"9 out of 10" netbooks come with XP

by Julian Prokaza
on Thu 18 Dec 2008 3 Comments

Asus Eee PC with Windows XPSeveral eons ago in October 2007 when Asus launched the first Eee PC in Taiwan, it seemed a new era of Linux had dawned. After years in the shadows, the open source OS was finally getting the exposure it deserved. A year and a bit on (is it really only that long) and those dreams appear to have been smashed. Acer, the new leader in the netbook market, has revealed that more than 90 percent of its sales are for Windows XP models, rather than those with Linux. Read on.

"Our Windows XP netbooks are outselling Linux machines by more than 9 to 1," Acer senior product manager, Henry Lee, told Australia's iTWire.

"When we launched the Aspire One around mid-year we found that the Windows numbers increased over time. Six months later, the percentage of Windows sales appears to have peaked and stabilised at a very high level."

In fact, far from being the kid-friendly alternative it was pitched as, Mr Lee points out that, "The Linux netbooks sell particularly to hardcore Linux users who want to customise their system." So much for Linux's parent appeal then.

The news from other manufacturers backs up the trend. Toshiba reports a similar proportion of XP take-up for its NB100 in Europe, while Dell says its small number of Linux models "reflects demand".

As for Asus, the company that started the netbook ball rolling in 2007 and the XP netbook ball rolling at beginning of this year, it says it's not revealing the exact proportion of its sales but did say, "the shift now is more towards Windows due to customer demand for Windows XP being that consumers are more familiar with the Windows platform"."

The figures will certainly give Microsoft some quiet satisfaction. After overcoming the embarrassment of having to revive XP long after its Vista replace-by-date, it can now look back on a successful campaign of squashing its open source rival and preventing it from getting a foothold among the legions of new netbook owners. We imagine that, somewhere, an executive is cackling loudly. Mwu-ha-ha-haaah.

[ iTWire]

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
© Dennis Publishing

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Comments

  • neutral

    by Baz at 16:09 on 18 Dec 2008Report abuse

    ASUS had first opportunity to offer a user-friendly Linux OS in a consumer netbook specifically built for it - and they blew it. They used an aged distro (Xandros)that no one but the most serious of Linux hobbyists had ever heard of, hobbled it by presenting it in an 'Easy Mode' and then have failed to maintain any sort of stable library of patches, upgrades and new software. Any success ASUS' Linux EeePC has enjoyed has been on the backs of users who have found work-arounds, not by dint of what the Company offered.

    Similarly, Acer offered a simple mode to another near-unknown, Linpus Lite, and disabled its built-in ability to open in a full, familiar-looking desktop.

    While HP initially offered SUSE (a distro most computer users would have heard of), they certainly didn't make much of it (asnd have since dumped it), while other distros that were more publicly recognized (Ubuntu, Red Hat and Mandriva leap immediately to mind)and which enjoy a large communities, more software and user-friendly updating abilities, have been left unused by manufacturers.

    Its small wonder then that XP has enjoyed a resurgence (much to MS's chagrin), as consumers simply want a product that looks and behaves in a familiar way, has software and peripherals that work without (much) issue and which doesn't require digging about in the OS's actual guts to work.

    Netbooks had the opportunity to introduce consumers to a OS that looked like something they knew and was more stable - and the netbook manufacturers have let them down

  • neutral

    by Dan at 17:36 on 18 Dec 2008Report abuse

    Well put!

  • neutral

    by Optimaximal at 18:23 on 18 Dec 2008Report abuse

    The software is the key thing - nobody apart from Canonical seem too have grasped the idea of selling Linux as a complete package. Really PUSH the concept of everything being free and bundled on the disc.

    Microsoft & co keep throwing money behind Windows/Photoshop/insert brand here, keeping the brand alive, because they know if OSS gets a look in commercially, they're sunk. MySQL & OpenOffice are almost piece-by-piece a counterpart for SQL Server & Office 2003/2007 but nobody trusts them because it's not MS.
    My and my manager have brought up the idea of switching to OSS at work, especially since our recent unsavoury dealings with MS's licensing department and we have done for things like our internet proxy & intranet (based on Joomla, using WAMP rather than WISA), but that nagging doubt that you'll get sacked because one of the MDs can't access an Office 2007 document or read his emails properly because it's not compatible with a free solution is always there.

    If everyone started using OpenOffice and their ODT format, nobody would care about Microsoft's abortive XML format.

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