I would NEVER go to Linux – even a high paid programmer friends got fed up with it on his PC and then on my Asus 701eee. I think that garden variety users will stick with Windows and learn to live with the 3 open app limitation, which doesn't seem all that constrained because this is an ultraportable, not a desktop substitute.

The netbook is here to stay. It's the commodity computer, you can get it with cellphone company data plans, and in the future I expect to see other ways to get them subsidized.

And…I can *kind* of see why they'd do it. Intel wants to eventually get Atom into Cellphones/MIDs…and at least with the cellphone market it's not something they're in right now…and the low cost chips there don't cannibalize their profits centers like Netbooks do.

And of course MS wants you to experience their full OS in all it's $60 per OEM glory(Four times the cash? Really, who *wouldn't* push for that?!). Of course windows 7 *will* run on netbooks…but you can get so much more of their Aero/media/glorious-computing-life from a good, solid $500-800 Laptop.

But. It's not like companies won't just switch to ARM and Android/linux/whatever if MS and Intel took their ball and went home, anyway. The market is proven, the money is there. There are more than enough(Mostly non-American)companies out there who want to feed this market.

But at the same time…who wants to turn away money? No, I don't think the big players are going to kill this goose, even if its' eggs lack some golden luster.

But…even if there are missteps, the competitors are coming. IBM has their new chip, the ARM crew is coming on fast…and the more I think about it, an Android machine with an integrated App store is a great idea for a full featured alternative with a built in market for developers.

One wonders if Apple aren't thinking the same thing…

I would NEVER go to Linux – even a high paid programmer friends got fed up with it on his PC and then on my Asus 701eee. I think that garden variety users will stick with Windows and learn to live with the 3 open app limitation, which doesn't seem all that constrained because this is an ultraportable, not a desktop substitute.

The netbook is here to stay. It's the commodity computer, you can get it with cellphone company data plans, and in the future I expect to see other ways to get them subsidized.

And…I can *kind* of see why they'd do it. Intel wants to eventually get Atom into Cellphones/MIDs…and at least with the cellphone market it's not something they're in right now…and the low cost chips there don't cannibalize their profits centers like Netbooks do.

And of course MS wants you to experience their full OS in all it's $60 per OEM glory(Four times the cash? Really, who *wouldn't* push for that?!). Of course windows 7 *will* run on netbooks…but you can get so much more of their Aero/media/glorious-computing-life from a good, solid $500-800 Laptop.

But. It's not like companies won't just switch to ARM and Android/linux/whatever if MS and Intel took their ball and went home, anyway. The market is proven, the money is there. There are more than enough(Mostly non-American)companies out there who want to feed this market.

But at the same time…who wants to turn away money? No, I don't think the big players are going to kill this goose, even if its' eggs lack some golden luster.

But…even if there are missteps, the competitors are coming. IBM has their new chip, the ARM crew is coming on fast…and the more I think about it, an Android machine with an integrated App store is a great idea for a full featured alternative with a built in market for developers.

One wonders if Apple aren't thinking the same thing…

I'm a geek, but I'm a little scared of Linux, mostly because I haven't been able to get it fully configured and 100% running on my NC10 netbook. I only got wifi working once, and then I rebooted and lost wifi, so I installed Windows 7 on it.

I see netbooks splitting into two – the high end, which are just low-power, low-cost full-functionality ultraportables like my NC10, and the low-end, which are low-power and more like overgrown iPod Touches like the HP 1000 Mi (which is not quite there yet).

I think people will be more amenable to Linux on the low end, but only if the netbook manufacturers put some time into it – both in the UI which needs to be optimized for a quick experience on a small screen and in the back end which needs to be optimized for speed and needs to support all the hardware. Delivering non-functional hardware that only works with Windows is not the right way. I'm looking at you, HP.

Just because you see “Linux” in the name does not mean it is a complete
version of a “community supported” distribution.

If you really need “commercial support” – you can get a support contract from many
of the major distributions. Such as Ubuntu, just send them money.

its for OEM's, specifically in places with rampant copyright infringement…

why do you think there is a 30 day norton security package on just about every big brand computer? because symantec pays them to put it there.

Get something like PuPeee fully functional on my Asus 1000H and I'd be happy. All I want my Netbook for is email and web browsing when I am on the road.

Give it a user-friendly desktop interface and no geek-speak Linux knowledge and most users would be happy.

I tried the latest PuPeee distribution and have it running from a 2GB thumb drive. The whole package takes up less than 110 MB on the drive.