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The Linux distillery
How to sell Linux netbooks to the world
The Linux distillery
How to sell Linux netbooks to the world | How to sell Linux netbooks to the world |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Wednesday, 29 October 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 3
2008 has been the year of the netbook. Since the surprise runaway success of the ASUS Eee Linux PC in 2007 there has been a surge of hardware vendors joining in. Yet MSI users have poo-pooed the use of Linux on these systems. I disagree. Here's why Linux netbooks are the future.
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Tung said research showed the reason for this is because consumers are turned on by the low price tag of netbooks - which stands to reason, they are low-end subnotebooks - but are turned off by the operating environment being something different than what they are used to. My esteemed colleagues commented on this. Alex Zaharov-Reutt asked "Have consumers spoken and said 'Linux sux'?" while Sam Varghese countered with, "Does Linux suck or is it lusers who suck?" I wouldn't necessarily criticise the ordinary folk who are frightened by a computing device which doesn't conform to their existing experiences, but there definitely is a lesson to vendors - and indeed tech journalists - about helping better manage expectations of the buying public. A netbook is cheap and part of the reason for this is because it avoids "the Windows tax," namely, the licensing fee that Microsoft Windows mandates. And, of course, as delightful as any hardware made by Apple is, the price is way out of netbook range. Yet, there is a bright future ahead, and it's due to something that Google picked up on and is one of the key reasons they cited a need for their recent Chrome web browser. Let me tell you about it. CONTINUED |
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