Comments on: What Microsoft’s Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:18:32 +0000

I’m posting about it later. You’ll see what I mean.

By: David Gerard

David Gerard — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:14:03 +0000

Microsoft is not going to be able to rename “netbooks” – it wasn’t a brand name, remember, it was a term people just started using (Psion’s trademark notwithstanding).

What will make a difference is if netbooks turn into – more or less – a phone with a bigger keyboard and screen. They’re heading this way, particularly with 3 in the UK doing a data-only plan and openly advocating people use it for Skype. That is, they’ll move away from being small PCs.

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:27:49 +0000

For ARM it can be more complicated. Microsoft will do an anti-ARM (by inference anti-Linux) campaign using its familiar pundits and faithful groups.

Microsoft is already renaming “Netbooks”.

By: David Gerard

David Gerard — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:58:41 +0000

The Atom’s fine with a proper OS though

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:44:09 +0000

Yeah, I’ve seen something along those lines. Based on SJVN’s latest review of Vista 7 on sub-notebooks (see ComputerWorld), it hardly even handles YouTube.

By: David Gerard

David Gerard — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:16:01 +0000

Hmm … we have an MSI Wind, which has an Atom N270, running Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix, and it’s the perfect thing to play CBeebies for the toddler, either live streaming or iPlayer. It seems to cope with it just fine. I’m not sure if the BBC is using FLV or H.264 though.

By: whatever

whatever — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:55:06 +0000

I think it was less about being beholden to Microsoft and more about not having a demo-ready product.

Acer is talking about doing it on Atom first because the ARM stuff is still not ready larger devices. Android has a lot of momentum and lots of potential, but as a G1 owner since launch date, it still needs a ton of work as a mobile OS, let alone on a netbook.

The biggest advantage ARM has is for building in cellular stuff into larger devices. So your netbook uses your cellular connection, can make calls, etc. That can be huge, but the biggest adoption issue for not just ARM, but even Atom (and this includes newer Atom chips) is the total failure when playing streaming video.

Streaming .h264 encoded 320×480 clips from YouTube is one thing. Hell, you can playback large non-hd .h264 files on Atom or Arm quite well, assuming they are static files — but streaming video still sucks. Flash isn’t on the iPhone because it kills performance. Kills it. Hulu Desktop barely runs on a N270 Atom — and it isn’t watchable. Streaming video has not yet been optimized to run on low-power processors, and until it is — the biggest hurdle for netbooks won’t be Microsoft. It’ll be convincing people to buy one when their smartphone is just as capable/incapable of decent streaming. And that doesn’t even address battery life concerns with video.

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:53:45 +0000

Thanks. There are many exhibits here from which we need to extract the full text. Find a headline you like, open the PDF and see if you can put it in text. When done we will post it in the front page.

By: David Gerard

David Gerard — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:46:50 +0000

I find myself recently redundant. What do you need? Laborious transcription? I can do that. Email me.

By: Daniel Zand

Daniel Zand — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:02:44 +0000

This is a good reason to purchase System76, Zareason, etc. They and other upstarts do not bootlick Microsoft

We’re also recommending dropping the eeePC … http://openbytes.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/microsoft-backs-down-starters-3-app-limit-removed/#comment-1150

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:13:12 +0000

They’ll prepare a Slog campaign with the likes of Enderle claiming that it’s underpowered, doesn’t run Microsoft Office, etc.

Wait and watch.

By: Needs Sunlight

Needs Sunlight — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:08:13 +0000

Arm-based netbooks can be a major kick in the nads for Bill. Think about how many days the average ARM-based mobile phone has. All that’s lacking is a larger screen and a keyboard to make it a netbook.

Weight and battery life will outstrip the x86-based units to the point where they will be considered trash.

I suppose that’s one of the reasons we’ve been waiting close to a decade for portable computers built on ARM…

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:51:59 +0000

At the beginning of this year we posted a lot of Comes vs Microsoft exhibits here. This got us some front pages in Digg and Slashdot, leaving Microsoft shamed. I have thousands more exhibits to go through and although I stopped doing this in March I intend to resume this summer. It’s just very time consuming.

By: K345

K345 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:47:20 +0000

Remember the Soviet Empire? It simply collapsed when a critical mass of dissatisfaction was reached and the security apparatus could not frighten people anymore.

The solution to make the Microsoft empire collapse is universal attack in a way they cannot contain anymore.

We need to make up our own ideas what we can do to wipe that empire out but the important thing is to focus on where it hurts them most.