Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times) [LWN.net]

Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times)

Posted Apr 4, 2009 5:43 UTC (Sat) by dkite (guest, #4577)
In reply to: Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times) by agrover
Parent article: Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times)

Possibly.

Microsoft has been determining the form of laptops and desktops for a long
time. They designed the tablet form. The netbook was not their idea, and
Asus designed the eeepc with linux because MS wasn't there. Xp was on the
way out, and the small form factor with low power and storage capacity
didn't fit with MS's plans.

They did a rather quick 180 however.

Derek

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Whatever was needed

Posted Apr 4, 2009 9:54 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Imagine the buzz at Microsoft HQ when they read somewhere that a Taiwanese manufacturer had already shipped more than a million Linux laptops... I guess they set a commando team to work immmediately.

"The year of the Linux desktop" is still in limbo, but the year of the Linux netbook came and went. Sadly it is XP almost everywhere now.

Whatever was needed

Posted Apr 6, 2009 10:42 UTC (Mon) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link]

Yeah, Linux on the netboox seems to have been a 2007 thing.

Last year when the Eee 901 came out (a couple of months late) I was going to buy one, but it took so long for the Linux version to arrive that I'd lost interest (I'm working under the assumption that the Linux version did eventually materialise, a few months down the line - okay I've just checked and two of the three online shops I tried have the Linux version, though not in stock).

The cynic in me can't help but think that the use of Linux was a way of forcing MS to provide XP for a couple more years at a cut-down price.

Whatever was needed

Posted Apr 6, 2009 22:04 UTC (Mon) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Probably OEMs were not even that cunning. It was just that Linux could be made to work in those puny machines; I can imagine that Microsoft tried to sell them Windows Vista or (gasp) CE and the Taiwanese recoiled in pain, so they went to Linux vendors.

True, they got cheap XP licenses this way for 10% of their machines; but they also risked their relationship with the OS of choice for the remaining 90%. Right now they have sweet deals with Microsoft, the machines work well with Linux and everyone is happy. Except us Linux geeks who have seen the best opportunity as of yet come and go.

Risked their relationship?

Posted Apr 6, 2009 22:42 UTC (Mon) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]

Risked their relationship? Remember, the only companies that MSFT treats with respect are those that have somehow shown their capability and willingness to go Linux. (Matthew 18:12 Marketing?)