Windows XP on the 9-inch Asus Eee PC

Windows XP on the 9-inch Eee PC.

In a previous entry, we mentioned replacing the default OS of your first generation Asus Eee PC to make it do more of your everyday computing needs. Seems like the Asus bosses heard us well!

Engadget reports that Microsoft and Asus have been working together for an Eee PC sporting Windows XP, even if the aging OS is scheduled to be discontinued soon. The idea of using Windows Vista has been rejected altogether. Reportedly, what might come next in the pipeline for future Eee PC models is Windows 7, which is still a few years away from now.

Buying a Windows–powered Eee PC will surely cost more, raising prices for products of the same market segment. Let’s just hope that all manufacturers of Eee–like devices continue to use various Linux flavors as the default OS and have Windows XP just as a special option. And let’s hope Microsoft fails trying to strong–arm them into using Windows XP exclusively, like they’ve been doing for the past decade.

Hacking the 9–inch Asus Eee PC

Second generation Asus Eee PC

Even before we could buy the recently announced 9–inch Asus Eee PC, I can’t help but think about the things we could do with this new model. The screen bezel should be pretty cramped now that they have an 8.9–inch LCD display in there. I guess hardware hack will now stay mostly under the chassis, just where the RAM slots are.

I’m pretty surprised and excited about this new model and seriously considering it, how about you?