My point is that you're not “married” to any of these OS’s when you purchase the netbook. In the case of Lenovo, there was no support for the Suse Linux that the system came with. There wasn't even a driver support page at Lenovo so it is obvious that a user is on his/her own, so why not experiment?
In the end, the netbook worked fine with all the Linux versions I threw at it, and it works quite well with
Windows 7. This thing is NOT a Linux netbook, or a Windows netbook. It is a netbook that can run most any of the mainstream versions thrown at it. IMHO, I think it is dimwitted of any manufacturer to hawk these things as having some sort of proprietary affiliation with the OS suppliers. The machine itself has no allegiance to either Linux or Windows. It is a very “bi” machine.
For people like us that is true. For the vast majority MS's marketing will convince them otherwise. It's about marketing not technology for about 90% of people.
The disappointing thing about this “relationship” between MS and Asus is the MS tax. Ya gotta pay for Microsoft software. That was one of the appealing things early on with the netbooks that one got as much computer as possible with as little dollars spent, therefore Linux OS.
I was also disappointed when I started looking at them that one had to pay the MS tax to get the better HD. I finally pulled the trigger when the refurbished Linux versions were down to $150, but I have the 4gig SSD, I’m not sure how much Windows 7 I can fit on that.