Windows 7 coming to netbooks in all its myriad forms
By Vladislav Savov 
posted Sep 28th 2009 5:42AM
posted Sep 28th 2009 5:42AM
[Via GadgetMix]
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FIRST!
"machine that can handle neither"
what?
he says netbooks cant handle Win 7 ultimate and aero(actually it can) , he accepted that it was a lame joke.
Funny thing, the AMD powered MSI Wind has no trouble running Ultimate. I have played with Starter, it's not fantastic, but not horrible either. I would run Home Premium on it honestly, but that's only because I'm already on my 7th of the 10 keys for Ultimate from Microsoft, but I still have 10 keys each for each other version.
Maybe you folks at Engadget don't have Technet, but Windows 7 has been out for a LONG time now on it, and I'll tell you something, if Ultimate absolutely screams on a Thinkpad with a P4M 945/64MB Radeon 9600, the new Neo platform has nothing to worry about. My issue is, I already have about 50 licenses for Win7, so I don't want to pay the markup for it on machine.
However, that lovely 945 chipset, you know the one that was "Vista Ready" (HAHAHA!!! Oh, they were serious... HAHAHAHA!!!), well, it's still the bane of Windows 7's existence. Honestly, don't try to run anything above MS-DOS on it, XP blows on it.
my Gateway LT runs like water with windows 7 64bit Ultimate. also runs 4 gigs of ram :D
"Joking aside, it's pleasing to see the Redmond brain trust steer clear of arbitrary limitations on customer choice."
When are we going to get that rant about Apple SEVERELY limiting customer choice based of arbitrary decisions from Cupertino?
Even my Samsung Q1 ultra (intel A110 cpu) can handle windows 7 ultimate.
Last I checked, my netbook can handle Aero. So basically that's a lame joke,
It was a joke, apparently chiko missed the next sentence. :p
Hmm limiting choice is sometimes good.
You dont want your software to be deemed as sluggish because it is being loaded on sub-standard hardware. People assume the software is to blame rather than the hardware.
Ahh.. So what you are saying is that the Vista certified computers were the problem, not the sucky OS, and excessive hardware requirements.. Gotcha.
Funny how people have up to now been blaming the hardware for sluggish performance, yet they now suddenly blame the software..
Performance is the same between the editions of Windows 7 anyway, so that's not really a factor.
People that pay for their computer with their own hard-earned money never want to be told they're limited to things. They're adults and need to find out for themselves that something doesn't work quite right. Then they can blame the companies for not telling them it would be wise not to use the product because it doesn't run all that well. Any version of Windows 7 might run well when first installed, but maybe a few months down the line it might not work very well and then people will run into problems with sluggishness. Whatever. You can't tell some people anything due to their stubborn nature.
MS should just tell people flat out that they'll only support a certain version of Windows 7 on Atom-powered netbooks and that's that.
"arbitrary limitations on customer choice."
I mean its not like apple has been cramping peoples hardware choices for years, oh wait!...
I as an adult and a consumer would rather do a fresh OS install every 3 months than be limited to 3 apps at a time. Both my grandmother and my five year old understand the concept that when the PC gets slow you close the less important apps.
All I know is that we are now moving towards being mobile and running atoms and CULVs. With the emphasis on efficiency and low power MS realised the stupidity of Vista (although it ran fine on my desktops). They have changed that but what they did wrong was trying to please the OEMs and not being stringent on the vista compliant standards.
Now that Win7 is out and is more efficient you will still have the OEMs that want to put it on garbage, bottom of the barrel hardware. The average joe will be sold it as the best thing for their need but when it run slower than expected they blame windows.
MS get the hardware certification right and you will be ok. You didn't get it right with WinMo and Vista.
@ John Bailey
Both hardware and software typically has it's faults. No doubt Vista was done very poorly in some aspects but a lot of the problems were due to insufficient hardware. When i built my Vista box I had very little problems and after a few months of hardware makers getting off their asses and making new drivers I never had a problem. It is true though that the first thing people blame is the software, rarely the hardware. Remember back when it was discovered that NVIDA drivers caused a huge chunk of Vista crashes?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/nvidia-drivers-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-20/
Frankly an arse artice. Already have netbooks using the RTM version. Superb platform.. Although the multi-touch HP TX2 is the shining beacon of what the OS can do (and not too much bigger than a some netbooks).
FATALITY !
OEM alway have a choice to put Window Vista Ultimate on the netbook, one reason they didn't do it is price. They have to pay full oem price rather than the discounted price for the netbook version. The source is not giving information if OEM pay a cheaper price or the full price to install the OS on a netbook
Yes, netbooks are about to get a lot more expensive.
