Lenovo On the Future of the Netbook 400
thefickler touts an interview in tech.blorge with Lenovo's Worldwide Competitive Analyst, Matt Kohut, who spoke about his vision of the future of netbooks, which involves Windows 7, bigger screens, built-in 3G, touch integration, and lower prices. Linux fans will be disappointed to hear that Kohut thinks Windows 7 will dominate future generations of netbooks because it offers a better, more familiar solution, with the benefits of touch. Quoting Kohut: "The other challenge has been, in order to keep the price points down, a lot of people thought that Linux would be the savior of all of these netbooks. You know, there were a lot of netbooks loaded with Linux, which saves $50 or $100 or whatever it happens to be, based on Microsoft's pricing and, again, from an industry standpoint, there were a lot of returns because people didn't know what to do with it. Linux, even if you've got a great distribution and you can argue which one is better or not, still requires a lot more hands-on than somebody who is using Windows. So, we've seen overwhelmingly people wanting to stay with Windows because it just makes more sense: you just take it out of the box and it's ready to go."
He has a point about linux (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Goodbye Lenovo (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.system76.com/ [system76.com]
Bingo... (Score:5, Informative)
If Linux netbooks aren't ready to go out of the box, the vendors are doing a poor job.
And this is exactly what we saw.
Acer said they got lots of Linux returns, but ASUS says the opposite [laptopmag.com]
He's been anti-Linux blogging for 2yrs (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Windows 7 - Cripple Version (Score:2, Informative)
The version for netbooks only runs three programs at a time.
BS! The starter edition is not sold in the developed world. you are spreading FUD
Re:Windows 7 - Cripple Version (Score:2, Informative)
windows 7 isn't sold anywhere at all, so you're just speculating.
The most interesting line in TFA (Score:3, Informative)
Kohut: Notebooks aren't going to go away, because again, one of the things that is helping us as an industry is that Intel is trying very hard to limit what netbooks can do.
Hmmm... intentionally crippling their low-end stuff, eh? That explains why we've got no 64-bit or VT on the mobile Atom processors, I guess, among other things...
This sounds like a loophole big enough for VIA to drive through with the Nano.
I hope they succeed. And I hope AMD wakes up and makes netbook processors. You wouldn't even know it from their terrible marketing and sales, but the Turion 64 X2 is quite a nice dual-core mobile processor from AMD. And dirt cheap too.
Bottom line, more competition is good and right now, desperately needed for netbook CPUs. We need a serious Nano vs. Atom vs. AMD slugfest. Bring it.
Clarification (Score:2, Informative)
What I said was that the issue of printer drivers contributed to the GNU license. Not that it was the sole reason. And regarding the issue of Linux an printing it's worth noting the long history of printer driver problems.
Now regarding Stallman and printer drivers note the following wikepedia entry about Stallman's time at MIT which I have heard from the horses mouth many times:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman [wikipedia.org]
In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of the first laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software on an older printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users when a printer was jammed. Not being able to add this feature to the Dover printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This one experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be free to modify the software they use.