"Get Linux" is almost as common a refrain in the comment threads on this blog as "get a Mac." But although various Linux OSes have made enormous strides in recent years, they may still be far from ready for prime time: In an interview with Laptop magazine, an executive with MSI, which makes perhaps the best low-priced netbook on the market, says that the Linux version of its popular Wind laptop is being returned (at least) four times as often as the Windows version.

According to MSI's U.S. sales director Andy Tung, "We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven't really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don't know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it's not what they are used to. They don't want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks."

That's significant, and a little scary: A pocket of Mac enthusiasm notwithstanding, Windows now dominates the market so heavily that many people are afraid of change. It's hard to fault them. Though OpenOffice and Microsoft Office share 90 percent of their DNA, it can be a little daunting when commands aren't exactly where you expect them to be. And the various Linux OS flavors themselves can take considerable getting used to. Even locating files and figuring out where the programs you need are can take a lot of work.

Of course, the thought with the original Asus Eee PC, the first low-cost machine like this on the market, was that people wouldn't mind the differences of Linux since they were only paying $300 or so for the machine. But now that Windows versions are available, usually for just a $50 to $100 premium, consumers seem to saying that familiarity is more important than rock-bottom pricing.

Meanwhile, MSI says it's working to refine and update its Linux-based laptops (which are not available in the U.S. currently)... but that's going to take some time before a solution that's really palatable to consumers is reached.

(via Gizmodo)