Why Windows 7 will win the netbook war
There’s been much debate recently on whether Linux will be able to strive in the netbook war once Windows 7 is released. Although it is too early to claim a preemptive death for Linux on netbooks, there are a couple of reasons that make it clear Windows 7 will become clearly dominant in the netbook war.
Netbooks are secondary computers
Even more so than laptops, netbooks are primarily for portable use and are not desktop replacements. Almost everybody that is purchasing a netbook most likely has another computer at home. If Microsoft is able to make a good impression of Windows 7 on the netbook, this could influence them to go out and purchase Windows 7 for their desktops at home, resulting in higher sales. Microsoft knows this and I won’t be surprised if they they are willing to minimize profits for this kind of exposure.
Microsoft has the ability to win the war
Let’s face it, Microsoft has a lot more ability to win the war if they really wanted to. Unlike Linux, Windows 7 is a combined effort and funded with millions of dollars to make it a success. Linux is a collaborative effort by programmers whose goal is to improve the operating system so it can fit certain needs that cannot be fulfilled by operating systems such as Windows. Developers might work to improve Ubuntu for the netbook, but ultimately, their goal is not to dominate the netbook market and reap in millions of dollars for profit, which they can’t anyway.
Microsoft is already preparing its attack on netbooks
It’s no secret that Vole wants to capture the netbook market that Vista missed out on. They’ve already confirmed that it will ship a version of Windows 7 designed for netbooks. Microsoft did not announce a Netbook edition as part of their SKU lineup but claims in an interview that they did design Windows 7 with the netbook in mind. To compete against Linux’s instant-on features, it’s been suspected that Microsoft is developing their own version of instant-on. Seeing that Windows 7 already runs great on netbooks in terms of performance, a few others including myself think that the netbook version will be different feature-wise (removal or addition of features such as instant-on) rather than performance-wise.
Windows 7 has more functionality
Windows 7 will always have better functionality software and hardware wise than any other OS. The tech-savvy group will keep telling you that there are free alternatives to Office and many other non-free apps but none of these alternatives will live up to the true product.
Not everybody likes change
Change is a hard thing to accept for many and the response to the User Interface changes made in Windows 7 is a perfect example. There have been countless talk about how to get the taskbar to look like the one from Vista and XP even though the current “Superbar” offers productivity benefits for many. After writing my 4th point, I knew I was going to get some beef so here’s where I’ll explain myself. Linux is a drastic change from Windows and everyone knows that. Not everybody wants to spend the time learning how to install a program, find drivers, and learn about the alternatives they can use. They just want a netbook that works for them out-of-the-box and Linux can’t do that for most people.
Although I believe Windows 7 will dominate on netbooks, that is not to say that Linux will no longer be sold with netbooks. There are still some people who only plan to use their netbooks for internet, instant-messaging, and simple text-messaging. That portion of the market certainly doesn’t have to spend the extra dollars for Windows 7. But for the majority of consumers, Windows 7 is an upgrade from XP or what Vista should have been. Microsoft missed the netbook market entirely with Vista, but they are going to put up a fight Windows 7 this time around.
What are your thoughts on Windows 7 vs. Linux on netbooks? Let us know in the comments.
Related posts:
Tags: windows 7, windows 7 linux, windows 7 netbook, windows 7 netbook war
To discuss this topic, head on over to our forums!
23 Responses to “Why Windows 7 will win the netbook war”
Leave a Reply
To discuss this topic, head on over to our forums!
Loading ...
The analysis is quite likely correct (though I would not entirely rule out strong competition from another non-Windows, non-Linux player), but starting out two paragraphs with “Let’s face it” is not very professional.^^;
Thanks for the note, that was really strange. Probably should have read over it a couple of times xD
I completely agree. Besides I could never get use to Ubuntu. Just feels wrong…all wrong.
I think Windows will definitely win the young and growing netbook market. Netbooks are usually more or less “accesories” to desktops, and since most Desktops will be capable of running Windows 7, it just makes since to have it’s accesory running the same OS.
Linux is a dead os already.
Windows is “ok just because it has ONE standard”
I hate Linux because there is one distro for each day of the year.
But I HATE WINDOWS even more because it takes the WHOLE HARD DRIVE TO DO NOTHING…
In the past 3 years I have had hard drives of 80, 120, 260, 320GB and 1TB and that’s a f… absurd!
