In this picture Linus Torvalds is giving Windows 7 a thumbs up in Japan. Torvalds is the man behind open source Linux operating system. Why is he doing this? Perhaps Torvalds wants to keep it classy unlike the Apple CEO when he flipped off the IBM building. Sometimes these pictures come back to haunt you many years later. Another theory is that Linus is pointing out that only one copy has been sold off the shelf.
Microsoft Corporation has admitted earlier this week that Red Hat and Canonical are competitors of the Windows Client business. The acknowledgment was revealed in the annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Including Red Hat’s Linux in the filing was influenced by the open source operating system’s growth in market share driven by netbooks.
“Netbooks opened Microsoft to the possibility that some other OS could get its grip on the desktop, however briefly,” stated Microsoft Director of Research for Directions Rob Helm. “Now it’s alert to that possibility going forward.” The acknowledgment was made in the 10-K report for the fiscal year ended June 30. Before Red Hat was only listed as a competitor in the Microsoft Server and Tools business.
“Client faces strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market,” wrote Microsoft in the 10-K. “Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Canonical, and Red Hat.”
Microsoft is looking for ways to discourage consumers to go after netbooks and focus on finding lightweight laptops that have the hardware necessary to run Windows operating systems even though several netbook companies still use Windows XP.
Great news for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been announced. Its been about a year since netbook PCs running Windows started selling on the market and now the software giant can claim that they have a 96% market share for netbooks. The research was put together by NPD.
Microsoft’s success is a blow to open source operating system Linux. Many people that bought netbooks with the Linux OS built-in ended up returning them. Car phone warehouse in the UK dropped the sale of netbooks with Linux built-in because of seeing return rates of about 20%.
“When they realize their Linux-based netbook PC doesn’t deliver that same quality of experience, they get frustrated and take it back,” stated Microsoft Windows blogger Brandon LeBlanc.
