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Linux Notebooks Selling Well On Amazon Germany

Posted by kdawson on from the next-stop-world-domination dept.

christian.einfeldt writes "The LinuxTech.net blog points out that Linux notebooks are currently selling quite well on Amazon's list in Germany. The blog includes screenshots showing the Linux Asus and Aspire notebooks in positions 2 and 4, respectively, on that list. These machines are not netbooks, but full notebooks, albeit on the moderate to low side regarding price and performance. That LinuxTech.net blog was dated 23 July 2009, and the Asus machine is still holding second place more than one day later, while the Acer machine slipped to fifth position, despite the volatile nature of Amazon bestseller lists. While these two data points are just snapshots in time, they are consistent with other data showing that Microsoft itself attributes some of its recent weak earnings to surging sales of low-end notebooks, as well as data showing that the Linux-powered and Unix-powered computers topped Amazon's sales charts in all categories for 2007. If there is to ever be a 'year of desktop (or laptop) Linux', it won't happen all at once, but will creep up in ways similar to what we are seeing now."

21 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. the tags today are gold by timmarhy · · Score: 5, Funny
    "morekdawsoncrap"

    who ever is tagging these is a legend.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  2. You have to know that .. by Henk+Poley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You have to know that 'major' German PC enthusiast magazines have been publishing tutorials monthly about using Linux since around 2000. Together with installation CDs/DVDs etc. Also their government has a strong push towards using Linux.

    1. Re:You have to know that .. by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Also their government has a strong push towards using Linux.

      They are being smart in that case. The Chinese, too, have their own Linux Distro (Red Flag) -- which government really wants the foundation of their computers (the OS) to be dependent on an American company, not to mention all the possible backdoors built for the FBI/NSA/CIA/etc. OTOH, many agencies of the US Government force you to use Windows in order to deal with them, rather than having an open standard.

      I WANT to buy a Linux-based netbook. EEEPC, used to have a model which they upgraded with an SSD drive if you chose the linux option. But the netbook world moves fast, and that model is 6-9 months out of date although still offered. It might not sound like a big deal, but there are netbooks coming on the market with ~1300 x ~750 resolution (good for today's websites) instead of just 1024x600 and capable of actually playing HD video with the upgraded chipsets. But no linux version is offered. Has been that way with any new models released since February as far as I can tell. That's too bad.

      And my local Walmart doesn't seem to care. Been offering the same Acer Aspire model (1GB ram and all) since the beginning of the year with no changes.

    2. Re:You have to know that .. by derGoldstein · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whenever I hear about Linux in Germany, I think about the Munich migration. There's an ongoing debate as to whether or not it "is succeeding" or "will succeed".

      Last time this came up on /. was a month ago.

      The migration project is called LiMux, and you'll find many places online that campaign against it (or strongly criticize it, sometimes it's hard to tell).

      But overall I think it's very good news that consumers are making a conscious decision, with their own wallets.

      --
      Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
    3. Re:You have to know that .. by Hurricane78 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Don't worry. In autumn a whole new generation of "smartbooks" will come out. Full-HD capable, 1-2 watt, 10 hours of running, and $100-$200.
      With an ARM CPU. So they won't be able to run any Windows. You can guess what they will mostly be running. (Linux.) :D

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  3. Forced to be MS client by Fri13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wanted to buy a sub-notebook (aka netbook) with linux but I could not find such on my country anywhere from shelf itself. Ordering could over one month and the extra bucks was included when comparing windows. Biggest resellers are just simply saying that Linux versions has be sold out since start and about 6 months ago they were marked such that they will not come back to the selling lines. So only way to get such computer is to buy it with Windows. Even that I never booted Windows but throw right in the mandriva disk and installed it over windows.

    It is not nice to be forced to be MS client in statics but not a client for Linux OS. At least Mandriva could get their own static about me because I registered this machine too for their database.

    If world would be fair, I could call to MS or Asus and say that I want my information of selling be removed from statics as MS user.

  4. Re:Even the Germans... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's just a guess, but "Even the Germans make some bad choices" does not exactly bring out the best memories from the World's History... hope I could help.

  5. Linux notebooks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry to say that, but I doubt that this shows a rising interest in Linux from mainstream customers in Germany. If you look at the customer reviews for the Asus notebook (in German) you will find out that a lot of comments deal with removing Linux and replacing it with either Vista oder Windows 7. Naturally, customer reviews are not a representative survey but I guess a lot of people simple save the money for the OS and install pirated copies of Windows.

  6. Experiment by dargaud · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like many here I admin family computers. A month ago I did an experiment. I told my parents I'd upgrade their aging computer (mobo and main HD change) and as such it would look different. I installed kubuntu instead of the previous system (which you can easily guess). Made sure there were desktop links to firefox, kmail, dolphin and a SD card image transfer script. I didn't even show them the result, just as an experiment. And I left. They called only once after a week: "Yeah it works fine, but we don't have skype anymore", which I promptly remotely installed. I consider this experiment a great success.

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
    1. Re:Experiment by WarJolt · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I did a similar experiment. I installed Xubuntu on a 166MHz laptop to see if it would run well enough to be usable. Then I asked someone to give it a shot and compare it with her laptop running windows XP and had at least 2GHz processor. After she browsed a few web pages, I asked "Which is faster; Your laptop or this one?" She quickly replied "This one". I chuckled because I knew the truth. This laptop was at least 10x slower than her laptop.