We can no longer choose what to install or not since Windows 98… From now on M$ finds ways to take the whole hard drive.
That’s just retarded.
Meanwhile I use my Desktop Ubuntu (that I hate but it’s far better than Windows) from a FLASH DRIVE!
My boss pestered me to buy a notebook and quit installing linux (dualboot) on my workstation. So I did that, and guess what. Now the rest of the employees are doing the same thing!
Most of us are using Flash drives with Linux running persistent installs.
Windows 7 will take at least 16 GB of your SSD, that’s fact already.
I want to run Windows with a XP or Win 98 classic interface, No Explorer, No Media Player, NO NOTHING on my notebook.
THEN I will CHOOSE WHAT TO INSTALL.
Luis, Luis, Luis… your anti-Microsoft BLINDNESS of the TRUTH has left your brain with a void.
Windows 7 DOES NOT take 16GBs of disk space. It never has and never will.
Even Vista doesn’t take that much.
I have had Windows 7 running off an 8Gb USB drive with 5Gb’s of room to spare… but I have ALL the applications that I need or could ever want…
Win 7 better run faster on netbooks because Vista sure doesn’t. I’ve tried the Sony Vaio P shown in this article, and it ran Vista very sluggishly. Whether it was due to the inherently high requirements of Vista, or the customary loadout of Sony bloatware, I don’t know. I hope it’s the latter because the hardware was very slick.
That said, I am still not sold on the idea of the netbook…not small enough to be pocketable, and not large enough to be powerful/used comfortably. I personally prefer a lightweight proper notebook for serious work + a good smartphone for mobile browsing and light work. YMMV ofcourse.
Lazarus – Many people have already installed and blogged about running Win7 on the Sony Vaio P. They are very happy with it.
I agree about the netbook… I’m not sold on them either. Although I think the physical size is where “we are going” with computers, I personally think they are not powerful enough yet to warrant the media coverage they are getting.
I don’t have a netbook yet but I plan to get one soon. As a student who carries a lot of textbooks already, I can certainly enjoy some of the weight gone on a 10″ netbook rather than carry a big 15″ laptop around. I would only use the netbook for word-processing and web surfing so 10″ is more than enough. 1G of RAM, an Atom processor, and fewer than 40GBs seems good enough for me too.
Netbooks right now would actually be better than they are if it wasn’t for Intel. The most battery-consuming part of the laptop is not the CPU or monitor or HD, but actually the northbridge chipset. If Intel optimized it’s NB on the netbooks, it would make the netbook too good because it would increase battery life by a couple of hours. The majority of Intel’s profits come from laptops using it’s core2duo platform, which is why they don’t want to improve the netbooks too much.
Renegade, that’s interesting news. I never knew that the NB was the power leecher for netbooks. Makes sense I’d guess (from Intel’s POV!) if the profit margins are fatter on notebooks, they’d want to steer consumers towards those instead of netbooks.
As mentioned previously, I am not personally “in to” netbooks, although I can definitely see their attraction for students and others who need a light solution for notes-taking and basic stuff. Me, I can’t work on a screen that small for long periods of time. 13.3″ @1440×900 is just about as small as I am willing to go. And keyboard too..no smaller.
That Vaio P has a 8″ screen running at 1680×768 which is *way too small* for extended use. You need to squint hard to see the text. Ofcourse the font size/resolution can be changed, but that’s a step backward. The P is also quite expensive.
If one is willing to spend the $$, and I mean, a lot of $$, 11-13″ notebooks that are pretty powerful as well as light weight (sub 1.5kg) are available- Toshiba, Sony and panasonic models come to mind. Shocked, I hope notebooks go down this path in the future, with a reduction in price, rather than a reduction in screen size.
BTW, for notetaking in the office or classroom, tablets are perfect. I borrowed a Toshiba tablet for a few weeks, and I became so addicted to it that I was reluctant to return it to the owner
My next notebook, a few months down the line will definitely be a tablet 
[...] expect to end up dealing with 3-4 editions of Windows 7. Seeing that netbooks are most likely to be secondary computers, that means netbook users can look at having to learn the differences between up to 8 editions of [...]
For all you Ubuntu users out there, get a life, Linux has been around forever and has never caught on, and it’s because it’s just not that great. You guys are the flower child hippies of the computer world going around preaching your free OS gospel when you make up less than 1% of all computer users. I am more than glad to shell out $100 for an OS that is compatible with everything right out of the box and when 7 gets here OSX and Linux users are not going to have a whole lot to say about the Windows users anymore. It cost Microsoft 6 billion dollars to make Windows 7, of course we should be expected to pay for this, and it’s going to be worth every penny.
