News Rumour: Intel told MS to limit Win 7 netbook specs

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/05/26/rumour-intel-told-ms-to-limit-win-7-netbook/1

According to rumours coming from Taiwan, Intel persuaded Microsoft to change the maximum specs for Windows 7 Starter Edition.

 

"in one fell swoop"

Thank you for not using the erroneous "in one foul swoop". I had to correct Tech Radar on that today!

 

I see Intel's learned from that fine

 

The EU should wack another £100mil on that fine quick!

 

Giving the consumer what they want? Never!

 

Nah they'll give you what you want, just charge you for the privilege!

 

consumer? what consumer?

 

This looks like an opening for.... you guessed it - LINUX!!
Hopefully the big software giant M$ does impose limits. Maybe ones that are too limiting. This I would actually like to see. Who really needs to use windows on a netbook anyhow? You can't really play games on them and the ones you can run better on linux anyways. And as far as office goes, there is openoffice and outlook replacements. As for the rest of the useability, it pretty much handles like a mac. And if you've got a decent GPU (like any netbook these days) you can probably run compiz fushion, which will make your experience even sexier than vista/win7 or even osx.

Yeah, yeah. I'm on an anti-microsoft crusade lately aren't I? I can't help it if linux is just better. More people just need to open up their eyes and give it a serious chance. The biggest set back is that linux is different and thus the old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" tends to apply to people when it comes to software all too well.

 

Yeah right. Maybe for some users, but not for most.

Very true - I suppose we shouldn't be suprised at all.

 

you can't teach an old dog new tricks" - problem with linux is that even new dogs have problems learning new tricks

 

Take gaming out of the equation and Ubuntu is a far more sensible choice for a netbook... And oh wait, it's a netbook - who's going to want to game on a 10" screen, with a cramped keypad/trackpad? I'll take a free OS any day of the week and particularly-so when it's as usable as Ubuntu is.

 

Explain again why Unix based notebooks aren't a lot cheaper than Windows based ones?

Anyways, I wouldn't put it past Intel to do something like this but I honestly think it's good to finally give netbooks a spec list as it just seemed that ASUS tried to merge the netbook and ultra-portable sector, don't even get me started on ultra-thin which in my eyes is nothing else than ultra-portable but thinner.

 

Talk about giving Linux a second bite of the cherry, the performance on the upcoming Pineview architecture is hardly going to be a massive leap over the current Atom, so the more resource hungry W7 is hardly going to feel like an upgrade over XP. To add insult to injury, a decent sized screen, mean forking out almost a 1/3 of the price of the hardware for an OS. I personally can't wait for the rumoured Via / Ion netbooks.

 

Have you experienced Win7 on low-spec notebooks Turbo? It feels as good/smooth/responsive/snappy as XP to most people including me and a couple of other people here.
It feels like an upgrade because it's newer and runs at least as good as the old one if not better.

 

Depends, if you call a P4 2.8 GHz (HT) laptop low-spec then yes, but my point was that for 10 + inch screens, you will have to pay for a full-sized version of W7, and if the rumoured price increases over Vista are true, then the value of a Windows netbook will be negatively impacted.

 

True, but in my opinion having Atom in a 12+ inch ultra-portable [they're not netbooks anymore, at least not for me, and I just got joined by MS and Intel ] is a bit weird anyways. Atom was initially not even thought to be used in sub-notebooks/netbooks and now it's entering this market? No thanks, I'd rather go C2D there.

 

ya I have Win7 on my 1000he and its awesome, very smooth, great response, the wifi is awesome, overall a great OS for a netbook, I would say its better then XP

 

Goddamit MS, let people install Windows 7 on whatever the hell they want.

 

they do, but you'll have to pay for it

 

It's a good point, originally netbooks were meant as an adjunct to a 'real' laptop, but many people have realised that they don't need the power of a full sized lappy, and thus buy netbooks as their main portable machine, hence the desire for larger screens.

In the meantime, Intel have a OMG moment and realise that the wee Atom could start seriously cramping its big brother's sales. I do think that a large proportion of people are wrongly sold netbooks, instead of a cheap C2D lappy, unless you need a portable pc on a daily basis, a netbook is the wrong choice as a sole machine, in fact a smartphone would better suit most people's need for e-mail and web access on the go.