Small laptops are becoming a big problem for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows business.

An executive who heads up Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows business said Wednesday Netbooks, lower-priced laptop computers geared to less intensive work, posed a cannibalization risk to the Windows operating system.

At first glance, Microsoft’s software portfolio — Windows, Office, Small Business Server and Exchange — still dominates the small business market. But Red Hat CEO Jim Whiteshurst says his company has found a back door into the small business market. Perhaps surprisingly, it doesn’t really involve desktop Linux.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently gave a presentation in which he said that GNU/Linux has more market share and poses a greater threat to Microsoft's profitability than does Apple.

As netbooks surge in popularity, open-source Linux-based operating systems have established a toehold on the low-cost, stripped-down computers as an alternative to Microsoft Corp's Windows.

It all started at the beginning of last week. I wanted my 11th and 12th Grade ICT students to start using Ubuntu Linux on their laptops/netbooks at the beginning of the second quarter. I knew it would take me nearly two weeks to get them working Ubuntu Linux systems on their laptops or netbooks...

Imagine a world without Linux. There'd be no cute Tux penguin or any notion of software freedom day. Netbooks would not have come about. But more strikingly, there wouldn't be the modern powerful tools that Windows systems administrators have come to love.

A Microsoft blogger says that the Windows operating system has achieved dominance in the netbook market. The statistics, however, are less definitive.

Microsoft has announced that if computer makers wish to distribute machines with the Windows 8 compatibility logo, they will have to implement a measure called "Secure Boot." Secure Boot is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when booting.