Why Windows is winning on netbooks

Windows might be winning netbooks, but Microsoft is certainly losing.

Is it possible for people to understand that Linux is not a company? Linux can't go bankrupt. What is Microsoft's profit margin on a netbook sale? Has the author seen Microsoft's latest financial results?

Linux is available. Even if 100% of all netbooks were sold with Windows, 100% market share means nothing unless you're making a profit. The second MS tries to raise the price, netbook manufacturers will go back to Linux. A $50 premium for Windows isn't going to happen, and in this case MS can't have their OS subsidized by cr@pware.

How about a more accurate article, "Why consumers are winning on netbooks".

totally agree bigg

you will also notice that the netbooks offered with windows have to have hard drives. I have yet to see a windows netbook run with solid state hard drive. they all have to have the moving parts hard drive which raises costs and to me sort kills the idea of a netbook. might as well just get a laptop. they also all have windows xp so what is going to happen to those netbooks come 2010 or 2011 whatever the force upgrade year is. guess they can't get vista on them and that must be why they are in rush for windows 7 because they need to get a force upgrade path for these customers and supposedly I hear windows 7 will fit on these netbooks (probably still moving hard drives though). so microsoft faces a conundrum with these netbooks.

I will take my 200 dollar netbook with linux please and no moving hard drive components.

They need a hard drive because the RAM requirements of Windows is outrageous, and using SD for swap wears it out prematurely.

Advantage: Linux

RAM requirements and the inability to made adequate use of RAM. If you have enough RAM on a Linux box, you can make do nicely without swap. Windows? Not.

A note about Windows 7: My boss installed the beta on an EeePC 1000HA and it actually runs quite well (as Windows goes). It seemed a tad slower than XP on the machine. However, a major drawback is that the standard install has a footprint of 10GB (yes, bigger than Vista's), which pretty much cuts out solid states unless you want to go out and purchase your own to replace the internal drive with (assuming you can find one the same form factor as the drives they use internally, I'm not sure how solid states range in form factor with disk space.) The other major drawback of course is that you'd really need to upgrade to 2GB RAM to make it behave really well.

>> and in this case MS can't have their OS subsidized by cr@pware.

Huh? Oh, wait. You mean other cr@pware.

bigg, I also wonder about MS' real financials. We read about their many financial incentives to keep vendors on board, the OEM kickbacks, the price-cutting whenever anyone says "I'm really thinking of moving to Linux"... there must come a point where the cost of propping up sales is more expensive than losing sales.

Quoting:there must come a point where the cost of propping up sales is more expensive than losing sales.

Yeah...you really gotta wonder how much they are REALLY making on Windows and Office with all their desperation lockin tactics....(maybe not so much a problem with Office, but definitely with Windows).

Every time someone boots winders, the Devil kills whatever is handy.

Quoting:Every time someone boots winders, the Devil kills whatever is handy.

That's a lot of dead lawyers and politicians. :P

@techiem2:

"Promote freedom. Boot Windows."

> Yeah...you really gotta wonder how much they are REALLY making on Windows and Office with all their desperation lockin tactics..

We recently purchased a replacement 500 GB Western Digital hard drive from NewEgg. With it came two ads. The first told us that we could get a free "8 GB USB" if we purchased Office. The second told us that if we purchased Windows Vista Ultimate with any processor, motherboard, or hard drive which cost more than $50, we'd get a $50 NewEgg gift certificate.

I suspect Newegg is not the source for these offers.

Quoting:"Promote freedom. Boot Windows."

I've got some nice big hiking books, I can do that.