There have been positive reports of installing Windows 7 on those devices, but the Microsoft license fee remains an obstacle: most of the success of netbooks lies in their affordability. Computer sellers have recently given into increasing the size and specs of their devices, but as soon as the retail price reaches the level of some of the cheapest laptops, the oversized netbooks will loose their appeal. And that’s where GNU/Linux comes handy in keeping the price down: it runs well on low-performance processors with flash memory and has no licensing fee. The fact is: the first netbooks hardware was designed and put together for Linux.
Consultant Tim Bajarin, writing for PCMag.com, interestingly suggests that netbooks should be developed as some kind of computer companion. He observed that most families bought netbooks to free the main Windows computer, so for him it would make sense to have some way of synchronizing the devices.
The main turnoff for Linux netbooks remains the scarcity of drivers, which is mostly to blame on components and peripherals makers. They obviously don’t believe in the sustainability of Linux personal computers, although it is estimated that for two netbooks sold with Windows, there is one sold with GNU/Linux. That ratio might evolve since, as illustrated earlier, Linux netbooks cost less than Windows ones.
According to iSuppli, a comparison of the last quarter of 2007 and that of 2008 shows that sales of netbook units have caught up with laptops and are now slightly ahead, so it is definitely more than a fad.
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