Linux, Netbook Boom Squeeze Microsoft's Profits

The VAR Guy enjoys creative math. He often blogs about Microsoft’s hourly and daily profits, or the fact that Microsoft’s revenue still dwarfs the entire open source industry. But along comes this blog post from Netbook Digest suggesting the software giant lost $435 million in profits because of the Netbook boom and low-cost competition from Linux. Hmmm…

Is Netbook Digest’s math accurate — or a bit too creative? As old-time journalists often say: Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

In this case, Netbook Digest’s math is difficult to verify. But the web site seems to be onto something.  As The VAR Guy has previously reported: Netbooks are definitely impacting Microsoft’s sales and profit margins.

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