It seems to me that in the longer term, Microsoft needs to cater for these devices in a proper way, rather than by ad hoc extensions to XP’s life. That means having a dedicated operating system for this market. Microsoft’s problem will be to prevent people using such a lightweight operating system on ‘ordinary’ computers, because it will probably do everything that most users want from an operating system. Apple, were they to venture into this market, would surely be in the same position.

Linux turns out to be well placed, because the existence of a lightweight Linux operating system does not jeopardize the rest of the Linux project. However, Linux has its own problems, it seems to me. I’m not convinced that it’s ready for a mass market. (By ‘mass market’ I mean the sort of market that buys Windows, not the sort of market that buys eeePCs, big though that is.)

Allan

James.
XP is still available to OEMs through the system builder options so it doesnt matter what the processor is. Building a netbook helps to get the cheap license I guess but other classes of device are still eligable.

JKK had a news item on it recently.
http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/06/future-of-windows-xp.html
Steve