Linux and Windows battle for netbooks
By Nicole Kobie,
ANALYSIS: The war between open source and Microsoft Windows to be the operating system of choice for netbooks is hotting up, with some major skirmishes last week. But who is winning?
Netbooks running open source were the star of last week's Computex show, which saw a flurry of demonstrations of Linux, Moblin and Android-based devices, noted Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation.
“We don’t need to declare the year of the Linux desktop anymore. This week alone was pretty darn good,” Zemlin said, speaking of last week’s Computex in his blog.
“Having spent the week at Computex, the place where you see all the things that people are going to find in Bestbuy and Amazon six months from now, it is clear that Linux has a critical role in client computing,” he said.
Last week at Computex, many companies announced moves to use open source systems with their netbook products, Zemlin noted. Acer will support Moblin across its lineup, while Qualcom’s new smartbook idea was demoed with Android, Moblin and desktop Linux operating systems.
In addition, Dell launched the new Inspiron N Linux-based notebook, while Linux headed up the fastboot contingent too.
Microsoft's moves
But his open source enthusiasm is in stark contrast to news last week that PC World was pulling all Linux-based netbooks from its shelves in favour of devices running Microsoft Windows systems - although the shop will keep selling Linux systems online.
Asus also distanced itself from reported plans to use open source Android on its netbooks, saying the project was “not a priority”. That news came shortly after Asus and Microsoft launched a new marketing campaign claiming netbooks were “better on Windows”.
Earlier this year, Microsoft claimed it had taken 96 per cent of the market for netbooks.
Netbook changes hit Linux
Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom told IT PRO that Linux is perfectly suitable for cheap and cheerful netbooks, and said open source gained a good head start over Microsoft – especially after it initially planned to let only three applications run at a time on netbooks running Windows 7.
But he added that netbooks haven’t stayed as initially envisioned, with the devices evolving into smaller laptops. “They have become far more powerful and functionally rich – and people want them to look and behave like the larger devices they are used to – not as some hybrid between their phone and the desktop,” he said.
“Microsoft has woken up and realised that this market is burgeoning – and that Linux could be a threat, and has responded by removing the limit of three apps, and also in making sure that the cost of the OS is not an overwhelming issue,” he said, adding that the arrival of the well-reviewed Windows 7 operating system will help Microsoft's market positioning even more.
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Conclusion is fallacious: Circular argument
The article has its moments, but ends with a fallacious (false) argument. Clearly a circular argument is used: "these companies will go where the demand is - which just hasn't shown to be Linux.”" The implied conclusion is that they won't go to Linux. Some false assumptions. 1) Author Kobie claims that "Linux will suffer because there’s no real ecosystem of support around it, especially compared to that enjoyed by Windows." I could not disagree more. In MEPIS Linux 8.0 there are three different support sites automatically built into the web browser, plus a user manual directly on the desktop. For the few times I had a question, this was fast, accurate, and solved the problems... all for free. I knew NOTHING about Linux before, used the Live CD to install, had internet access immediately, plus sound and graphics and apps and no viruses or spyware threats. For all the years I used Windows, there was never such support and I am not aware there is now. 2) Author Kobie states "suggesting average consumers prefer the ease of using Microsoft technology." Seriously... is she serious? this obviously doesn't include the large percentage of end-users who cannot identify what a browser is or how it is different than an office suite or the OS itself. People who wouldn't know a context sensitive right-click if it hit them in their face. But for the people who have that minimum level of comprehension, it's UNeducated to say Microsoft has a greater ease of use. Granted... the familiarity is there, but only if you never change OS. If you decide to change from XP to Vistinki to Windows 7, that argument also goes out the window. So we're not going to see people use Linux on a netbook or desktop in general because they don't use it now. For the dozens of computer neophyte friends I've helped switch over to MEPIS Linux 8.0, why are they happy? Why don't they want to switch back? Why have they told their friends and now their friends want to switch too? Because fallacious arguments are false. The true reasons for slow adaptation are: 1) EDUCATING people about these issues. 2) DECENTRALIZED open source community with no advertising budget. 3) Lack of "bully tactics" as compared to the M$ way with vendors. Of course Linux isn't for everybody. Neither is MS. Neither is Apple. But for many people, quite a shocking percentage in fact, having a hassle free, no-bloatware, no-spyware, no-virus, centralized simple updates, full and mature included applications... This is far better than paying for constant hassles, BSOD, and paying for it besides!
By SunMan on Monday Jun 8