I used to work at a computer store at the time; mostly doing tech stuff but also sales sometimes when it was busy. We sold a lot of Netbooks, both running Windo

I used to work at a computer store at the time; mostly doing tech stuff but also sales sometimes when it was busy. We sold a lot of Netbooks, both running Windows and Linux. "This model runs Windows" was a real selling point for many customers. You have to realize that many people just don't give a flying hoot about their computers, they just want something to access a few websites and such, and Windows is what they were familiar with. We sold a lot more Windows EEE machines than Linux ones, in spite of being quite a bit more expensive. Was there also pressure from Microsoft? I don't know; I wouldn't be surprised. But there certainly was a real consumer demand as well.