Are Linux netbooks becoming extinct?

David M Williams
Tuesday, 28 April 2009 17:38

Business IT - Technology

My negative view that Microsoft Windows XP has pushed out Linux as the dominant netbook operating system has been challenged by some readers. I don’t want to put forth a message that is not correct so I’ve sought to get to the facts from the vendors themselves.

Similarly, if the NSW Government won’t tell me the hardware specs and costings of the submissions they received then I decided I'll find out from the vendors themselves.

My first replies came today from ASUS and Dell.

Marty Filipowski from Dell Corporate Communications first surprised me by saying that Dell does not, in Australia and New Zealand, offer any “mini laptops” with Linux. I note Marty chose not to use the word netbook, but more significantly, I’m left amazed that Dell – possibly the first major brand to promote they were selling computers with Ubuntu Linux – totally ignore Linux in this region.

When I asked why this was the case Marty advised Dell had been monitoring the market and launched Dell Inspiron Mini products with “the features in demand by our customers.”

Now, ASUS, to my mind, have been a pretty innovative company and are the ones who boldly imagined that a low-cost low-powered system would have a market. Yet, they surprised me even more than Dell.

Linda Vo from ASUS told me that ASUS’ netbook sales are 95% Windows-based and 5% Linux-based.

And ASUS submitted a Windows option to the DET tender.

Woah! I genuinely expected that ASUS would have put forth Linux, even if they made two alternate submissions. Yet they did not.

Neither company were prepared to divulge the pricing they submitted, but it's moot. Out of all three of Lenovo, Dell and ASUS, Linux was never on the table.

Early on in the tender process Linux consulting firm Cybersource made public their recommended approach. Yet, it involved one laptop per two children, with USB sticks used for persistent file storage. While the motivation was unquestionably good, such an approach simply was inadequate. It didn’t meet the DET guidelines at all. It was doomed to failure.

I still have to hear from the other candidates in the tender process but I’m already left wondering if I was right that no credible Linux option had been proposed. If it was only Cybersource that spoke up for Linux then it’s no wonder that, like Apple, the submission was rejected.

How could the market have turned from Linux being the dominant, indeed the only financially sensible, netbook operating system platform to now have such a minor role? How can it be that so many commentators are noting Linux was snubbed by the Government when at the same time it seems likely it was never an option?