Netbooks and Linux: A Complicated Story

Over the past few days there's been a raft of stories about how the Linux netbook market share is not as healthy as it used to be.

Up until now it's been believed that the emerging netbook market (arguably the first new PC hardware platform for decades) has been sewn-up almost entirely by various varieties of Linux. However, it seems the truth is that Linux netbooks see far more returns than their Windows equivalents, and--according to research firm NPD--about 96% of netbooks sold recently ran Windows. Needless to say, a Microsoft employee has been gloating about this.

As always, the truth of the situation is more complicated. This isn't a software issue, as Microsoft-loving commentators would like you to believe, although that's certainly an element.

To understand why, let's take the point of view of an average computer user. He/she doesn't entirely understand how computers work, but they know how to do the things they like. They want to play music, and movies. They want to grab their email (probably from a webmail provider), and check FaceBook or MySpace. They want to watch funny movies on YouTube, and visit other Flash-oriented sites. To them, a computer is a tool to get a job done. It isn't an end in itself. Any time spend hacking things into shape, or messing around, is time wasted.

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