Sure, lots of shops carry at least certain models. But: Linux versions are often crippled as compared to XP versions (like the 904 vs 901). None of them will provide the keyboard I need. Even if they did, they wouldn't ship to my country.

God knows I tried - something like every single shop in the region, an reknowned webshops all over incl. overseas.

If you want to try the exercise: find an EEEPC with swiss keyboard, with Linux, and get it shipped to a small country like Luxembourg. *not* easy at all

And I'll be happy for a direct email address to Asus sales, I'd love to tell them just how screwed up their distribution channels are.

I take issue with this bit:

why would 70% of eeePC sales be XP models?

At least where I'm living (in western europe), there's no way to get one of the decent hardware versions (i.e. models 901, 1000) in the Linux version.

In fact, I've just this morning ordered a couple XP versions, fully intending to not even boot those but to immediately replace them by my favourite Linux version. So, Asus will have sold a couple of XP licenses, but they won't ever get used - how many more like me are there? I don't even know if there's a chance to get my money back on the licenses.

I'm even happily shelling out Euros to at least get the kind of keyboard that's standard in this country instead of the foreign ones offered locally.

Asus, your sales model sucks! Unfortunately, the alternatives aren't any more palatable.