Comments on: U.S. Netbooks: Five Examples Why Windows Dominates Linux

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:11:27 +0000

Socceroos: Comment #11 covers some of the alleged moves. But The VAR Guy can’t comment directly on those allegations. Yes, Microsoft will need to compete aggressively on price in the netbook market… …

Curious to see if/how Google Android changes the netbook competitive landscape…

By: Socceroos

Socceroos — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:16:01 +0000

@The Var Guy

I find it hard to believe that Microsoft didn’t pull some dirty tricks to take back the netbook market.

Consider this, before Windows XP was even on netbooks, the market exploded – this is *the very reason* Microsoft had to drop its prices to next to nothing. Why then do people think that everyone wanted XP? These things were selling like hotcakes before XP was even on netbooks.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:21:58 +0000

Comment #11 posted a link to Groklaw and I see no response to it.
When the Taiwanese OEM Chief says be afraid of
M$ what else can he mean but that they are threatened by the convicted monopolist and will toe the line rather than see their PC lines compromised
I’m glad I don’t have to depend on Microcenter, Staples or those M$ shops for my computing needs
in case you have not noticed, they are festooned with posters and what not, that they receive a good sum of money, and or discounts to display.

By: Marx

Marx — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:50:06 +0000

I agree with a lot that’s said here…but the problem is Linux in the consumer market is pretty much a grassroots effort. As long as people see all those Windows and Mac commercials, that’s what they expect to get and will return those Linux machines they bought at Best Buy when they find out they can’t load some off the shelf piece of software (never knowing they could have gotten something with similar functionality for free). For the most part Linux is there as a desktop, although I would love to see stuff like compiz get a bit more stable as lots of consumers love those silly effects, and what it really needs is a good advertising campaign. Unfortunately who will pay to advertise what they’re giving away? But the fact is getting in the minds of the average consumer still does drive corporate sales. I think it could be reasonably done if the major Linux vendors joined forces to launch a Linux ad campaign…

By: James Craig

James Craig — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:06:47 +0000

I have just loaded my Dell inspiron 530 that had VISTA that crashed and of coarse (it had no recovery media and would not boot) to Ubuntu 9.04.
Complete recovery! Sooooooooo much better than any Microsoft O.S. All hardware working.
I also loaded Ubuntu 9.04 on a H.P pavilion Zv-6000 and every thing is working better than with the Microsoft XPP. All hardware is working fine, no bumps in the install.
The only thing this O.S. needs is similar application software that runs on the Microsoft platform.
I am new to this O.S. and have no knowledge of program writing but what I see is very good. Way to go Ubuntu folks.
Linux is smoking!!!!

By: Peter Knezevich

Peter Knezevich — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:59:32 +0000

Like everything else open source takes a period of time for migration. MS dominated desktop then what happened over time; same with LAMP stack. Netbooks have been out for what …. 10 minutes. Give it some time, then we can talk.

By: Netbooks: Five Reasons Why Windows Beats Linux @ OS-ING

Netbooks: Five Reasons Why Windows Beats Linux @ OS-ING — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:27:58 +0000

[...] During some recent trips to retail stores across North America, The VAR Guy spotted five clear examples why Windows will continue to dominate Linux on Netbooks. Here’s the scoop. [...]

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:07:39 +0000

John Bailey and Axel Antoni have it right – lack of secondary sales makes Linux unattractive to B&M retailers.

However, there is a second issue that Linux people don’t like to face… many Netbooks with Linux had problems. FreeBooteR ditched Limpus. Lancest ditched SuSE. The majority of computer users won’t put up with having to solve problems.

At this point, Linux-for-netbook needs to concentrate on consistent quality, not on marketing issues. Do it right, then market it.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:02:45 +0000

Everywhere else in the world Football (Soccer) is a huge sport, but in the US it is a niche. Me thinks that Linux will be much the same. 5-10 years from now Linux is going to be huge all around the world but still have a niche interest in America.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:17:40 +0000

I wonder why nobody seems to pay attention to a very interesting project: wine. I think that nothing will change unless ‘Joe User’ could run the same software he is used to run regardless the OS installed in his computer. Why is nobody mentioning/advocating/developing/putting some resources into wine (winehq.com)?. I’ve seen a lot of improvement in wine lately, but it still lacks what is needed to reach a ‘Joe User’ usability test.

By: tracyanne

tracyanne — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:04:12 +0000

While trying to find 1) a wholesaler that will supply the hard ware we need (for Feral penguin Computers), a price we like, we tried a number of Wholesalers, many of which promised us that they could get us Linux pre installed on hardware, and failed to deliver when it came to fulfilling orders for our customers, without exception none of them supplied what we wanted, and also without exception offered us Windows powered systems so we could fill our order. Big chain stores are only going to purchase on what’s available and price.

We finally, however, it’s only taken us 9 months, interesting gestation period, to locate a wholesaler (factory actually) that will supply us what we want.

By: nightflier

nightflier — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:23:45 +0000

No empire lasts forever. Microsoft will eventually go the way of AT&T, Standard Oil, IBM and GM. Won’t go away, but it’s monopoly position will weaken and the industry will move on.

No more than Henry Ford could keep others from building cars, can Microsoft stop the advance of open source. There are too many creative people out there who will put that public knowledge to work. It will just take time. Time enough for us old fogies who still use old fashioned computers in the old fashioned way (word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail and surfing) to die off.

But the future of open source will not necessarily be what it is today (word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail and surfing). It will probably be an unholy mix of this and that, nothing like what we’re used to.

It’s gonna be interesting.