Comment by jonsteinberg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jonsteinberg | Hacker News Reader

I've looked at this space a bunch and even played around with building an ubuntu launcher: http://drop.io/piedesktop

The deb file is up there.

I think that the alternatives to windows work much better on these machines. The ubuntu Netbook Remix is very friendly for those inexperienced with Linux, and Jolicloud, which is really just an app installer platform for Ubuntu, takes a lot of the hassle out of using repositories for app identification and install.

This is all a lot of lead up to my belief that OS is mattering less and less. In fact 26% of survey respondents said they didn't care about Netbook OS as long as it "got them on the web." I think the hardware manufacturers are risk averse but really not watching the market and demand. Big startup opportunity I think...

I compiled a research survey here: http://drop.io/piedesktop/asset/netbook-market-research-over...

'In fact 26% of survey respondents said they didn't care about Netbook OS as long as it "got them on the web."'

You seem to understate your case.

In addition to that 26%, you have 21% that prefers Linux, and 7% who will take Linux if the price of the computer is $50 less. That sums to %54.

I think the big question, though, is how many of those will change their mind and return the computer once they try to install a program that only runs on Windows. Do they honestly know what they are getting into when they say they "don't care" about the OS? Maybe they don't care about the OS, but do care about a particular program they want to run, but don't understand that choice of OS might prevent them from running that program.

I think there are fewer and fewer apps that people need that are not cloud based. The only ones I can really think of for most consumers are the MS Office suite. Any most of these people will be happy with a cloud or open alternative if they give it a shot.

Especially given that most OS dependent apps (i.e. Photoshop) are not really practical for netbook processors limits.

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