I think I will file this one in the very funny drawer. Internetnews.com is saying that Microsoft might be losing ground in the netbook market as the OS of choice.

When I first read that I thought it would be an interesting read; then I got to the part where it is all about the manufacturers looking at Android and Linux to replace Windows. This had me laughing as it was the very same manufacturers (Dell, HP, Asus) that asked Microsoft for XP due to large customer returns of the Linux based models.

Ok, yes Linux and Android are free, this will enable netbooks to sell for the same price and have more margin of profit. But the issue is that the majority of people buying netbooks right now are not Linux Savvy. They are going to get it home (after the Best Buy Clerk tells them what a great deal it is) and be completely lost with the OS.

This will result in even more returns and cost even more money to the manufactures. I am not sure why the sudden Linux resurgence but it is still not quite ready for the masses, and this is from someone that runs several different distros.

Read more here

Since nearly the inception of netbooks a couple of years ago, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has had an apparent lock on providing the operating system for so-called netbooks. In fact, the software titan's Windows XP has become the de facto standard on netbooks in the past year.