I disagree. The very fact that you can use an application like the “Synaptic Package manager” to automatically download and install linux apps will have serious consequences for MicroSoft. It is just a matter of time… it is just human nature… “what’s in it for me”…
Even IT departments for large companies (eg. colleges or universites hate the “garden wall” approach, and benefit from open source solutions). If pioneers like Timothly Berners-Lee wanted to “cash-in” from Web technology instead of making it “open-source”, where would the web (or e-commerce) for the matter be? Linux has a solid reputation in the server market area, and for rapid and efficient software development (porting the end result to Windows).
Many open source apps are solid and many are maturing at a rapid rate. Mythtv application is a great example of this! There is nothing out there that touchs it, nothing, and it is free.
By the way, if Windows is so great, why should I have to purchase (on an annual basis) anti-virus software from a third party to protect myself from an operating system that I have had to buy? Shouldn’t that be the responsibility of the creators of that operating system? Things that make you say hmmmm…. Linux has free security patches – I don’t need to purchase antivirus software for Linux, and have never used antivirus for my Linux system.
The only critical weakness of Linux and open source software is the ability to advertise itself. I believe this will come in time… Linux is NOT communism – but commonsense… and you can’t keep a good concept down.
I asked a Unix guru back in the early 80s, “Why Unix? Isn’t that old, and isn’t MicroSoft Windows better?”. I now understand that the power is in Unix/Linux to constantly re-invent itself… and the open source principle be taken-over in a corporate “buy-out”.
I did use Windows in the 80s and 90s, but now use Linux, and absolutely love it. I love being able to set up thin client labs for organizations using LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) at extremely low cost (I just set up a lab worth approx $12,000 for $250 using donated equipment and using Edubuntu LTSP version). Linux has too much to offer and it is free (in many cases).
China and Russia are adapting to Linux. Russians are implementing Linux as the default OS for education and government operations. Russians aren’t stupid. They exceed in Math and Science and have for many years. Remember Sputnik? Many Chinese teachers are attending my Linux classes to learn to effectively teach Linux when they get back home. Smart. I fear North America is “missing the boat” on this one…
… You can’t keep a good OS down… time WILL prove this…
Murray Saul
Thank You for that educated response. I personally have a hard time using Ubuntu so I still stick with windows. But I am looking to get a Mac since it’s what my industry calls for. I’ve also been fed up with crappy support from companies such as Sony with their Vaio. If I ever have time, I’ll love to learn linux.
Your a total loser. Quit preaching about Microsoft being soooo much better than the other OS’s. I have Seven and it’s really nice (compared to Vista and XP, but mainly Vista), but you can’t expect everyone to stick to one OS. It’s like clothing, people can and SHOULD have a choice in what they want. Every OS has its faults, but every OS also have their benefits. Microsoft is well known for being a good system for Games and corporate businesses, Apple is well known for being good for Designers, and Linux is good for people who are great at programing. Get off your HIGH chair and graduate middle school before ranting, raving, and trolling on someone’s forums. Grow up.
MetalRay, Nice to see others with an open mind about alternative operating systems…
Here is a resource (wiki) for Ubuntu that I have created (hope it helps):
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_Guide
This WIKI is still under construction (and will be for some time), but provides support for Ubuntu and open source applications BEYOND the out-of-the-box installation.
I wished that Ubuntu would have features like “Compiz Fusion management tool” and “Emerald Window Decoration Manager” included from default Ubuntu install… perhaps in future releases…
For example, using “Compiz Fusion” has effects that simply “blows Windows out of the water” (including Windows 7) and has been around for approx. 7-9 years! Also, by using “Emerald window decorator” the user can customize their window title bars to have a transparent look like Vista, etc…
As a professor, I can get Windows 7 and MS applications for free, but I STILL prefer Linux and open-source apps. As a teacher, I believe in open ACCESS and “levelling the playing field”, so open source is a good fit for me…
This is the power of open source collaboration and releasing every 6 months as opposed to Windows releasing every 3-4 years. Throwing money at an OS doesn’t necessarily make it better…
This concept was discussed in the book called “The Cathedral the Bazaar”. MicroSoft is like the steeple at the top of a church. Few developers at the top have the knowledge and experience and need time to “iron-out” the bugs from a “secret (closed) environment. Open source is different – it is like the spontaneous church bazaar, but many people participate in an open way – and it works. Thousands of eyes on project teams spot the bugs faster. Therefore, open source is simply a better software development model. This is where Windows will eventually fall behind Linux.
