David M Williams
Thursday, 18 December 2008 16:48
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
It began with MSI’s director of US Sales, Andy Tung, telling us that
Linux netbooks were being returned four times as often as ones that run Windows XP.
Tung’s research showed the reason is because while consumers are turned on by the low price tag, they were turned off by the operating environment being something different to what they are used to.
In what amounts to nothing but consumers expecting to buy something and it be, pretty much, a fully functional Windows laptop these MSI Linux netbooks were being taken back to the stores. It’s not because users couldn’t achieve what they wanted to do – browse the Web, manage e-mail, write documents – but because it just looked different.
iTWire editor, Stan Beer, has been actively following the trends that have since emerged. First
Acer and Toshiba both acknowledged that Windows XP accounted for a massive 90% of their netbook sales and then ASUS – the creators of the very Eee Linux PC itself – similarly
reported that their sales weighed far more in favour of Windows XP.
Once again, the companies noted the reason was because consumers were familiar with the Windows platform. For those of us who are multilingual when it comes to computing platforms it is exasperating to see choices being made based on one fickle reason alone.
Consider this: a Linux-based netbook has a rich suite of software immediately available. You have an office suite straight away. You have diagramming tools. You have collections of games.
By contrast, a Windows based netbook requires additional expense if you wish to use Microsoft Office. The initial driver for purchase – namely price – is slowly being eroded but the consumer has already made the decision to buy and does not think of this.
Similarly, all the possible Linux programs you could want are available for download. This is not so with Windows; no sooner have you bought a Windows-based netbook than you also must commit to an external USB CD- or DVD-drive, because this is not built in to the unit. That’s more cash out of your wallet again.
The Linux user is happily working with a full complement of packages – and, I’ll note, a fully legal set of software – without having to spend any more money after the initial netbook purchase itself. The Windows user has spent another couple of hundred dollars.
These Windows users are just simply missing the point, and this is not merely the opinion of a ranting fanatic. Respected UK publication, The Economist, also said this (but perhaps less crudely.)
CONTINUED
