Microsoft has been patting itself on the back claiming that its Windows operating system runs on more than 95 per cent of the netbook world.It appears that Microsoft was not being quite accurate.  The claims were based on an NPD's sales survey. NPD focuses on retail sales in the US, not overall sales.

Chris Kenyon of Canonical, the business that stands behind Ubuntu pointed out that you don't tend to see Linux systems in the retail market. However when customers are offered choice on equally well-engineered computers around a third will select Ubuntu over XP."

Other analysts have questioned whether the NPD figures actually mean anything sensible. The United States only has about 20 percent of the netbook market, not to mention that the global market is still 30 percent Linux.

Microsoft implied that the reason it was on such a high figure was because it supported more devices than Linux. However, as Kenyon points out, Linux already has lots of device support thank you very much. "Ubuntu and most Linux distributions support over 3000 printers over 1000 digital cameras, and over 200 webcams. It also supports them without the need to search for drivers on dubious websites or load drivers from a CD. Just plug and play."

Microsoft added that Canonical itself has said that its Linux netbooks are returned at a rate more than four times as high as Windows netbooks. Kenyon said that Canonical never said anything like that and it is a complete lie.