In this article we will be talking about XP and Linux and if they are better for your netbook with a list of pros and cons for each. By the end of this article you will know the difference and you will know what is right for you. If you are looking for the answer to “what is a netbook” that was a previous post. Now most of you will have windows XP, installed and some will have Linux installed, weather that is the original OS that was installed or another distribution you installed after. Some may even have Google android OS or have a test copy of windows 7 installed. I will discuss only windows XP and Linux here but may in future articles talk about other OS.

XP

I will start with XP as most people will be familiar with it at the very least if not used it. Windows XP is an OS that has been brought out of retirement as Microsoft saw that Linux was the dominating OS in the netbook market and found that Vista was not a viable option to market as a netbook OS. So windows XP is a relative newcomer to the netbook OS market, although it is now the more dominant, allegedly. There are some good points and some bad points to running this OS on a netbook and they are:

Good Points

  • Compatibility
  • familiarity
  • Support

Compatibility

The compatibility of XP exists as just about every program developer develops for the Windows OS. So just about every program that is ever written has a windows version if it is not exclusive to windows in the first place.

Familiarity

Just about everyone and their dog that has ever owned a computer has had a copy of windows and most windows versions are mostly the same just with added eye candy and added functionality. This means that it is easy to do the things that you need to do to be productive.

Support

There are many help files and places on the internet that will help you whenever you are in trouble and if you can’t find what you need there you can call any number of technical help desks that deal with any technical difficulty you may have regarding windows, although you may have to pay for these, so you are in good hands. There are also many security patches that will be downloaded and installed on your system using the windows update software to keep windows secure and up to date.

Bad points

  • Cost

  • Slow

  • Resource hungry

  • security

Cost

There is a cost associated with windows. That cost may not be too much on its own but coupled with resource hungry bad point does add up. The fact that windows costs the manufacturer of the netbook money means that that is added to the cost of buying the netbook. But because windows needs more memory and hard drive space means that they will also add cost to the netbook as it needs more resources to run. Also there are no free programs that come installed on your Windows netbook so you will think that you will need to buy these as well. If you want Microsoft products then you will need to pay. But I will advise you that there are many free alternatives to the pay for applications that you may want to consider just to save you some money, I will be talking about that in a future post.

Slow

Any program that you run on a netbook is going to run slower than a modern notebook or desktop PC. The fact is though that because windows XP is resource hungry, means that it will run even slower on your netbook. Windows XP was not designed to run on a computer that is comparable in speed to a computer of a few years ago.

Resource hungry

Windows XP needs a lot of hardware to run. It firstly takes more room on your hard drive so this needs to be bigger so you can store programs on your system. There are more processes running in the background, every process needs memory, this means that you need more memory. The down side to this is explained above but you get the idea.

Now reading here you may be thinking that I am a Microsoft hater, but I am not. I have a desktop PC that has Windows XP running on it, I like it, I am a gamer and need it for all the games I play. I am however a Linux user and I love this OS as well but for different reasons.

Security

Windows has many problems in regard to security. There are many viruses and spyware that are gunning to ruin your day and your computer. There are software suites out there that will combat these threats but they slow your netbook down, as they use up your netbooks resources.

Linux

Linux is a free OS that is used for its speed and security on many computers, professional and personal all over the world. There are many distributions (distro) of Linux that are all different in some way. Some distro’s are tailored for performing particular tasks, but all distributions can be customized in many different ways by the user. So if you have some programming skill, or would like to learn, you can delve into the programs code and change it if you want. The good and bad points of this OS will seam to be the mirror image of XP but there are differences between the two OS.

Good points

  • Cost
  • speed
  • security
  • support
  • software

Cost

It is free, you can download and install Linux free anytime anywhere. What else can be said.

Speed

Linux doesn’t need the resources that windows does so can run on less. But if it runs on a computer with the same hardware as a windows machine it will run faster. I am talking real world application not benchmarks. There are distro’s that come with resource hungry software suites but they still seam to run faster than windows. This point alone reinforces the fact that Linux is the OS for the netbook revolution.

Security

Out of the box Linux is more secure than windows. There are still threats but you will not need an anti virus or spyware programs and because of this your system will run faster still.

Support

Many people will tell you that Linux is hard to use, this is relative to what you want to do. But there is a community out there that are eager to help you. There are many forums and website help pages and believe it or not there are help desks that you can call to get help with, you will need to pay for this though. Also there will be a slew of updates and when the next version of the distro comes out your OS will offer to upgrade for free. no need to buy a new license, in fact there is no license.

Software

Your OS will come installed with software to perform most tasks. Word processing, email, web browsing and even games and programming. And if there is no software installed to do the task you need then there is usually software catalog that you can look through that will download and install the software that you need, for free.

There are many good points to running Linux on your netbook, but as with everything there are some bad points with Linux.

Bad points

  • Compatibility
  • Familiarity

Compatibility

There are hardware and software that will not work in Linux. In fact all the software that you buy from a computer shop will not work in Linux, unless it says it does on the box. There is software that will help with that for example Wine is a windows compatibility layer that will run windows programs, but not all. Most new hardware will either not have full support or at worst none at all. But Linux does do a good job of detecting and installing the correct drivers for your hardware when install Linux for the first time. The best thing you can do is when you are shopping for new hardware look for Linux compatibility either on the box or on the internet.

Familiarity

Not many people have used Linux so they may find it a little difficult to use but it does use the same principals as windows so you will get used to it very quickly. The main differences are with ware the menus are and what they contain. There are also differences in how the file system works that can make things difficult if you are doing something other than basic computer tasks.

I think Linux is the perfect OS for your netbook bad points aside it is a powerful, robust and speedy OS that you should at least try before you dismiss it. There are distro’s that have “Live CD” and this will boot from the USB key so you can try it without installing anything although it will run slower in this way.

So how do you decide what OS is for you. If you have windows installed and you need a program that will only run in windows then your decision is made for you. Although you could try it out and if you like it install it along side windows. If you don’t have a preference then just try it out. You will find out soon enough. Thank you for reading and I hope you come back to find out more about the capabilities of your netbook and some tweaks to improve your netbook experience.

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