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Has Asus given up on being Linux’s vanguard in the consumer marketplace? Back when the Eee 701 was the new hotness it came with Linux , and it was widely considered a sure thing that such netbooks would popularize Linux in the real world. Companies like Asus were seen as Open Source saviors who would heavily promote Linux as a cheaper, less bloated alternative to Windows software for weaker machines.

Guess not.

A new campaign has been started, in which a somewhat amateurish looking website extols the fact that Eee PCs run better with Windows using mostly 701s in the demo video. Of course when this campaign first went public there was an outcry across the Linux blogosphere calling it a hoax…but Asus quickly owned up to it being legit.  However, the site itself appears to be the work of an employee of Arbitron, a PR firm with a history with Microsoft (hence why it looks like something circa 1997), so it is likely Asus didn’t do much connected to the site save for give their permission. No Asus branding or logo appears anywhere except in the video.

Still, if Asus is continuing to defect from the Open Source camp on a large scale and will continue to draw back from putting Linux on netbooks in the factory, could they also be stroking Redmond in advance of the Windows 7 netbook release. I am sure some heavy vendor agitation got MS to lift the “3 Windows Only” spiking of their entry level Win7 release.

Check out the demo video at the site…so what do you think…better with Windows? I am a big MS fanboy by and large, but my Asus Eee 701? Better with Ubuntu NBR, actually.