Why Linux Has No Future on Netbooks

I've long said that Windows 7 may mean the death knell of Linux on netbooks, and here's more evidence: A top Lenovo analyst says that Windows 7 will dominate netbooks, and Linux will fade away.

Lenovo's Worldwide Competitive Analyst Matt Kohut spoke with Tech.Blorge about the future of netbooks, and what he had to say will likely make Linux fans fume. He touted Windows 7, particularly for its touch features. But when it came to Linux, he was not impressed. Here's what he had to say about Linux on netbooks:

"...in order to keep the price points down, a lot of people thought that Linux would be the saviour of all of these netbooks."

You know, there were a lot of netbooks loaded with Linux, which saves $50 or $100 or whatever it happens to be, based on Microsoft's pricing and, again, from an industry standpoint, there were a lot of returns because people didn't know what to do with it.

Linux, even if you've got a great distribution and you can argue which one is better or not, still requires a lot more hands-on than somebody who is using Windows.

So, we've seen overwhelmingly people wanting to stay with Windows because it just makes more sense: you just take it out of the box and it's ready to go.

That's exactly what I've been saying for a while. Although Linux is generally easy to use these days, upgrading and installing software on it is no easy task. Linux's only future on netbooks is as a niche, and what Lenovo says is one more piece of evidence.