96% Of Netbooks Run Windows XP--Surprised?
It's a funny bit, too, as we recall the day when Microsoft wasn't exactly elated about having to continue supporting Windows XP in order to get an OS it made onto this "fad." It's no shock that Vista is simply too demanding to be used on the average netbook, and given just how releuctant the world at large is to adopting Linux (not to mention the fact that Apple's OS X isn't available for netbook use), we can't say we're shocked at the figure. Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc stated the following: "It's hard to believe it's been a year since we first started to see netbook PCs running Windows come to market. The growth of Windows on netbook PCs over the last year has been phenomenal. Not only are people overwhelmingly buying Windows, but those that try Linux are often returning it."
We can't argue with that last part -- we've seen the statistics, and an overwhelming amount of people who buy Linux-equipped netbooks do in fact return them. Something to do with that "buyer's remorse" syndrome, we hear. We're also told that some versions of Windows 7 will be tailored to operate nicely on low-power, small notebooks, with LeBlanc noting that "l forward, we can confidently say that no matter how ookingnetbook PC hardware evolves, we're gearing up to ensure that Windows 7 will run great on them."
We fully understand a company's desire to turn any little factoid into positive PR, but we have to chuckle at Microsoft's gloating here. Sure, 96% of the netbook market is pretty staggering, but do OEMs really have a choice? OS X is a no-go, people at large don't even understand what Linux is and Windows Vista won't even run (well, anyway) on netbooks. At any rate, we guess we can't fault 'em for taking what's in front of them, but do yourself a favor and really think about the scenario before bestowing a round of applause.
Comments
|
Guess its not to suprizing. There are a lot out that have Linux on them, but if you walk into Walmart all of the ones there run Windows. |
|
Well vista is a pain in the ass especially if you have a mid spec laptop, 1gb ram 1.6ghz dual core it's not great takes ages to start up and do anything really. |
|
I know you guys are expecting a pro-Linux rant, but I'm not goi... oh, alright: What about all of the returned netbooks that were pre-loaded with Windows? Are we to assume that everyone returned those due to the OS too? If someone returns a netbook because of the OS, they obviously had some non-free OS-locked-in software they needed to run and did absolutely no research into the specs of the machine they were buying. It's also extremely likely that they could have done whatever they wanted to do with Linux, but they would prefer to use what they're already familiar with. There are no statistics available for the number of people that buy and re-format netbooks that have decent hardware, but are only sold with Windows. Microsoft chalks those up in their column as a win, even though they're basically giving away the OS to make the system price-competitive with the Linux equivalent. |
1 Here. I am running fedora on mine. |
3vi1:|
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20090408195405_Canonical_End_Users_Are_Satisfied_with_Ubuntu_Linux_on_Well_Engineered_Netbooks.html And this is the real reason. Not "superb" M$ products. As example, Dell sell 30% of it's "mini" with Linux and have similar return rates of XP and Ubuntu. |
Post a Comment
