Cody Taylor

nerdyH writes “As early as last quarter, Microsoft admitted that Linux and netbooks were eating into its fat profits. Recently, it came home, with the software giant announcing its first-ever layoffs. LinuxDevices interviewed Linux Foundation Director Jim Zemlin on Linux’s role in Microsoft’s misfortunes. Zemlin sums it up pretty well: ‘Companies can offer their own branded software platform based on Linux. If Microsoft is getting 75 percent margins, you would like some of that high-margin business, too.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 2009, it won’t be the “year of the desktop” for any operating system–instead, the coveted trophy seems to be “year of the netbook.”

Forget Steve Jobs’ health problems. Cheap ”netbooks” could steal the sizzle from Apple’s hot notebook business.

Derwent sends along a Computerworld piece which begins: “The Ubuntu Mobile operating system is undergoing its most radical change with a port to the ARM processor for Internet devices and netbooks, and may use Nokia’s LGPL Qt development environment as an alternative to GNOME. During a presentation at this year’s linux.conf.au conference, Canonical’s David Mandala said Ubuntu Mobile has changed a lot over the past year… ‘I worked on ARM devices for many years so a full Linux distribution on ARM is exciting,’ Mandala said, adding one of the biggest challenges is reminding developers to write applications for 800 by 600 screen resolutions found in smaller devices. ‘The standard [resolution] for GNOME [apps] is 800 by 600, but not all apps are. For this reason Ubuntu Mobile uses the GNOME Mobile (Hildon framework) instead of a full GNOME desktop, but since Nokia open sourced Qt under the LGPL it may consider this as an alternative.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Intel may be powering a new generation of netbooks with its low-cost, low-power Atom processor, but it’s not getting rich as a result.

nandemoari writes “The damage isn’t just limited to the United States. Shipments of PCs in Europe, the Mid-East, and Africa dipped to records posted around the turn of the century. It was even worse in Asia, which according to Gartner, posted its worst growth rate ever — just 1.8 per cent. Within the industry, desktops took the hardest hit, as was expected. Sales of non-portable computers were down about 16 per cent as consumers opted instead for the rising ‘netbook’ and similar hybrids. That fact alone is troubling for PC makers, given that 0-0 netbooks offer a far lower profit margin than more expensive and more powerful laptops and desktops.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Netbooks represent the latest consumer electronics craze. They’re small, they’re portable, they’re dirt cheap, and, in 2008, consumers bought somewhere in excess of 14 million of them.