ASUS to sell Eee PC with XP

update Taiwanese PC manufacturer ASUS is planning to release a version of its educational UMPC, the Eee PC, running Windows XP this month.

ASUS has released a statement saying the Windows XP version of Eee PC will be available to educational institutions through a special tender, and through retailers.

A spokesperson for ASUS said that the company had chosen to offer the Eee PC with Windows due to customer demand.

"Windows XP was specifically chosen due to its built in hardware driver compatibility, meeting users demands when adding hardware peripherals," the spokesperson said.

The ASUS Eee PC.

The first version of the Eee PC runs on the Xandros Linux distribution and was released in Australia in December last year. This version model remain available.

ASUS has confirmed the Eee PC running Windows XP will be more expensive than the model running the Xandros OS. The original Eee PC retails for AU$499, while the XP Eee PC will go for AU$579, according to a spokesperson.