From: bowman@montana.com   
      
   On Wed, 7 Jan 2026 09:07:36 -0500, DFS wrote:   
      
   > Way back in 2007 I worked for a computer retailer. We received a   
   > shipment of a new tiny notebook PC made by Asus - the eeePC. It was   
   > pretty low spec, but importantly was dirt cheap. It retailed for $399   
   > Australian (probably about $199 US), which at the time was hundreds of   
   > dollars cheaper than its nearest competitor. Unusually, it shipped with   
   > Linux. Asus had their own customised distribution that made it pretty   
   > easy to use. Primarily due to the low price point, they sold like   
   > hot-cakes…   
   >   
   > And got returned almost as fast. “I can’t work out how to use it”,   
   “it   
   > won’t run any software” were typical complaints. We burnt a crapload of   
   > money on them after we had to return a bucketload which we then tried to   
   > sell cheap as refurbs. At one stage we were selling them for $99 to try   
   > and get rid of our stock, and they still came back.   
      
   I still have mine and didn't have any problem using it. The only problem   
   was the original Xandros system couldn't handle WPA2. It wasn't a hardware   
   problem and Q4OS does fine as long as you don't get greedy and expect all   
   the Trinity DE bells and whistles.   
      
   I believe his story however. It correlates with my estimate of the   
   intellectual ability of the general population.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)