Open Source Weblog

...OK, so this notebook won’t do much to harm Windows per se – and indeed I understand that buyers will be able to opt to have Windows Vista on it anyway – but I suspect that this kind of news will help to raise Linux’s profile amongst consumers.

You’re buying a new notebook, and a drop-down menu shows you that you can pay X if it has Windows, or a fair bit less if it comes with this thing called Linux. 'What’s that?', you ask yourself. 'And is it as good as Windows for my needs?'

Many buyers will still go with Windows if given the choice. But a whole load of buyers are going to be finding out about this new fangled, cheap operating system. Longer term, that’s not what you might call good news for Microsoft.