Why GNU/Linux is by all means Microsoft's #1 competitor, as Microsoft admits repeatedly

When Microsoft employee, Brandon LeBlanc announced that Microsoft ruled the netbook world, he was exaggerating, shall we say, just a wee bit. I was going to stomp on him but Chris Kenyon of Canonical, the business that stands behind Ubuntu, beat me to it.

Our friends over at Ostatic have posed a good question, one I’ve thought about in the past. They are looking at the feasibility of Android-based netbooks, something we’ve covered here, and give a good case for open source netbooks. The problem they point out is that such netbooks, often running some flavor of Linux, usually have lesser hardware components than Windows-based netbooks.

The anti-Linux propaganda du jour, being dutifully parroted by "news" publications everywhere, is that Windows now owns 96% of the netbook market, and that Linux netbooks are returned four times more than windows netbooks. Both are untrue and have been debunked repeatedly. Yet they persist-- why?

The VAR Guy loves cat fights as much as the next guy. Jennifer Aniston vs. Angelina Jolie? Classic but a bit dated. Canonical vs. Microsoft? Not quite as sexy, but certainly timely and just as much fun. The latest spat involves Canonical dismissing Microsoft's claims in the netbook market.

Sometimes, you have to respect someone for sticking to an opinion and a vision. Other times, you have to wonder if a consistent vision becomes a fatal flaw. A case in point: In a New York Times article, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst (pictured, right) once again dismisses speculation that Red Hat will pursue the consumer Linux desktop and smart phone markets. Here's why.

Microsoft may be on its way to vanquishing Linux in the war to dominate netbook operating systems, but the ground could be shifting against Windows.

At last year's Akademy, we did some work on a layout for a Plasma interface for netbooks on the whiteboard and started putting together some code for it.