Windows 7 Makes Netbooks Fly

If you want to see how much progress Microsoft has made with Windows 7, try it on a Netbook. I have been testing an ASUS Eee netbook with Windows 7 Beta 1 for the last couple of weeks. The netbook sports an Intel Atom processor and only 1 GB of RAM.

We have seen the netbook PC category explode over the last two years and Microsoft was forced to make a key decision. Give up market share to Linux or lower the price of Windows. With the average price of a netbook selling for around $400 Microsoft made a smart business decision and sold Windows XP at a discount. Microsoft now has over 80% of the netbook running Windows. But Windows Vista would never be a credible alternative on netbooks. It required too much hardware to run optimally and Microsoft was worried about cannibalization.

 In comes Windows 7, when I first booted Windows 7 the first time I could tell something was different. It was snappier and more responsive. Applications loaded fast and even with the minimum hardware requirements the Windows Aero interface was enabled and performed like my desktop running Vista. After using it for a while I can only describe it with one word, solid. There are not any flashy features but several enhancements that you quickly become accustom to. Microsoft has clearly taken a different approach with the design of Windows 7 and it shows running on netbooks. Windows 7 is by far the best Windows beta I have ever seen come out of Redmond. It looks like Microsoft is starting to get its mojo back.

Asus Eee PC 1000H

The ASUSTek Asus Eee PC 1000H is a 3.2-pound, ultra light notebook computer, that is in the hot category of “netbooks”. Its very inexpensive coming in around $550 and comes with wireless conectivity built in. The Eee PC is built on the new Intel Atom chip which is optimized for ultra portable devices and allows the Eee PC to get up to 7 hours of battery life.

This emerging category of devices will begin to blur the boundaries of netbooks and laptops. Hardware will continue to become more powerful and more affordable and soon the form factor will really drive the differentiation.