Opinion: Death knell heard for Microsoft and really all proprietary efforts

Imagine that $299 netbook today costing $50 less just because it comes with Linux. The reality is that $299 netbook might instead cost $274, with the extra $25 being put into the vendor’s pocket per sale, instead of Microsoft’s pocket. And therein lies the current draw away from Microsoft-based products.

I still believe the future will be ARM-based ultimately, but I think Intel’s intrusion into those roadmaps may push it out a bit.

Opinion: Microsoft still harming netbook markets

It’s these “implied contracts” between Microsoft and the OEMs which limit the hardware abilities you and I see in netbooks. And this practice ultimately harms us (the end consumers).