Lenovo Analyst Burns Linux In Netbook Discussion

Lenovo Worldwide Competitive Analyst Matt Kohut is giving Linux users a bit of a cold shoulder, ripping on the OS in a recent interview:

“…in order to keep the price points down, a lot of people thought that Linux would be the saviour of all of these netbooks.

You know, there were a lot of netbooks loaded with Linux, which saves $50 or $100 or whatever it happens to be, based on Microsoft’s pricing and, again, from an industry standpoint, there were a lot of returns because people didn’t know what to do with it.

Linux, even if you’ve got a great distribution and you can argue which one is better or not, still requires a lot more hands-on than somebody who is using Windows.

So, we’ve seen overwhelmingly people wanting to stay with Windows because it just makes more sense: you just take it out of the box and it’s ready to go.”

Kohut is certainly right on a number of his points, but personally I’m unconvinced. Linux has a chance because Windows 7 is very likely going to be terrible for netbook users; sure, Microsoft is the comfortable consumer choice, but its shiftiness in the industry is emblematic of a high-profit-margin attitude that conflicts with what netbooks are truly about.

Regardless, you can check out the rest of the interview here.

Via ComputerWorld.