However in order to get the full touchscreen support unfortunately tablet-PC style netbooks will need to run at least Windows 7 Home Premium Edition.
netbooks with ION cut through aero like hot butter
Exactly.
This makes sense... Why would they have forced manufacturers to use the version of 7 that brings Microsoft the smallest profit margin?
Would some nice person be able to tell what model netbook that is?
MSI Wind U110 ECO
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/21/msis-longevous-wind-u110-eco-available-now-for-400/
its an hp mini isnt? idk what their technical name is but its the small hp lol :)
Nevermind, I stand corrected :( Lol bad guess :D
Thanks for that Vlasdilav.
"That's right, you can totally rock Windows 7 Ultimate and Aero visualizations on a machine that can handle neither."
Erm... I've got the W7 Ultimate RC on on my netbook, and it runs incredibly smoothly... Aero and all. It also boots up in under a minute, so I wouldn't be too quick to comment!
Hence the "joking aside"...
Facepalm time! :D
Running Windows 7 Ultimate RTM on a Acer Aspire One bought from AT&T. My only problem is getting the damn Qualcomm Gobi drivers loaded! So I can't use my WWAN card that's built in. Other than that, it's a great little platform.
Been running Windows 7 Ultimate on my Dell Mini 9 with all the bells and whistles since the beta.
Aero and visualizations included.
It's been running great, like it's the OS the Mini 9 was made to run.
So yes, it was a lame uninspired and just plain stupid joke.
RUN an Atom machine and do your little blog stuff with it. I'm sure you'll find it quite adequate for saying snarky things about other subjects you know very little about in daily practice.
By actually using the tech you're reporting on your accuracy might improve.
The truth is that MS never officially planned to limit netbooks to starter edition, like most negative stories about MS that was just a rumor.
@Beastage
"The truth is that MS never officially planned to limit netbooks to starter edition"
Baloney. The truth is Steve Ballmer shot himself in the foot when he agreed to put XP on these machines for around $7 a pop. He reportedly did this incredibly stupid deal because he feared MSFT would be undercut by LINUX and they would miss out on this growing market segment. When he later offered to license W7 for around $50 per machine, he got laughed out of the room. Then we had the back and forth about limiting this and that feature on netbooks and when these negotiations went public, Ballmer got a black eye from potential customers who saw MSFT, not the netbook makers, as the bad guy!
So now hotshot Ballmer, aka Mr. Laughing-Stock-Punching-Bag, has cut some kind of deal to let the netbook makers have any version of W7. My guess is they are paying way less for each license than what Ballmer originally wanted.
I have an MSI wind with 2 gigs of ram and a 1.6ghz atom and the windows 7 ultimate RC installed. it runs all aero effects without a hitch so ultimate on a netbook isn't completely laughable. i'm sure the extra gig helps a fair bit but the idea of ultimate on a netbook isn't as stupid as it was with windows vista.
air
wind...fire...and earth
I fail. fire earth and water.
Hey Engadget, can you start showing Windows 7 how it actually looks? I know that you love to fellate Apple any chance you get, but please stop showing Windows 7 with these goofy child-like backgrounds, large cursive fonts, and aero peek enabled causing goofy lines all over the place.
To be quite honest, I like the Windows 7 image that Engadget uses, because it give a glimpse of a few features without going into too much detail for not so PC savvy (Macintosh) users.
lol.
I thought Aero Peek was supposed to be an Expose ripoff, but it doesn't seem to do a very good job of it. Is it a Dashboard ripoff? The Widgets are just sitting on the desk top like that...So the 'feature' of Aero Peek is that you can seek your Widgets?
Thanks Ballmz.
*shrugs* I've been running Ultimate on my Acer Aspire One since....er...March I think. There is no overhead from one version to another. Chalk it up to another person who is talking out of their butt when it comes to Windows 7.
As for the MS brain trust. Next up axing the upgrade. Let us be done with this crap of having a full version and an upgrade. It will never happen, but its a nice thought all the same.
My eeepc with 1.6 Atom ,1 gig ram and 16g ssd runs much faster with 7 ultimate than it did with xp.
I have Windows 7 Pro running on my Toshiba netbook and it runs flawlessly. It's definitely faster than XP that it came with. It's about time that Windows released a good OS.
I think you are the first blogger to ever use "myriad" correctly in a sentence... Bravo!
Ultimate for netbooks makes sense for me... that easily misplaced/stolen platform is really what you need BitLocker for.
pro has bitlocker too......
BitLocker is only included with Ultimate:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/bitlocker.aspx?tabid=1&catid=5