Letter of Protest to ASUS

Since my recent purchase of an ASUS N10J netbook, it has been pointed out to me several times that I have unknowingly or unwillingly supported their decision to drop Linux from their product offerings. That certainly was not my intention, and the more I thought about the fact that I had paid Microsoft for a Windows license that I do not want or need, and which I will never use for anything other than a joke, the more irritated I got over the situation. It's sad, because I really like the N10J, and it works very well with the variety of Linux distributions that I have loaded on it. So, I have written a letter of protest to ASUS, and I encourage anyone else who is a current ASUS computer owner, or who might consider buying one in the future, and who is interested in free choice and openness in operating systems, to do the same.

What I told them was that I resent being forced to pay a "Microsoft PENALTY" for a pre-installed operating system which I have no choice about, particularly when there has previously been a choice and ASUS decided to take that choice away from their customers. I further told them that I found the pre-installed Windows Vista Business edition to perform so poorly on the N10J as to make the system essentially unusable, while the various Linux distributions I have installed work very well, and all perform better than Vista. In conclusion I told them that unless they either offer Linux as an option again, or offer the option of buying a computer with no pre-installed operating system (and thus without the Microsoft PENALTY), I would not consider buying another ASUS computer in the future.

It would be nice if writing such a letter could eventually lead to a reversal of their decision to drop Linux. I'm skeptical that it will, but I think that the more people who make their opinions heard on this, the better the chances are.

jw 22/7/2009