CeBIT 2009: Linux Wants to Win Back Netbooks
About a year ago almost every netbook ran on Linux. Now the free platform has disappeared from almost all of them. In an Open Source Forum at CeBIT, Warren Coles of Taiwanese netbook vendor Linpus explained the reasons why.
One reason for Linux's demise from netbooks is the choice of hardware. The resource-saving Linux would here be a victim of its own frugality: it fits on devices with a small solid state disk (SSD) and little RAM. According to Warren Coles, sales and marketing manager at Linpus, consumers haven't quite grasped the concept of SSD and see only the reduction in memory space. Taken together with the price, the netbook has been considered not only a cheaper but inferior alternative.
When Microsoft resurrected XP on its devices and combined it with more RAM and bigger hard disk on netbooks, it immediately became a success when users again sensed a more dependable environment.
Nevertheless, the Open Source community had some joy in the fact that around two million netbooks were sold in 2008.
Coles is confident at least for the near term: the Web 2.0 and RFID chip trends are promoting use of netbooks. The industry is also developing numerous mobile technologies under Linux, such as Intel's Moblin, Google's Android, Qualcomm's Snapdragon and Texas Instruments' OMAP. Thanks to Moblin a Linux netbook can boot within seconds. 2009 should also add more devices with affordable ARM processors instead of Intel ATOM CPUs. Linux has long been active on these platforms.
Linpus itself is preparing its Linux distribution for the future, according to Coles. This means more WLAN and 3G support, in over 20 languages and 30 keyboard configurations. The GUIs are to be simpler yet more individualized. Part of this is easier switchovers among environments like KDE and GNOME. Suspend mode should provide further savings. These features should become attractive to hardware makers as well as end users. Linpus is working with numerous large vendors in Taiwan and has already taken its Linux to the likes of Acer Aspire one and the Lenovo IdeaPad S9. Linpus is featured at CeBIT Open Source in Hall 6, Booth E46-3.
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better netbook with windows
Thanks to all Open Source people that helped me
Take care
Linux Netbooks
Disappeared?
Asus is predicting that 40% of their netbooks in 2009 will have Linux on them.
Hence, you are just spreading misinformed FUD.
Clarify
Alternative to what? Alternative to a laptop? who would believe a netbook can replace a laptop in every way?
Net books fills a special need and have become popular for just that, while not
as small as a smartphone it is a lot better for many things, not as powerful as a laptop but light enough to take almost anywhere
The netbook fills a void.
It is not my experience that Linux have almost disappeared
from netbooks, I see more vendors offering them with both Linux and Windows options, it may be the
case that the ones with Windows are outselling the ones with Linux but that does not mean
anything much, for that is always going to be the case whether laptop, desktop or netbook, windows is
more popular than Linux.
Many people who understand what these devices are prefer Linux
on them given the fact that they can be upgraded if the Linux specs are lower than the Windows
ones, there are also reports of some people buying the better specs with XP and then removing it and installing Linux
“Nevertheless, the Open Source community had some joy in the fact that around two million netbooks were sold in 2008. “
Why is there joy in the Open Source community about these sales? Are they suggesting that the Open Source Community was joyous because these sales reflected good Linux sales? If so, how can one say there is a demise of Linux on these devices when sales were so good last year? We are not quite three months into 2009 what are the sales figures for this period in terms of Linux based netbbok sales compared to Windows XP based netbook sales?