3 ms·

Lack of an operating system with mass-market appeal in the netbook space, as far as I can tell.

rbanffy 16y ago
I assume the Windows OEM prices have been tuned so that it's more expensive to develop and manufacture ARM-based netbooks that run Linux than it is to stick with x86 for the current generation. Also, the processor is not responsible for a huge part of the power consumed on a netbook. Disk, screen and memory seem to be a big part. If you make a netbook that can run Gnome and Firefox decently, it will have a hard-drive (or SSD) and a couple gigabytes of memory. The LCD is the same.
- morgo 16y ago
  I think it is very workload dependent how big of a power consumer the hard-drive is. When I only do word processing or browsing simple web pages, I never have to read data (everything is cached). Laptop-mode also delays writing data back.
- dfghjkhgbfd 16y ago
  If you sell an ARM powered netbook that means no windows. So you can wave goodbye to being able to use OEM copies of windows on any other products that you make. So anyone like Asus or Acer that have a PC business and launch a non-windows netbook soon learn the error of their ways.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    They can sell one line of Windows-proof highly capable, futuristic computers while keeping and developing their legacy-ish, kludgy, virus-infested, Windows-bundled, 8080-descendant-based inefficient lines. Of course, Microsoft will probably find a way to increase their OEM pricing, specially if the Windows-proof line ends up making a dent on the Windows-bundled lines. And they don't even need to increase, say, Asus's licensing prices. All they have to do is to lower Acer's.
    - dfghjkhgbfd 16y ago
      MSFT tend not to increase pricing they tend to say - ship even one computer without Windows and you wont be buying OEM Windows for any of your other machines.
      - wtallis 16y ago
        They've gotten in rather a lot of trouble for doing that in the past. Do you have any evidence that they have been doing it since the emergence of the netbook market?
        rbanffy 16y ago
        > Do you have any evidence that they have been doing it since the emergence of the netbook market? The Windows-based netbook market?

I assume the Windows OEM prices have been tuned so that it's more expensive to develop and manufacture ARM-based netbooks that run Linux than it is to stick with x86 for the current generation. Also, the processor is not responsible for a huge part of the power consumed on a netbook. Disk, screen and memory seem to be a big part. If you make a netbook that can run Gnome and Firefox decently, it will have a hard-drive (or SSD) and a couple gigabytes of memory. The LCD is the same.

morgo 16y ago
I think it is very workload dependent how big of a power consumer the hard-drive is. When I only do word processing or browsing simple web pages, I never have to read data (everything is cached). Laptop-mode also delays writing data back.
dfghjkhgbfd 16y ago
If you sell an ARM powered netbook that means no windows. So you can wave goodbye to being able to use OEM copies of windows on any other products that you make. So anyone like Asus or Acer that have a PC business and launch a non-windows netbook soon learn the error of their ways.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  They can sell one line of Windows-proof highly capable, futuristic computers while keeping and developing their legacy-ish, kludgy, virus-infested, Windows-bundled, 8080-descendant-based inefficient lines. Of course, Microsoft will probably find a way to increase their OEM pricing, specially if the Windows-proof line ends up making a dent on the Windows-bundled lines. And they don't even need to increase, say, Asus's licensing prices. All they have to do is to lower Acer's.
  - dfghjkhgbfd 16y ago
    MSFT tend not to increase pricing they tend to say - ship even one computer without Windows and you wont be buying OEM Windows for any of your other machines.
    - wtallis 16y ago
      They've gotten in rather a lot of trouble for doing that in the past. Do you have any evidence that they have been doing it since the emergence of the netbook market?
      - rbanffy 16y ago
        > Do you have any evidence that they have been doing it since the emergence of the netbook market? The Windows-based netbook market?