Fortune - 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.
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