I think many of us saw this coming. Even though netbooks started out with a heavy Linux influence, once Microsoft began relaxing their rules on Windows XP Home and netbooks, it was pretty clear that Windows XP would end up winning the netbook market.
This week, ITWire had a discussion with executies from Acer, Dell, and Toshiba, all of whom told ITWire that Windows XP now holds the clear lead in the netbook market, just as it does with laptops and desktops. Acer and Toshiba in particular indicated that 90% of the netbooks they sell were Windows XP-based offerings.
Asus told ITWire that it came down to consumers going with what they know. They also mentioned that in some areas, 10.2″ netbooks are in the highest demand.
It’s not surprising. People are picking these things up for very specific reasons, usually as a secondary system, they want what they see when they sit down at their normal desktop or laptop. The fact that most people are using netbooks for tasks that could easily be accomplished through Linux is besides the point. Unless XP Home licensing were to go up, I don’t see that changing.
Read: ITWire
Although I think that XP certainly dominates the netbook market, I bought an XP netbook because it had better hardware specs and it was available (I have an MSI Wind). Although I would have preferred to buy a linux-based Wind originally I still would have installed my preferred version of linux anyway (as I have done). It would be interesting to know how many people have bought XP-based netbooks and then installed a non-XP OS.