In the previous article of this series, we analyzed what Windows 7 will be offering. In this article we will analyze the main computer market segments, one by one, from both the Linux and Windows 7 perspectives.
Netbook (nettop) market: This is the emerging market for computers, which started with Asus's Eee PC and where -nearly- all of the computer manufacturers jumped into. The netbooks offer smaller form factors, lighter weights, and longer battery lives at the expense of performance.
Looking at the netbook market with Linux pre-installed, we see a point where price elasticity is high. People who buy netbooks with pre-installed Linux do not have to pay an additional price to have Windows installed, which is basically the Windows license fee. This is one of the strongholds for Linux in all markets - Windows will always have a price, high or low.
We can not leave aside the number of users who already have an XP license who also buy netbooks with Linux pre-installed in order to not to pay for the license fee and continue using their own software. As long as their usage complies with Microsoft's End User License Agreement, there is nothing wrong with that.
Linux distributions that run on netbooks, namely modified Xandros and Linpus Linux Lite, have interfaces that look very simple and removes the barriers for the people who have no previous experience with computers or with Linux. Hardware vendors also have the opportunity to customize their systems with Linux, which they can not do with Windows. Like everything in the world, this has advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages of Linux are people have minimal barriers to interact with the computers (such as clicking "work" on Eee PC to be taken to Office programs), minimal maintenance (firewalls, malware removers etc), stability, reliability, less costs, ease of updating the system and installing software.
The disadvantages are there is no standard desktop (consider Xandros on Eee, Linpus on Aspire One, the standard KDE, Gnome) making people think that they will have to restart learning how to use computers with every brand, the interface is not what people are used to (even the shape of the mouse pointer), known programs (Excel instead of OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet) are missing, wide availability and the assistance they can get from everywhere, even within their family. People using Linux may also want to join to Active Directory domains of their company, which is a hard configuration for the majority of users.
In his interview with ArsTechnica, Steven Sinofsky implicitly states that he is happy with the performance of Windows 7 on a generic netbook. Personally I am doubtful, since if seven-year old Windows XP is only running basically on netbooks (not the new installation, but with the essential software such as anti-virus, firewall, malware removal, and Office), I do not expect a new release to run smoothly on a netbook. As I have watched Microsoft for about 15 years, I am pretty sure that they mean a basic installation on a netbook, such as a Vista starter, and not a full-fledged installation as I stated above. It seems to me that they will be blaming the other software vendors stating that their software requires too much in resources when their operating system can not do better after the initial installation.
In my opinion, Linux is ready for mainstream usage in netbooks. However, I would say that it would be better if the Linux programmers pay particular attention to find an easy way to let the user configure Active Directory membership and if the vendors would seek a single interface for the pre-installed Linux operating system on these machines.
Next up, we take a look at the laptop market.