H-P Powers Up Its Linux Notebook

Wade said OpenOffice applications have proven to be fairly interoperable with Microsoft's Windows suite. "Exchanging data files is pretty simple, [other than] a little bit of font correction and things like that," he said.

"There's a lot of stickiness [to existing Windows operating systems] on the client side as opposed to servers," where Linux has caught on much more quickly, said Kay.

In 2002, the most recent year for which information is available, Linux accounted for a mere 2.5% of client operating system shipments, or 3.4 million shipments, according to IDC.

Linux's share of the total market should more than double to about 6% by 2007, assuming continued compound annual growth of 25% a year. At that point, it will "start to approach more of a mainstream solution," said Al Gillen, IDC's research director of systems software.

But for now, the Linux OS remains a niche market for PCs, he said, while Linux on laptops is "a subset of a niche."

Neither Dell(DELL Quote - Cramer on DELL - Stock Picks) nor IBM(IBM Quote - Cramer on IBM - Stock Picks) currently offer Linux laptops. Said Dell spokesperson Anne Camden: "We offer what the customer tells us is relevant. At this time there hasn't been an overwhelming desire from our customer base to offer Linux on a laptop." (Dell will, however, preinstall Red Hat or SUSE Linux at a customer's request for orders of 50 or more notebooks).

IBM said in June that it's working on a Linux mobile workstation pilot with Intel(INTC Quote - Cramer on INTC - Stock Picks), but the product will be aimed primarily at engineers.

Industry watchers say they're not surprised to see the first Linux notebook rolled out by H-P. The move accords the company's wish to be seen as "more than just another supplier of PCs," said Kleynhans. "All of the PC vendors, but especially H-P, don't want to be seen as being too tightly locked to Microsoft. So when they get the opportunity to do something small like this and say they're not in Microsoft's back pocket, they'll take the opportunity to do so."

Added Kleynhans, "The reality is that 98% of the machines they sell are Windows. But it's positive PR that they're not completely beholden to Microsoft."

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