Comments on: Windows and Linux on netbooks… what stays on?

By: Adam Hunt

Adam Hunt — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:33:50 +0000

This topic seems to be getting some very interesting comments this week! It looks like many people are writing about it. Some worthwhile reading from other sources:

* “Death of Linux on netbooks greatly exaggerated” by Ryan Paul Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/04/death-of-linux-on-netbooks-greatly-exaggerated.ars

* “Microsoft, FUD and the netbook market” by Chris Kenyon – Canonical, OEM Services http://blog.canonical.com/?p=151

* “Anti-Linux Propaganda du Jour: Windows Owns 96% Of Netbooks” By Carla Schroder http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/04/windows-owns-96.html

The last author concludes: ” The anti-Linux propaganda du jour, being dutifully parroted by “news” publications everywhere, is that Windows now owns 96% of the netbook market, and that Linux netbooks are returned four times more than windows netbooks. Both are untrue and have been debunked repeatedly. Yet they persist– why?”

“I think Microsoft is growing increasingly desperate, and in hard economic times is finding equally desperate publications who will say anything for a few bucks. Which may be a harsh judgment, but I would rather believe that than believe they simply don’t care to do even the simplest, most basic fact-checking, or are such hard-core Microsoft fanboys that they are only pretending to be journalists when they are really stringers for Microsoft’s marketing department. How else can we explain the same nonsense repeated endlessly, their allergies to saying “Windows” and “malware” in the same sentence, the short shrift given to non-Windows software, the mind-boggling assumption that Windows is computing?”

By: anjilslaire

anjilslaire — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:35:10 +0000

I agree with your sentiments, aysiu, but FYI my mini 9 shipped from Dell with Ubuntu & a 32gig SSD.

Better than 16gig, but not enough for some, I know. I simply store everything else server-side on my desktop and have it shared on the network. 32gigs of local storage is enough in most cases I’ve found for netbook use.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:46:12 +0000

I do tend to agree with the OP. Computer vendors so far have been doing a lousy job with Linux, not all vendors, however. If you are in the US, do check out Zareason.com for a newer eeepc. It looks like right now they are out of stock, but, hopefully, not for long. Let’s send some business their way!
http://www.zareason.com/shop/product.php?productid=16186&cat=0&page=1
http://www.zareason.com/shop/product.php?productid=16178&cat=0&page=1

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:50:42 +0000

Ubuntucat, I think you need to change careers. Given your knowledge of the system, your complaints about other vendors’ treatment of Ubuntu, and the fact you’ve supported a brick-and-mortar Ubuntu store for years… start one! Maybe you could even get some starter cash from Mark Shuttleworth.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:49:04 +0000

Really what amazes me is that OEMs are still selling WinXP netbooks right now – the operating system’s mainstream support ends on Tuesday this week – 14 April 2009.

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectwin

Now I think that is criminal!

By: Scott Wells

Scott Wells — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:26:41 +0000

I hear you and thought the same thing about the new Eee. Friends’ objections that “Microsoft isn’t making much on the license” holds little water anymore.

By: Timmy Macdonald

Timmy Macdonald — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:13:48 +0000

Were I offered two identical netbooks for the same price, but one came with XP, and the other with some kind of Linux, I’d pick XP. Why?
1)I would probably prefer Ubuntu or Xubuntu to the alienated variant the OEM cooked up.
2)Since I’m reinstalling the OS, I’d rather have a free XP license in my pocket–every now and then it comes in handy (StarCraft LAN party!)
3)If the HD was big enough, dual-booting would be excellent.

By: stevewiilliams

stevewiilliams — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:07:13 +0000

I wrote a post on my own blog concerning this topic. I too believe the statistics, but Ubuntu is far better than XP, in my personal opinion.
Windows 7, on the other hand, is far superior. Thankfully, Windows 7 Starter edition can run on netbooks – even ones using Atom processors. Unfortunately, Microsoft came up with the pathetic idea of a three-app limit, so you can only run three differnet applications at any one time. A bit stupid, considering Linux has no multitasking limits.
I eagerly anticipate testing Ubuntu Netbook Remix when it comes out of beta.