Linux is a wonderful operating system, but it still doesn’t get the respects that it deserves in the PC industry. We have been hearing for the past few months how Windows 7 is going to kill Linux off. Lenovo’s Matt Kohut is the latest analyst to dismiss Linux’s credentials in the netbook market:

You know, there were a lot of netbooks loaded with Linux, which saves $50 or $100 or whatever it happens to be, based on Microsoft’s pricing and, again, from an industry standpoint, there were a lot of returns because people didn’t know what to do with it.

Linux, even if you’ve got a great distribution and you can argue which one is better or not, still requires a lot more hands-on than somebody who is using Windows.

So, we’ve seen overwhelmingly people wanting to stay with Windows because it just makes more sense: you just take it out of the box and it’s ready to go.

I certainly get the point that people have gotten used to Windows over the years, but the younger generation is getting more used to alternative operating systems such as Linux. We have heard about Android coming to netbooks too. So I find Matt’s comments to be disgraceful at the very least. Don’t get me wrong. Windows 7 is a wonderful operating system. But it’s one thing to talk an OS up. It’s another thing to bash the competing solutions to bring them down. In fact, a Microsoft spokesman couldn’t bash Linux better.

A lot of people have argued in the past that Linux is not as user friendly as Windows. That’s simply a myth. If you have been using Windows all your life, it’s going to take time to get used to Linux. Microsoft Windows may have commercial software packages available to it, but that doesn’t mean people won’t know what to do with Linux! I do agree that Linux won’t be a Windows 7 killer in the netbook market. But it certainly won’t be as bad as some analysts want you to believe. So, if you are planning to buy a netbook, you owe it to yourself to try Linux netbooks before going for a Windows netbook. Shopping around is just smart.

Your take: is Linux doomed in the netbook market?