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Actually, I would argue that manufacturers have recently given linux more of a shot then consumer demand implied. Netbooks started on linux. By all accounts, i

by netsp 17y ago

Actually, I would argue that manufacturers have recently given linux more of a shot then consumer demand implied. Netbooks started on linux. By all accounts, it was nice. Users rejected it. Retailers took it out of the store. Many retailers refused it altogether because they got too many complaints. Consumer rejection coincided with MS making XP reasonably available and the steep growth part of the netbook market, so it's hard to say exactly what happened. Now linux on netbook is just an extremely low end product or a traditional linux niche market. If there was any kind of demand for linux netbooks, there are (a) OEMs ready to go & (b) more OEMs ready to jump straight on.

willwagner 17y ago
I agree with you. I think up until now an OEM just had to weigh the costs of paying the microsoft tax or using linux. Now with Google entering the market, I think linux will quickly get squeezed out. It is a real possibility that Google, if it needed to, would actually pay OEMs to get in the box, and if Google does make inroads, Microsoft is bound to lower its licensing fees. That makes free not look quite as nice as it once did.
- netsp 17y ago
  I hope so. It would also be nice if the complex enabled lower end netbooks a little more. Anyway, it's still all early days. Chrome OS may not be that good. Google isn't proven in this area yet. Chrome browser is usually still a secondary browser for the minority that use it. Google docs are still not replacing desktop stuff at much of a pace. Most of the stuff I see it used for is sharing/publishing/collaborating which is great but doesn't mean I use MS Office or OO.org any less. Google is very proven at letting you find stuff and make sense of a lot of information (search, maps, mail, rss, maybe docs) It's good at making things that you can see for the first time an immediately get it. They are becoming impressive in things like translation via being good at dealing with large amounts of information. Anyway, I think it's far from a sure thing that chrome OS will do any better then ubuntu. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be doing it. It's just not a 99% shot. They're taking a chance. They are also going to be launching at the worst possible time, within a year of (the supposedly good) Windows 7, after three years of OS vacuum in the netbook OS market. We'll wait and see.

by netsp 17y ago

willwagner 17y ago

I agree with you. I think up until now an OEM just had to weigh the costs of paying the microsoft tax or using linux. Now with Google entering the market, I think linux will quickly get squeezed out. It is a real possibility that Google, if it needed to, would actually pay OEMs to get in the box, and if Google does make inroads, Microsoft is bound to lower its licensing fees. That makes free not look quite as nice as it once did.

netsp 17y ago
I hope so. It would also be nice if the complex enabled lower end netbooks a little more. Anyway, it's still all early days. Chrome OS may not be that good. Google isn't proven in this area yet. Chrome browser is usually still a secondary browser for the minority that use it. Google docs are still not replacing desktop stuff at much of a pace. Most of the stuff I see it used for is sharing/publishing/collaborating which is great but doesn't mean I use MS Office or OO.org any less. Google is very proven at letting you find stuff and make sense of a lot of information (search, maps, mail, rss, maybe docs) It's good at making things that you can see for the first time an immediately get it. They are becoming impressive in things like translation via being good at dealing with large amounts of information. Anyway, I think it's far from a sure thing that chrome OS will do any better then ubuntu. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be doing it. It's just not a 99% shot. They're taking a chance. They are also going to be launching at the worst possible time, within a year of (the supposedly good) Windows 7, after three years of OS vacuum in the netbook OS market. We'll wait and see.