The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
Linux netbook buyers might not need antivirus software, Cole concedes (although Symantec already has a Linux AV), but there are other aspects of security.
Features such as Identity Safe and SafeWeb from the new version of Norton 360 are applicable regardless of the operating system, and the company already has internal prototypes for Linux.
"What's the future [of attacks]? Deception. If you can't hack the products, hack the person," said Cole.
Even a relatively smart person can make bad decisions when they're not concentrating - and netbooks are likely to be used in such situations.
So while Linux may be relatively resistant to traditional software threats, there can still be a role for a different kind security software. Wouldn't it useful to be warned that the goods you're about to buy online are known to be counterfeit?
Sometimes the price is obviously too good to be true, but if the merchant is trying to pass off a fake as the real thing.
That's the potential market Symantec is looking to address, along with utility functions such as synchronising web username and password lists between devices.
Anyway, I've always been predisposed towards Linux as the operating system for netbooks as they were originally conceived, and I'm increasingly convinced that's the way to go.
But even if you wouldn't expect an upmarket netbook to run the latest and most demanding games, I can see why people might want to run at least some of the same software as they do on their (typically Windows) desktops or full-sized notebooks.
So I see room for both Windows and Linux to be successful in the netbook market.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
