I’m puzzled. Desktop Linux, for the first time ever, has at least 1% of the desktop market. Linux probably has considerably more than that. So, why is Lenovo’s Worldwide Competitive Analyst Matt Kohut claiming that Linux has no future on netbooks?

Could it be because, as Kohut said, “there were a lot of returns because people didn’t know what to do with it.” Really? That’s odd. Most of the time, you have to ask for Linux by name. Of the big name computer companies only Dell makes it easy to choose Linux and even at Dell, you really should head straight to Dell’s Ubuntu Linux site or you can spend a lot of time looking for it.

That reminds me. Dell is now offering the newer Ubuntu 8.10 on its Inspiron 15n laptop. In the past, they were only offering the LTS (Long Term Service) Ubuntu 7.04. Check it out. You see, Dell is taking desktop Linux seriously.

All the other big vendors, including Lenovo, make it almost impossible to find their desktop Linux offerings. You’d almost think they want desktop Linux to fail, and they’re only offering it because those darn, pesky customers keep asking for it.

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