Lifehacker recently held a poll to decide which is the most popular Netbook OS out there. They selected five of their favourites – Windows 7, Jolicloud, Linux Mint, Ubuntu and OS X, and opened up the vote. It seems slightly odd they included 3 Ubuntu-based Linux versions, but failed to include Windows XP, which was synonymous with Netbooks until recently – especially given that many Netbook users may have chosen to stick with XP given the recent revelations about Windows 7′s battery life. The winner with around a third of the vote was Windows 7, Ubuntu in second with 27%, OSX just edging out perennial Netbook News-favourite Jolicloud with 12% each, followed by Linux Mint with 8%.
An interesting way to read this data is that all of the Ubuntu-based OS’s accounted for almost half (47%) of the vote, while the almighty Windows accounted for just 36%. Certainly encouraging results for the Linux community – especially if you consider that a certain percentage of the Windows vote may just be down to people’s reluctance to try a new OS. Could it be Linux has secured a foothold in Netbooks much bigger than in desktops already?
You can read about all the OS’s in more detail and view the results here.
