According to Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, “the Linux netbook market is not realizing its full potential” because the manufacturers are “employing an outdated business model.” Overall, he noted, the only thing the sorry state of Linux on netbooks is doing is giving Microsoft a chance to gain even more market share in a new category besides laptops and desktops, while the open source alternatives are being overshadowed as usual.

Zemlin mentions that with open-source code such as that in Linux, manufacturers are free to customize what can and can’t do in specific markets, and that they can “bundle a mix of services and web APIs, or have fulfillment mechanisms and set up a business relationship between operating systems makers, device makers and carriers” to make the most out of the open-source opportunity. Zemlin will continue to promote this idea at the Open Source in Mobile (OSiM) conference in San Francisco this week, where if it gains more traction, we just might see a change in the Linux netbook market soon.

Via The Register

Market needs to change for Linux netbooks to pick up faster, says Zemlin is a post from: Eee PC

Link to post: Market needs to change for Linux netbooks to pick up faster, says Zemlin - from: Eee PC | 2 comments | © Admarket, 2009.