PC makers move closer to a post-Windows world

The Linux version of the HP Mini 1000 will sell for $379 when it arrives in January. While the laptop itself won't sink Microsoft, it's one more example of how powerful PC companies are relying less on Windows, and doing more software themselves. Image: HP

In January, Hewlett-Packard will introduce a glossy black mini-laptop at retail for a mere $379. When it does, it will become the first major computer maker this decade (besides Apple, of course) to push a non-Windows PC in stores.

This Linux-based version of the HP Mini 1000 will not slay Microsoft (MSFT) Windows. But it will add to a growing sense that the iconic operating system's best days are behind it.

Since we first began to fall in love with the personal computer -- before we met YouTube and Google (GOOG), cable and DSL - Microsoft Windows has pretty much run the show. We've become so accustomed to our Microsoft-controlled existence that jokes about the Start menu and the Blue Screen of Death have become part of our national conversation. That's the genius of Apple's (AAPL) hilariously mean Mac vs. PC commercials; as viewers, we connect with the message about the portly PC guy because we feel like we know him. In a way, we do -- we've lived with him in the den or the home office for decades now.

Today, evidence is mounting that Microsoft's dominance in computing isn't what it used to be. It's not just the Windows Vista flop and those damning commercials, either: Apple's Mac OS is gradually taking share from Windows; and HP (HPQ) and Dell (DELL), the world's largest PC makers, are investing in bigger homegrown software teams to do work they once left to Microsoft. Look at the high-growth computing markets for smartphones and low-cost mini-laptops, and the shift is even more striking; the most popular smartphones from Research in Motion (RIMM) and Apple of course don't run Windows, and more than 35% of today's mini-laptops run a non-Windows operating system.

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