Microsoft tell lies. Should I be surprised?

PC Pro Clicky

Nope! How do you compete with free!? Spread FUD!

The other thing is, people buying at Dell are probably more aware of what they want, than those who walk into PC World, see a netbook, go "pretty" and walk out with a netbook, not aware of what OS it is running. On the Dell website, it usually lists the OS, so they will probably notice that it doesn't have Windows and order the one that does.

Also, in the past, the Dell Linux models were fairly well buried in the site, you had to want one and search it out, as opposed to stumbling across it.

You wouldn't believe the amount of women in my work who want to know how much a netbook costs just cos they think mine looks 'cute'

I also got annoyed when one of them wanted to hand Dell another £29 just so she could get a laptop with a purple lid - who says women are good with money?

I think the other difference is the Dell netbook comes with Ubuntu (and I think it is the only one), which may not be the aficionado's choice, but it is probably the best option for beginners.

That is just for Dell

They don't have the dominant market share in netbooks, and their netbooks are available in linux AND Windows. Dell clearly say what OS it comes with, and you can find out what it means if you don't know

Dell are also a specialist online company, those that use them know what they want... I would rather see details for the Asus EEE PC or the Acer Aspire One from PC World/Currys before I read from a PC specialist as opposed to a high street retailer

I'd like to see HP's figures. I suspect their returns for the Linux "mini note" were massive compared to Windows.

Why? I bought one. It had Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) and it was utter cack. I now run XP and it's lovely.

I'm sure I could have found a more suitable version of Linux to use, but XP is warm and cuddly and I like it. Most importantly, the HP website only provides Windows drivers for things like the HDD protection and webcam so if I want the whole thing to work properly Windows is the easy choice.

I still can't believe they provided it with half the hardware not working due to lack of drivers.

Of course, Windows cost more than the Netbook... A price worth paying though, since half my essential software is annoyingly unavailable on other platforms.

Couldn't agree more. I had to fix my friend's HP that came with SLED and I wanted to throw it through a window - if it is too hard for a linux user to sort out, I pity any newbie who picks one up. Shipped with no wifi and configured and no software repositories.