Robert Pogson

Glyn Moody as usual gives the big picture over space and time. M$ fought off the charge of small cheap netbook PCs running GNU/Linux by choking OEMs. Today those same OEMs and a bunch more new OEMs of PCs are shipping */Linux like there’s no tomorrow.

“There are two ironies here. First, that at the heart of Android lies an updated version of exactly the same code that the early netbooks ran; and secondly, the fact that Microsoft’s successful attempts to kill off netbooks running free software probably contributed to Android’s current success in the tablet market.”

see The arrival of tablets – The H Open: News and Features.

Revenge is sweet. We get to enjoy it longer thanks to M$’s bulk and the size and number of its “partners” who are getting a huge “attitude adjustment” in 2013 after Wintel began to crumble in 2012. Intel’s latest report says it all. Unit volumes of desktop PCs are down sharply and notebooks are following.

PC unit volumes were down 4% Q4/Q3 and down 6% from Q4 2011 to Q4 2012. Intel raised prices a bit to compensate but that won’t work for long with ARMed prices being much less. There’s no OEM who will stick with M$ with price increases under these conditions. The obvious advantages of using $free and FREE software are too big to ignore any longer. Expect the OEMs and consumers to work on the retailers too. Retailers often get most of their profit in Q4… They will either drop PCs or switch to smaller cheaper computers at lower prices with FLOSS. It’s about time.