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Netbooks: A Curse or a Blessing in an Imploding PC Market?
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| Linux has proved to be a very popular operating system choice on netbooks.
| Companies like Hewlett-Packard have even gone so far as to customize Linux on
| their systems in the hopes of a unique, distinctly un-Windows experience. The
| HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition computer, for example, actually runs on a modified
| version of Ubuntu Linux, but you would never know it.
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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/netbooks-a-curse-or-a-blessing-in-an-imploding-pc-market/
Poor Microsoft is dumping Windows almost free of charge now.
The Netbook Windfall
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| Just the existence of desktop Linux—a second source for the OS, as PC
| builders have a second source for everything else—means a shift of
| negotiating power. There's still a lot of network value in a copy of
| Microsoft Windows because of all the compatible products out there. But,
| thanks to hard-working Linux driver writers, "driverless" USB class-compliant
| devices, and the rise of web-based applications to take the place of
| shrink-wrapped Win32 applications, the difference in network value is less
| and less at the low end of the market. There's a higher difference in Windows
| and Linux network value when you move up from a basic web browsing, word
| processing machine to either content creation (where more of the leading
| applications aren't out for Linux) or small business (where customers want
| Windows-only vertical apps and Intuit QuickBooks.)
|
| So today, the negotiating power that PC builders get from the threat of
| desktop Linux is only at the low end. Jim Zemlin at the Linux Foundation goes
| straight to the source: a Microsoft earnings report. "Client revenue declined
| 8% as a result of PC market weakness and a continued shift to lower priced
| netbooks." Even stuck at the low end, desktop Linux is making Microsoft's
| product cheaper. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes, "Well, I think Microsoft
| is offering some very sweet deals to the OEMs to make sure that XP gets a lot
| of play."
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http://www.advogato.org/article/998.html
Recent:
Netbooks are a win for Microsoft? Think again.
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| And given that price is the most important element of the netbook market, the
| moment Microsoft feels they've solidified their market share and being
| raising prices, their share will vaporize. Linux's existence on netbooks
| will continue to create a loss for them, regardless of how much "market
| share" they have. And the best part is, as people get used to Linux on the
| netbooks, they'll eventually want it on the desktop as well. And that's
| something that Microsoft will do anything to avoid.
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http://www.raiden.net/?cat=2&aid=521
Microsoft Leaves the Door Wide Open for Linux on Netbooks
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| Windows 7 Starter Edition will also be made available to OEM's for
| installation on netbooks in all markets. This is presumably so that MS can
| finally end the sales of Windows XP to the netbook makers. I find it
| hilarious that Microsoft will offer such a limited, pathetic product for the
| netbook market. This will be a huge opportunity for the Linux community to
| educate the public about the plethora of free, feature complete Linux
| distributions available to run on their netbooks.
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http://linugadgetech.blogspot.com/2009/02/microsoft-leaves-door-wide-open-for.html
Cheap PCs Weigh on Microsoft
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| But most netbooks have less processing power than their full-featured cousins
| and can’t run high-spec versions of Windows, the world’s most widely used
| operating system. Microsoft is selling netbook makers cheaper, lighter
| versions of its operating system, but some manufacturers cut it out
| altogether by using Linux, an open-source OS. About 30% of netbooks, which
| sell for as little as $300, run a version of Linux.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/12/08/cheap-pcs-weigh-on-microsoft/
Will the netbook cannibalize the traditional PC market?
,----[ Quote ]
| Will netbooks ultimately put the Linux OS on an equal footing with Windows in
| terms of market share? Probably not. Given how consumers view netbooks right
| now -- more as a "mini laptop" than as another category of device in its own
| right-- an ultra mobile device more in line with a mobile Internet device
| (MID) than a PC -- consumers are favoring Windows.
|
| "As consumers come to view it as less of a PC and more of a tool to access
| the Internet that happens to look like a laptop because of its larger screen
| and keyboard, then they will probably come to accept Linux more readily,"
| Solis said. "In addition, only x86-based processors from Intel and Via (AMD
| had not yet jumped into this game) can support Windows. x86 also support
| Linux. The competing platform base would be ARM -- mostly with Cortex A-8 and
| Cortex A-9 based processors from ARM itself and its licensees. These
| platforms do not support Windows XP or Vista, but they do support full PC
| versions of Linux (that would be optimized for netbooks and MIDs)."
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http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=24078
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