People complain that after nearly 18 years, Linux hasn’t made a dent. But this is not for profit folks! This was a thing developed by a university student that played around with an operating system (Unix like) to test out a 386 computer given to him for a present! These programmers are doing this for fun… and look how far it has come! Linux is considered to be the largest collaborative project in the world!
I have seen Linux continue to develop at an extreme rate. I hated installing Linux at the start, now it is simple and free. Make no mistake. Ubuntu WILL develop (quickly) to become so user-friendly (for example WUBI install), that it will be seamless to either use with Windows or change to Linux… I have no doubts about that…
By the way, MicroSoft recently announced that Canonical is considered competition (to a small degree) for Windows by 2013. If you did not know this, Canonical makes Ubuntu… This is quite amazing since MicroSoft (other than throwing support behind SuSE Linux) has never mentioned Linux as competition to their OS! The times (my friends) are a changin’. It is true MicroSoft Windows will always be, but I believe their lock on Operating Systems will greatly diminished over the next decade or two….
It is too bad that people don’t take the time to seriously research and properly configure an OS (like Ubuntu) before simply brushing it off. What is that saying? “A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing”? I tells me one of two things:
1. They haven’t taken the time to read online resources to *properly* setup and learn about the Linux Desktop environment. I know it takes time, but it worth it – it will even help to empower you in terms of Operating Systems…
or
2. They feel that their *economic livelihood* will be *threatened* by this alternative OS, and will obediently side with their OS.
I agree with you that you that people should be free to try out various operating systems (if so desired). I have a dual boot system with Linux and Windows (I like to at least experiment with new releases of Windows to keep current with student questions).
In the future, I will add Mac OSX to my list of operating systems. By the way, Mythtv is available for Macs as well in case you wanted to check it out…
Sincerely,
Murray Saul
Professor, School of Computer Studies
Seneca College
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Thanks for the response and that wiki is just what I’ve been looking for. It took me awhile to even understand a repository. My friend is a guru at linux and doesn’t understand my difficulties with understanding it.
I love fixing PC’s. I love it because I know it lol. Other than that, I also love to play a ton of computer games. So for that reason, I probably won’t get rid of my Windows installation. I also don’t have the time to learn new apps for Graphic Design (but so far, my friend is doing fine with his Linux alternatives).
Oh, and since you already dual boot, do you have any guides on how to dual boot Widows and Ubuntu together, but have Windows boot on default? Every time I install Ubuntu It always seems to be the default on Grub. I was able to do it on another family computer, but during installation of Ubuntu I had chosen not to install Grub. Now I forgot what I did to fix it.
Any help would be appreciated.
MetalRay,
Here is a link to the Grub boot-loader.
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Change_Boot_Menu_options_from_Grub_Bootloader
Hope that helps…
Murray Saul
You need to stop being amazing.
Thanks. Is there any way for me to contact you if I have a Linux issue that I can’t find information for? Sometimes after hours of research I don’t know what to ask google anymore. And Forums are sometimes just a mess.
I did send out this information this morning, with a promise that I would get back to you tonight (11:56 p.m. – not bad!). Unfortunately I think my previous post was (what is it called?) “Under Moderation”.
Anyways, my blog is:
murraysaul.wordpress.com
My e-mail:
murray.saul@senecac.on.ca
If you find this information useful, please don’t hesitate to tell all your friends. There are many out there that want to make a difference – we can all make a difference if we work together as a community!
Oh, by the way… Welcome to Linux
Sincerely,
Murray Saul
[...] http://windows7center.com/windows-7-news/why-windows-7-will-win-the-netbook-war/ [...]
netbook forum
Klasse Testberichte zum Thema findet du auf http://www.netbook-community.de.
Hab dort viele gute Tests über das iPad gefunden genau dieses ist im Bereich netbook tutorial ja ein richtiger Newcomer!
Schaut das euch mal an viele hat das Asus Netbook überredet.
grüße an alle
Thanks for the Information, thanks for the useful Article. Really great topic to write about on my Website. I will set a link from another Blog. $99 Laptop