I have been an Eee PC owner for almost a year now. For most of that time I used the default Linux operating system, Xandros, before switching to Ubuntu, and then to Windows. What I discovered after making that final switch is that for me personally, Windows makes the Eee PC a lot more usable. You see, I had slipped into the habit of only using the Eee PC as a Kindle-like device for reading e-books, instead of actually using it to do some, you know, work. This wasn’t because I didn’t want to do work on the Eee PC; it was because of the Linux operating system installed on it.

To be clear, I don’t have a problem with Linux, but I do spend most of my time working in a Window environment, so it makes sense to stick with the one platform — and in general it can be a pretty big hassle moving between different platforms. One of the biggest problems I found while moving between platforms was the loss of file metadata.

Xandros uses ReiserFS as its file system, Ubuntu uses ext3 and modern versions of Windows use NTFS. Unfortunately none of these support the storage of certain types of metadata, like author, subject and keywords, in the same way. This means that if you take the time and care to add keywords to all of your documents on Windows, and then move those documents to Linux, you won’t be able to see or use any of the keywords.

Perhaps this isn’t a big deal for most people, but if you’re trying to use metadata as a filing system, it’s pretty annoying.

So, my advice: if you usually work and play in a Windows environment; and the Eee PC is only a secondary/backup machine; and you have no desire to spend hours learning about Linux, then make the right decision from the start and select the XP option when purchasing your Eee PC.

That’s right. Ignore the fluffy little white penguin angel standing on your shoulder, imploring you to do the right thing and choose open-source. You will save yourself a lot of time and potentially a bit of money in some places too.

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