Eee PC in South Korea, Israel, and Belgium
February 26th, 2008 by antWe have new information for Eee PC users in Korea, Israel, and Belgium:
The Eee PC was recently released in South Korea. It is the Windows XP only model, and sells for 499,000 Won.
Bezeq, an Israeli telecommunications provider, will begin selling Windows XP based Eee PCs in Israel. After April, other retailers will be added.
Finally, if you’re in Belgium, look forward to getting your hands on the Eee PC in Late April.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Why would they only sell the Windows version in these countries? That seems a bit odd.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Why the windows thing. How much more would this cost than the Linux version?
Is ASUS heading away from Xandros?
Hmmmmmmmmm
February 27th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Hi,
I think that in Israel, Bezeq made this decision for marketing reasons, but, after April the Eee will be provided with Linux.
Guy
February 27th, 2008 at 4:53 am
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February 27th, 2008 at 6:02 am
The prices in Israel are terrible (I assume they are getting the 4G that everyone seems to be starting with) - They are saying the EEEs will be sold for 1436 ILS (approx. $400) including Windows XP for new Bezeq ADSL customers. Existing Bezeq customers who upgrade their speeds will have to pay 1796 ILS (approx. $500) and that the ones released later with Linux will cost 1800 NIS (approx. $500).
Note: The article doesn’t actually mention which specs the consumers will be getting.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Confirmed on Bezeq website it’s the 4G Black or White.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Another correction - the operating system is not Windows XP - it is Microsoft Windows Home. See here: http://home.live.com/
February 27th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Two weeks ago I saw a black 701 selling in Mediamarkt right outside Antwerpen Centraal (Belgium). But the price tag said 599 EUR, which made me seriously suspect if they knew what they’re selling.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Reply to pooldoo,
In Japan, windows is the preferred OS. There is even a custom version that Microsoft has for them, with the various ways to enter and write in Japanese. In addition, on the application level, most things are written for windows. For their gamers, it is essential. And, they are willing to spend the money for a name brand: Microsoft. LINUX has a better following in Europe. Americans and Europeans are less conformist and willing to try out a new OS. This is a little “Cultural Anthropology”. As for Israel, I can only speculate the same.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Forgot. The topic is Korea. Koreans are much like the Japanese, when it comes to computing. The phonetic system for writing Korean is well established under Windows, although LINUX can do it as R. Grant’s books on LINUX shows (Linux made Easy or Linux for Non-Geeks). He taught in Japan a number of years too. It comes down to the ready availability of software. Since I am Chinese American, but also speak and write the language. When I am there, it is a Windows world much to Microsoft’s dismay. So much is copied and hacked without need for activation. You can pick up a copy of almost anything from a street vendor in the larger cities. Behind Nathan Avenue in Hong Kong, everything is available for next to nothing, violating every copyright.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I’m Korean using EEE PC(Xandros), and most of the Koreans ONLY use Windows, if your not actually interested in other OSes. I don’t think it’s because of the typing system. Linux has as good input system as Windows does.
Nowadays it’s mainly because of the web. You can’t do much without Internet Explorer on windows. Internet Banking, shopping, and even public services like paying taxes. Most of the web pages are “optimized for IE”, which means the developers don’t even think about other browsers, making it even worse to navigate through the web. We depend heavily on ActiveX based encryption certificates, which was actually driven by the government.
One of the reasons of this was that Windows was already too dominant at the first place, so not many cared about other environments. The ones who have linux and macs MUST have at least Virtual Machines to live their daily life.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Its not just there that sites are optomized for IE. I live in USA and if I want to upload photos to costco.com for printing I have to do it one at a time on my Xandros eee or my Ubuntu desktop computers. If I use IE I can batch upload as many as I want. This keeps me using Windows even though I would like to switch entirely to Linux systems.
Holland
February 27th, 2008 at 11:42 am
That link about the release date in Belgium is wrong. That topic is not about the release date… As far as i know there is no information about the release in Belgium.
@Dave
Wasn’t it a Packardbell XS20?
February 27th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
@Holland: Have you tried using wine (www.winehq.org)? There are even tools like wine-doors that with few clicks install internet explorer under linux, so you don’t have to boot windows just to use it.
You might also want to try opera, and maybe fake your user agent, some sites disable themselves for browsers other than IE “just because”, and faking your user agent works just fine.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
The actual fact is that the exact release date isn’t known, though a lot of distributors say a similar date…
All dates are stated here: http://www.eeepc-benelux.com (2nd post)
February 28th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Linpus Releases OS Aimed at Cheap Linux UMPCs like the EeePC:
http://clumpc.com/?p=113
February 28th, 2008 at 7:35 am
lol installing internet explorer on linux
the worst idea ever !!!
if u stick with linux it’s to stop dealing with such freaked’up apps as IE imho
and i use firefox and never had ANY problem with online payments or whatever !!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:23 am
“i use firefox and never had ANY problem with online payments or whatever !!”
Congratulations, I guess, but just because your bank has support for Mozilla-browsers doesn’t mean anything for other banks. I can get into my banking account just fine with a variety of browsers too - but not everyone is so lucky: some banks are more restrictive and exclude non-IE browsers.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
If a web site relies heavily on ActiveX, like ‘janghwan’ writes about many websites in Korea, that site can only be used with IE on Windows. No other browser will work, also not IE Windows running in Wine on Linux, nor Firefox or Opera faking the user agent to be IE.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
As a web developer and linux user, I use IE4Linux for testing.
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page
It’s really good.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Another Eee-less month in Europe:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5966&Itemid=38
February 29th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I just received notice from JR that my 8G has been shipped!!!!!!!!!Let’s hope that Asus supply problems have been rectified and that those waiting for their eee’s will have them in short order.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Yaffa,
Regarding Israel, Ronlight (The official ASUS importer) Will sell EEE to all consumers at March 30th officially. Prices are not published yet and neither prices.
Thanks,
Hetz
February 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
oops, ment nor prices or specs have been published yet
April 9th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hi I got a Eee PC in korea.
I paid around 500 US$. anyway I really love my Eee.
Pooldoo. also here in korea, there are only Eee with XP.
because most web site fitted with Microsoft windows system. actually bank, card company, shopping.
and Microsoft dosen’t follow global web standard. many korean people also dosen’t like it.
even mac also hard to use. it’s no good. -.-