GNU/Linux Gains Ground in Sub-notebooks Race as Vista 7 Gains Excessive Weight

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2009-05-28 09:40:41 UTC
Modified: 2009-05-28 09:40:41 UTC

Summary: The recently-added weight of Vista 7 proves problematic to Microsoft, and profit margins likewise

VISTA 7, the successor and sibling of Windows Vista, is claimed to have become fat as RTM date is approached. The latest source of these claims is one who is close to Microsoft, so there is no negative bias. A colleague of his, whose disdain for GNU/Linux is well proven, thinks that this sudden 'fattening' of Vista 7 is going to boost GNU/Linux on sub-notebooks, potentially costing Microsoft a lot more in terms of lost money.

The jury is in about the performance of Windows 7 RC on netbook computers - it's as slow as a wet week. For Microsoft the "great white hope" is now Moore's Law. Will new entry level netbooks be powerful enough to prevent Redmond's second white elephant in a row?

What is becoming increasingly clear is that Windows 7 is merely an attempt at damage control after Microsoft's monumental misreading of the market with resources hungry Vista.

[...]

The danger for Microsoft is that the challenges are coming thick and fast from all sides on the Linux front. Aside from Android and Ubuntu Remix, Intel has released its own Linux distro desgned specifically for Atom powered netbooks, Moblin 2.0.

As we showed yesterday, Intel arguably colludes with Microsoft and/or OEMs to elevate profits (price-fixing) and Microsoft's role is clear to see. One of our Spanish informants and readers wrote this morning:

Netbooks have become the main territory of Desktop GNU/Linux penetration, along with the educational environment, therefore Microsoft seems to be concentrating their anti-competitive strategy on these two areas. OEM manufacturers are kept hostages of the conditions to licence Windows, and vaporware Vista-7 is being used as threat/weapon. I think the main reason there is no actual variety in the netbook market offers is that it is Microsoft who sets the features of these machines, and not the users' demands or the manufacturers. Might be that Dell is not completely caving-in to Microsoft demands and it will get higher licence prices than its competition?

Our reader adds this as a reference, as well as this in Spanish (Google Translation into English). It smells like those fake Windows endorsements that Microsoft pays for to increase mind share.

How much does Microsoft pay ASUS for these advertisements (disguised as Windows endorsements)? It is abundantly clear that there is something rotten at ASUS [1, 2], but then again, some reporters take it out of perspective because ASUS is planning Linux phones, so it is not an abandonment. They just got "closely tied up with Microsoft" (by their own admission) and they apparently received kickbacks [1, 2]. It helps the creation of illusions. ⬆

"Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!"

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

Comments

David Gerard

2009-05-28 20:29:14

7 Beta vs 7 RC has been quite interesting. The beta ran OK in 512MB; the RC is slow and thrashy as hell in 1GB. The girlfriend was trying it out. Her first comment was "it wants to be KDE 4 when it grows up." It reliably blue-screened every time we tried maximising the BBC iPlayer Flash player. She gave up and is now using a mirrors G4 with Mac OS X 10.5 ;-)

Roy Schestowitz

2009-05-28 20:44:08

Do you know why/how it got so heavy? What did they do?

David Gerard

2009-05-28 21:36:32

No idea! Compiled it with -fsuck-like-a-dyson-on-steroids , presumably.

Roy Schestowitz

2009-05-28 21:37:36

Could it be that they re-enabled some functions? I'd love to find an answer.

Chris Lees

2009-06-07 12:01:21

Just a correction: It's Windows 7, not Vista 7. You remind me of the person who I once spoke to; I mentioned that I don't use Windows, and she said "Oh, do you use Vista instead?"

Roy Schestowitz

2009-06-07 12:38:07

The mistake is intentional. It's intended to remind people what Windows 7 really is under the hood.

reya276

2009-06-08 13:59:23

My brother tried/installed the Vista 7 RC and he says its pretty good and that his PC is running smooth, I personally would not hold too much weight on that since he is a Windows/MS fan-boy although he tries to downplay it. I ran it and got different results than he did, Vista 7 is slow and it sucks. Just like the Original Vista this 7 thing is a no GO!

Roy Schestowitz

2009-06-08 14:48:56

Pay attention to this new comment:

June 5, 2009 1:11 AM Ex-Microsoft marketing manager said:

Of course Microsoft has a perception management team and specifically targets Web 2.0 sites like Digg and Reddit. Some of this is outsourced as well. It is felt inside MS that the reason why Vista failed was that on Web 2.0 sites it became fashionable to bad mouth the OS, this turned in to group think and thus the OS failed. Seriously, that is the belief and there is at least some merit to it. Lets be real, Vista is just not as bad as it is painted.

Now contrast that to Windows 7; Microsoft have spent a lot of money manipulating user generated content sites to hype the OS. Let me tell you, it is not so much different from Vista but the perception is that is it much better. Again, lets be real, Windows 7 is just Vista with some UI tweaks and *much* better marketing.

Watch for the talking points used, this is starting now but will be pushed harder after Win7 is released, I would expect "Windows 7 is the death blow to Linux on the desktop" will be a favourite.

I think it is poor form for MS to manipulate sites like Digg, there will be a backlash when the users figure it out.

GNU/Linux Gains Ground in Sub-notebooks Race as Vista 7 Gains Excessive Weight

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