It's a shame Asus has jettisoned Linux for hard-to-support lsnguages, though. I hope they will look to partner with a distro that can handle localization more effectively.

I think English only speaking people take some things for granted with Linux.

It's a shame Asus has jettisoned Linux for hard-to-support lsnguages, though. I hope they will look to partner with a distro that can handle localization more effectively.

I think English only speaking people take some things for granted with Linux.

Secondly, this can not be considered news or surprising because it should have been expected: people wanting to use their own language and not english (concept often hard to explain to north americans or even people in those countries who will claim that every speaks english there when its not the point). In Quebec, films and software must be offered in french (which is the language spoken by 88% of the pop.) at the same time as the english release. If you have no such regulations, there is really nothing forcing companies to serve clients in their language.

Thirdly, Xandros is a piece of shit and is NOT teh Linux.
It is one of many distros and Asus picked a crappy one.

The french based distro Mandriva is offered in over 80 different languages and 140 countries: http://www.mandriva.co.il/enterprise/he/company…
here is another excerpt from there:

Paris, January 11th 2008 –
Mandriva Denmark was launched in December 2007 as the exclusive Danish partner for Mandriva S.A, offering the Mandriva Linux operating system. The goal of Mandriva Denmark is to provide local distribution of Mandriva Linux and other integrated open source applications in the local language throughout Denmark, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland.

The problem isnt teh Linux isnt translated in many languages, its that Asus used the POS that is Xandros who was only saved from bankruptcy when they signed Microsoft extortion attempt (along with co-losers Suse and Linspire).
And I went to check on the Goog and guess what?
Ubuntu has danish language as well and over 55 languages total.
I remember that Red Hat Enterprise Linux we use at work has a buttload of languages (a coworker was thrilled that they offer 5-6 languages used in India…where almost everyone speaks english btw)
I use cyrillic characters and I understand that the smaller distros cant support as many languages if they have smaller communities. I also understand that if I feel peeved that my fave distro doesnt support my native tongue, I can always move my butt and do something about it.

If Im a company trying to get into as many markets, I would look at which one has the best localization efforts.

Usually, most distributions already have the option to choose a language during the installation. With Ubuntu, you can also install the OS in OEM mode so that the user is then asked a few questions as to what language they prefer to work in (much like in Windows). So the excuse that it's “more work for them” to provide GNU/Linux is a load of crap. The problem is their choice of distribution (Xandros? Really?!?) as has been with MSI and a few others. It seems that Linpus Lite and Ubuntu NR have been quite popular, even to the point that HP has promised it as the GNU/Linux option for their MiniNote 1000.

As YukonGuy mentioned, it IS unfortunate that people perceive GNU/Linux as a “geek” OS, especially since most phones out there run embedded Linux with a custom interface. How would a netbook running GNU/Linux with an easy-to-use custom interface be any different?

I think this is a sad day for Linux.