MESSAGE
| DATE | 2009-03-22 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] GNU Laptops reach 10% or market
|
March 19th, 2009
Open source share growing in netbook market
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn -at- 8:22 am
Categories: Applications, General, Google, Hardware, Linux......, Linux
Laptop, Microsoft, mass market
Tags: Open Source, Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware......,
Dana Blankenhorn
If you told me two years ago that Linux would have 10% of the hottest
new PC category, over Windows, I might have called you crazy.
If you had added that in order to keep Linux at 10% Microsoft was
practically giving its Windows XP away, hoping only for upgrades that
will likely never happen, I would say you had too much penguin juice.
Yet that’s the news which is now being spun as a Linux defeat. After a
year spent putting atrocious Linux distros on their $400 hardware,
Taiwanese OEMs have now settled on Windows XP for netbook shipments, an
operating system Microsoft was calling obsolete in 2007.
As Matt Asay notes, Microsoft may be in for a surprise when it tries to
up-sell its netbook user base. Ubuntu has also signed OEM deals with
serious brand names like Hewlett-Packard, now shipping it on a sleek new
Mini 1000 (shown, from its CNet review).
And then there’s Android. which some analysts are now touting as a grand
unified field theory of mobility, since it will work on both netbooks
and handhelds. I think that’s Taiwanese spin myself. We shall see.
The question is whether the netbook is a lap-held device like your phone
or a portable desktop. I’m inclined to think the latter, although that
may just be my western bias for keyboards talking.
The netbook is, in some ways, a “throwaway†desktop, even though its
no-moving-parts design makes it more rugged than a laptop. Laptops are
becoming desktops, and netbooks what you work on at the airport.
What’s needed in this scenario is simple file compatibility. I want to
be able to load my files, either from the Internet or a stick, and sync
them back at some point.
Thus the key is not the operating system, but the office suite. I am not
loading a $200 software package on $400 worth of hardware. Even if
Microsoft Office is still on the desktop, I’m going with OpenOffice.org
on the netbook. And I’m going to make sure we support that format back
at the office.
Thus the open source glass with netbooks is at least half-full. And when
we start pouring again, I think, Linux is going to get an even bigger
share.
Dana BlankenhornDana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30
years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure
of his industry affiliations.
Email Dana Blankenhorn
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