In the PC and laptop arena ,  Microsoft doesn’t give a rats ass to Linux or the Mac OS. They, after all, hold the lionshare of the operating system landscape.  But now the new threat to Windows monopoly comes in the form of ‘netbooks’ – lightweight, low-cost lappies that typically sport Intel’s blazing fast, energy miser Atom processor. Netbooks run happily on low RAM and with weak  graphics processors.

Netbooks exist to browse the Web, scribble e-mail, scratch up memos, and run a few wordprocessor or spreadsheet files. Don’t attempt graphic manipulation or the system chokes. Otherwise, a netbook outperforms typical laptops in terms of speed because of its stripped down nature.

Netbook sales are hitting 60% growth by 2011, compared with 18% growth for standard notebooks says a September BNP Paribas report. Obviously, netbooks costing $300 are in the future so Microsoft is worrying because hardware demands of Vista can’t be met by Netbooks. Who’s poised to take on the netbook OS requirement? Why Linux of course. This sprightly system is is ideally suited for lower-powered netbooks. Almost 40% of all netbooks off the assembly line sport the Linux system.

Microsoft sees Linux on netbooks not just as a niche market, but as a threat to Microsoft’s desktop share as well. Good for you Microsoft! The way I see it, you’ve been making operating systems heavier and heavier and requiring monstrous processing requirements without providing increased marginal utility. Windows 3.11 does the same stuff Vista does- less the fancy eye candy. Nonetheless, it gets the job done.

I look to the day when Linux overturns the windows bloatware monopoly.

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