Hacker News Reader

Comment by BrandonWatson | Hacker News Reader

I love this answer. Yes, it is true that you can solve the problem with light weight linux distro, but the mass consumer market has rejected linux on netbooks.

View on HN

Don't you at least fancy yourself cleverer than the mass consumer?

EDIT: Oh duh, you work for Microsoft!

I love that answer even more! :) My profile makes it pretty clear I work for MSFT. I spent 9 of the last 10 years doing LAMP development. My home machine is a MBP 13". So yes, I am more clever than a mass consumer. However, I am not a fan of Linux for desktop. I will take free-bsd based OS X over any linux distro, but that's a personal preference.

What about tiling window managers?

I doubt the GP wanted to insult your intelligence, he just noted that your opinion was in line with your employer's position ("Linux is a cancer" a few years ago, iirc?).

If it was just a consumer choice that Linux died on the netbooks, then I should be able to at least order a new (not used) one with Linux from Amazon.co.uk. I had problems finding one a few weeks ago.

Edit: It was in 2001 Linux was named a cancer.

Edit 2: The last few years, articles/blogs have been discussing pressure on netbook manufacturers to not ship Linux.

A random Google: http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_strikes_back_at_lin...

>> ... PC World, Britain's self-professed largest specialist chain of computing superstores, announced that, regardless of what was coming with Linux netbooks, it would only be selling Windows netbooks.

You're right, "rejected linux on netbooks" was one of Microsoft's PR pushes, and I was simply noting that Brandon did not internalize that opinion in a vacuum.

It used to be that Linux netbook models cost less and/or had higher specs than the XP versions. Then Microsoft offered deep discounts for XP licenses, and added draconian restrictions on what specs you can ship. Why the hell else do you think every goddamn netbook ships with a 1.6ghz Atom, 160gb HD, and 1gb ram?

>>I was simply noting that Brandon did not internalize that opinion in a vacuum.

Ah, you are right. Brandon wouldn't quote marketing that would get his wrist slapped on HN. That means he really believed the quite obvious company propaganda. Fascinating.

I will take free-bsd based OS X over any linux distro, but that's a personal preference.

Are you saying you don't like Linux on the desktop because you don't like the GNU userland (coreutils, et. al.), and prefer OS X's hybrid bsd-forked set?

What do you mean by calling OS X 'freebsd-based'?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com