    2. Re:Experiment by bemymonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's a bit unfair to compare a fresh Xubuntu install to a crapware infested aeons-old XP install...

      XP runs like a champ (at least in terms of speed) if you keep it clean and the hardware manufacturers manage to write proper drivers...

    3. Re:Experiment by itsdapead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I installed kubuntu instead of the previous system (which you can easily guess). Made sure there were desktop links to firefox, kmail, dolphin and a SD card image transfer script.

      ...and there, I suspect, is the real secret to converting Windows users: first, recognize that your users don't care about KDE vs. Gnome holy war and give them the one that comes out of the gate looking more like Windows than a Mac. Second, a bit of intelligent customization to ensure that they can find the apps they use every day and disguise the fact that they now have different, wacky, names. Third, good after-"sales" support (I'm sure the staff at Buy More would have told them that Skype was windows-only :-) ).

      Of course, that's better than you get when you buy Windows (or even Mac) but they have million-buck advertising campaigns and sales incentives instead so they don't need good service.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    4. Re:Experiment by MMC+Monster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The thing is, most XP installations accumulate crap that slow it down in a year or two.

      The only way to clean it up is a fresh install, which most end users don't know how to do (or are too afraid to do).

      Linux doesn't fill up with crap. That being said, it doesn't fill up with crap because crap writers don't target Linux (yet).

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  7. Re:cheap laptop by MrMr · · Score: 4, Funny

    I presume you have discovered the cheaper way to acquire your groceries as well?

  8. Re:Even the Germans... by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not sure how that qualifies as flamebait. It's a lot easier to fit Linux to low end hardware than Mac or Windows. Windows 7 runs on netbooks but it doesn't run that well. And if Linux gets wider acceptance in Europe, that would hardly be a surprise.

    It's possible the mod moved the rating with the scroll wheel after selection. It's easy to do and not notice. If you're not paying attention you can start scrolling page but if the rating dropdown is still selected, you'll scroll the selection options. At least in FF, not sure if IE works the same way.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  9. Re:People want save 10% of the price by molnarcs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Last two notebooks I bought came with freedos.

    Last two notebooks I bought came with FreeDos too - A dell Vostro 1400 and a Vostro 1300 (for a friend). The shop was selling windows licenses separately - if you bought one they would install it for you. Or they'll install windows for free if you make enough of the staff laugh :) That's how things work here in Vietnam. The Vietnamese are fun loving people. If you need a favor (or if you want to be taken seriously), make them laugh ;)

  10. Those statistics are pretty much false... by bemymonkey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    False positives - I live in Germany, and of the 10 people I know who've bought laptops in the last year, 7 went with FreeDos/Linux notebooks. The first thing they did when they got them was to install XP Pro...

    I also bought a Linux notebook (well, netbook) and put XP on it...

    I don't know a lot of people who buy Linux laptops to run Linux...

    1. Re:Those statistics are pretty much false... by markdavis · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And what about the false negatives?

      Since there are so few Linux-pre-installed laptops, most people that do want to run Linux are forced to purchase one with MS Windows preloaded on it and then install Linux. These are counted as MS Windows sales. Unfortunately, they also continue to fuel the machine that prevents choice in the first place.

      Anyway, every laptop/notebook I have purchased in the last 15 years has forced MS Windows on it, with the sole exception of the Asus EEE 1000 I purchased from Amazon, and that model is now discontinued.

      I know a lot of people who buy MS Windows laptops to run Linux (granted, I am active in a Unix User's Group).

  11. Re:Ah the Germans by burni · · Score: 4, Interesting

    **IRONY ON** Our minister for internal affairs Mr. Wolfgang Schäuble: - hates the internet - wants to censor it - wants to control it, and he has a strong meaning on immigration, if you are coming from the liberal U.S. you are not welcome here, you could induce liberal thoughts in too many of my fellow citizen. Thats why there won't be more of you like us, you simply won't get the citizenship. **IRONY OFF** Na, it's not that hard to get the german citizenship, we like americans, also we do like most of our western EU-neighbours, and our population is decreasing if you want to join the club, do it now ;)

  12. Re:Even the Germans... by Salsaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my experience, Linux outperforms Windows and Mac on the low end, the high end, and the middle end.

    Free software is never a bad choice.

  13. Re:Even the Germans... by sgtrock · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anyone referencing MSI's lousy distribution and support on their netbooks as a reason for Linux not being a viable offering while simultaneously ignoring Dell's continued success in selling Ubuntu based netbooks, laptops, and desktops is either (a) ignorant of the facts or (b) a deliberate troll. On the off chance that you are the former, I suggest you google Dell, linux, netbook and read through a few stories. (One of my personal favorites is the second one that showed up when I just tried the search. This one.) It is not only possible to successfully sell Linux, apparently Dell has found it to be very easy. :-)

    So, who am I going to believe who understands the Linux market? A copmpany that threw out a half hearted, poorly thought out attempt to jump into a new market, or a company that actually /asked/ people what they wanted and then crafted a business strategy to capitalize on what people told them?