Android the real Linux desktop threat to Windows

Stan Beer
Sunday, 01 March 2009 12:25

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft got things seriously wrong when it released Vista and the company knows it. In the past, the absolute market dominance of Windows on the desktop has allowed Redmond to get away with such mistakes. That may no longer be the case now that Google has entered the operating system market with its Linux-based Android platform.

A report late last year from Net Applications suggested that the market share of Windows had dropped to 89.2%, the first time in 15 years it had dipped below 90%. The big beneficiary of Microsoft's loss, however, has been Apple's Mac OS X, much to the chagrin of Linux advocates.

There have been many Linux desktop distribution champions over the years - Mandriva, Debian, Suse, and most recently Ubuntu. All, expecially Ubuntu, are exceptionally good operating systems but none has made more than the smallest of dents in the wider market place, much less ushered in the fabled year of the Linux desktop.

It is telling that Windows last year lost market share mainly to Mac OS X and not Linux. However, it is also telling that Linux did manage to grab a toe-hold - albeit a brief and tenuous one - in the sub-notebook (netbook) space, thanks to Asustek and its glorious innovation the Eee PC.

Thanks to the popularity of the Eee PC netbook, which initially was only available with a customised version of the Xandros Linux distribution, Linux did finally register a blip on the OS radar screen in 2008.

However, before you could say "XP arise" Windows once again trampled the Linux flea, establishing dominance of the nascent netbook space, with vendors such as Asustek, Acer, HP, Dell, Toshiba and a variety of others, once again lining up to pay homage to Redmond.

Some recent estimates have Windows with an 85% market share of the netbook space and rising. Netbook vendors have told us that Linux models are no longer part of their mainstream strattegy.

All of this, however, may be about to change with a recent announcement from Eee PC vendor Asustek, which may finally usher in the era of personal Linux.

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