New Linux Moblin netbooks to be announced at IDF
IDG News Service - A new Linux netbook based on Moblin will be introduced this week, and it may represent a new way that the Linux community is approaching the mass market.
Leaders at the first Linuxcon Conference in Portland, Ore., hinted at an announcement to come this week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco that they say will reassert Linux's momentum in the netbook market.
"You're going to see this week interesting new netbooks coming out that are killer. They have the cool factor and they're priced right," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation.
Within a year, "no one will buy hardware or software," Zemlin said. Laptops will be free with a wireless service contract. Only free software, such as Linux, can support that model, he said. "Microsoft's economics don't fit into that at all."
While Linux initially had a larger portion of netbook market share, Microsoft has taken the lead. But that's not going to continue, due to market forces and new products, Zemlin said.
"Microsoft went in and gave away XP for free to shore up market share in an emerging space that's fast growing. But they can't sustain that forever, they can't do it with Windows 7," he said.
An Intel executive said Microsoft will raise prices to vendors with the release of Windows 7. "What I hear when I talk to netbook vendors is Microsoft does not want to repeat the extremely aggressive pricing with XP Home. They want to significantly increase the price for Windows 7 netbooks," said Dirk Hohndel, chief technology officer of Intel's Open Source Technology Center. XP Home is the Windows operating system that Microsoft sells for netbooks.
Ultimately he expects different tiers of netbooks. The low-tier, low-cost netbooks will ship with Linux and Moblin. A higher tier will cost more and will feature Windows 7, he said.
But beyond cost, there will be more significant differences between netbooks running Windows 7 and variants of Linux, he said. That goes to the heart of a change that leaders of the Linux community urged: Create something new and attractive rather than simply mimicking market leaders.
"We need to stop pretending that it will be a drop-in replacement [for Windows] and make it something better," said Bob Sutor, vice president for open source and Linux in IBM's software group. "This will be a major thing that determines the future. I think making it a complete drop-in solution is a dead-end strategy. They've got a little bit more money," he said, referring to Microsoft.
Microsoft has market share and mind share and in order to win either, Linux will need to find a niche based on "what it does really well at what price for which people," Sutor said.



- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) Case Study - Oracle
- In this paper, Forrester Consulting examines the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) realized by three Enterprise organizations as they...
- The Hidden Truth About Virtualizing Business-Critical Applications
- This IDG whitepaper highlights key findings based on the Quickpoll Survey conducted with more than 300 Enterprise and Commercial IT decision makers worldwide...
- Top 10 Myths About Virtualizing Business-Critical Applications
- Even though virtualization has brought positive change to enterprise IT over the last decade, some skepticism remains about how valuable virtualization can be...
- Enterprise Java Applications on VMware: Unix to Linux Migration Guide
- This guide focuses on key considerations for IT Architects who are in the process of migrating Java applications from UNIX to Linux as...
- Virtualizing Tier 1 Applications: A Critical Step on the Journey Toward the Private Cloud
- This IDC white paper explains how much of the Enterprise IT community is at a crossroads in extending their journey to the private... All Applications White Papers
- Live Webcast
Banish Poor Application Performance: Eliminate Business Disruptions, Increase End User Productivity - End User Experience, 30-Min Webinar
Wed. Feb. 22nd ~ 11 AM ET
Are you ready to gain the proactive ability to rapidly respond... - Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
- Virtualize Business-Critical Applications with Confidence
- Virtualizing business-critical applications has become a key focus for organizations as they move along their virtualization journey. With the launch of VMware vSphere®...
- Discover the Benefits of Virtualization for Federal Applications
- Want to say goodbye to missed SLAs? VMware can help you virtualize mission-critical applications such as Oracle, MS Exchange and SharePoint to achieve...
- Reduce Application Lifecycle Management Costs with VMware ThinApp
- Traditional desktop application deployment and management is a time-consuming and costly endeavor for IT. From development to deployment, including help desk support, the... All Applications Webcasts