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Linux Reaches 32% Netbook Market Share
christian.einfeldt writes "Linux netbooks have captured 32% of the global netbook market, says Jeff Orr, an analyst with consumer computer research firm ABI Research. The largest share of netbook sales is in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, according to Orr. ABI's latest figures align with a statement by Dell executives in February of this year, to the effect that Linux netbooks comprised about 33% of Dell shipments of Dell Inspiron mini 9s netbooks. These data points cast doubt on claims by Microsoft that Windows XP has captured 98% of the netbook market (a figure Microsoft later revised to 93%). In an interview with DesktopLinux.com, Orr made clear that the 32% Linux netbook market share did not include either user-installed Linux or dual-boot systems, but was confined to just pre-installed Linux shipments."
Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.
I live in Australia, and find it quite rare to find Linux based netbooks in shops. They are available, but mostly from the more specialist retailers. Even then they only have very low specs.
I just got back from Singapore, where I was hoping to pick up a cheap Linux netbook to use over there at a conference. Not only were prices similar to Australia for computer stuff, but virtually all the netbooks ran Windows. There were only a couple of places that I came across that offered Linux, and they were not cheap. They also seemed to be older models. I was disappointed.
That said, anyone who is really interested in Linux would not be satisfied with the simplified versions that come with netbooks. If you are going to wipe the OS to install your own distro, then it doesn't make a great deal of difference what the original operating system is. Any cost savings for having Linux seem to be offset by the premium of buying such a rare beast.
I'm a Linux user myself, but I just installed XP on a common desktop box tonight and it was painful. Wifi, sound didn't work out of the box, you have to wait ages for all of the updates and SP's to download and install, reboot far too many times and then you have a empty OS almost without useful apps. Some things were hard to get working (Radeon driver installer throwing errors, Wifi driver refusing to work).
I wonder how many 'average' users would get XP, Vista or 7 working on a desktop, let alone a netbook.
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Ardour is the only Free software DAW suitable for any serious work. It uses JACK, which is an excellent low-latency audio routing system, but actual audio playback on Linux depends on the ALSA backend, which varies in quality depending on your hardware. Check the Alsa SoundCard Matrix for details. Recent Linux kernels have reasonably low latency by default, but for very tight latency requirements you might need a custom kernel configuration or patches.
Funny that their favorite computer is the Dell Mini 9. It's not a very advanced machine, to the point that it een got discontinued once.
They brought it back though because it is very popular for the single reason that it has a reputation as being the most hackintoshable netbook there is. This implies that a lot of these netbooks are running more MacOS than linux.
In my case it's not paying the money, it's who the money goes to. I don't want Microsoft taxing computers - it's philosophical.
Another reason I want to find a system with Linux pre-installed is when I wipe it and put my distro of choice on there, if it was sold with Linux chances are I can make all of it work with Linux. There's still a lot of crappy software based hardware out there that practically requires Windows to work, or requires so much effort and maintenance to work/keep working in Linux it's not worth messing with.
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Some people say "Yay! Linux on netbooks means more mainstream acceptance!" From what I've seen however, this isn't the case. Linux netbooks, from what I've encountered, are
* Generally more expensive than their Windows counterparts (with identical specs)
* Running some dodgy Linux distro that does nothing to help sell the benefits of running Linux and only provides headaches
* Often simply not available
With this being the current situation, I don't see there being anything to be proud of. Yes, it's better than several years ago when Linux wasn't available anywhere mainstream. That doesn't mean things are going well either.
Just to clarify in case that isn't clear it DOES NOT include pre/fast boot installs (which would be dual boot systems).
I'm so tired of hearing this 'no professional level music tools on linux' rubbish. Try Ardour. You can even use VST plugins if you really want to (though I wouldn't, too many are rubbish). I've been a recording engineer for close to twenty years and I find the only barrier I have to using it professionally is uninformed bigotry from ProTools users who regard themselves as the centre of the universe. Also, if it taking you DAYS to get jack working, you are definitely doing it wrong or your computer is from Mars.
I have seen the Netwalker from Sharp at every major electronics store that I have gone to in Tokyo recently (http://www.sharp.co.jp/netwalker/). It exclusively runs Ubuntu and is one of the smallest and cheapest netbooks you can get in a store.
Then there is always the Dell website. You can get even cheaper mini 10s from there. I have purchased 2 such machines for friends and family as return gifts (Okaeshi). Doubt either know they are running Linux, but they are plenty happy to have a convenient webbrowsing/Skyping machine.
I would say there is quite a bit of activity recently in this space in Japan, if you know where to look.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!