--On Friday, August 28, 2009 13:40:28 -0500 Rohit Patnaik
<quanticle () gmail com>
wrote:
To be fair, Linux has come a very long way in that regard. I
purchased
an Asus Eee 900 with Linux preinstalled, and everything worked
right out
of the box. Flash, Java, OpenOffice, the works. It was a
vindication of
my view that the real obstacle to Linux on the desktop isn't the
user,
but rather the OEM.
With low-cost, low-power netbooks becoming more prevalent, OEMs
are
finding that the cost of the Windows license begins to take up a
rather
high percentage of the overall cost. Therefore, many are
preinstalling
and preconfiguring Linux. At the same time, consumers are
finding that
application incompatibilities don't really matter for them,
since the
Linux equivalents are able to handle data coming from a Windows
box with
a minimum of fuss.
That's good news. Once updating issues are resolved and Xorg
becomes as good
as Mac and Windows graphics (it's almost there now - it just
doesn't quite have
the "pop" or "wow factor" of Macs), the obstacles to migration
(for the
consumer) will be availability and the knowledge that an
alternative exists.
At that point I think we'll see Microsoft's market share begin
eroding badly.
