How can Linux run on different microprocessors?

Can the Asus EEE Pc be hooked up to a portable hard drive and run Windows.(it comes with a version of linux)?

• I am looking at buying a laptop and this seams like it would work great with an external drive. But, I need to know if it will run programs like Itunes. I know that Itunes is not supported by Linux, so it would be good to run Windows on it. Unfortunately, the hard drive on the actual laptop is only 2gb(thats the reason i need the new hard drive), so I think that the Windows program has to be on the external drive. Also, can Linux run computer programs, such as the Sims and Combat flight simulator? Last, are there any major problems with Linux as opposed to a Windows laptop? Thanks for any help.

• Answer:

  Using wine Linux can run a surprising amount of Windows software (though not all perfectly and some not at all). Gaming is the weakest part of wine though progress is being made. iTunes isn't available for Linux but free replacements have been written which can do most of what you'd need (though you might want to initialise the iPod on a Windows machine you can put songs onto it under Linux). I suspect that it can be booted from an external hard drive although USB drives do suffer from a slow transfer rate. The main problem with a Linux laptop as opposed to a Windows laptop is that in most cases the laptop was not sold with Linux and there is patchy support but that won't apply to you (it applies to those of us who buy more expensive laptops to run Linux on). Linux will only run some Windows programs (but then again, there are a lot of Windows programs that won't work on Vista either) with DirectX games being the least likely to run and hardware that only has Windows drivers probably won't work (but with a laptop designed to run Linux that shouldn't be an issue with what is built-in) so if you have a Windows only printer you might have trouble. Some of them have been reverse-engineered so that you might be able to get them to work and a lot of manufacturers have supplied Linux drivers (or just information that allows volunteers to write the drivers) so hardware support under Linux is actually pretty good overall.