free card reader at PhP5000 or roughly USD122.79. Shipping is free but I think that applies only to domestic orders (Philippines).

As for legal issues, he has a note to potential buyers - - NOTE: You will need to provide me a copy of Windows XP and Office with valid keys for legal reasons. If you don't have one, please let me know.

Asus Eee PC with Window XP in Japan

From Crunchgear -

The Asus Eee PC with Windows XP will be available in Japan starting Jan 25. The 4G-X, as the model is called, is priced at about USD470. For that, you basically get a 4G plus Windows XP, an optical mouse, and a 4G SDHC card.

Product Page (in Japanese) is here.

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Considering that a 4G SDHC is about USD15 and a USB optical mini-mouse, around USD20, buyers are essentially getting the Windows XP for considerably less than retail price.

In addition, the 4G-X comes with free, although restricted, use of NNT's Wi-Fine hotspot service up to the end of March. Free WiFi hotspots are considerably rare.

Certainly, the Windows version is being marketed very aggressively. At USD470 vs USD400, the additional costs is just about tolerable. But with an extra 4G SDHC, an optical mouse, and a licensed Windows XP? It is very easy to rational spending the additional bucks.

I am not sure if the price is just an introductory offer or not but if it is maintained over time, then I would expect Microsoft to recapture a big chunk of Eee PC sales insomuch as the OS is concerned.