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Fuzzy Logic Win 7’s 3-app limit - finally appendectomised!
Fuzzy Logic Win 7’s 3-app limit - finally appendectomised! | Win 7’s 3-app limit - finally appendectomised! |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Saturday, 30 May 2009 | |
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Page 3 of 3 “Netbooks” is a category that tried to become popular many times over the past twenty years. Featured Whitepaper
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Asus, MSI, Acer and others then started selling netbooks with “dumbed down” or not properly configured versions of Linux for those platforms, while offering Windows XP models that worked mostly as expected, almost guaranteeing Linux wouldn’t appeal to mainstream users on netbooks and a thriving XP alternative. Yet if you Install Ubuntu 9.04 or another modern distro onto a netbook and it will perform with aplomb –and there was never any 3 app limit, as was previously the case with Windows 7 Starter Edition. So, with Linux a real threat to outdoing Windows on any class of actual x86 computer, and in this case netbooks, Microsoft was forced to supply XP to netbook makers at giveaway prices, for years longer than it has wanted to, thus entrenching XP – and not Linux - into the netbook marketplace - and further staving off any sudden jump in Linux popularity on the mainstream desktop itself. With Vista’s girth too much for the official Microsoft-imposed netbook limit of 1GB RAM when sold at retail, Windows 7 is meant to be the savior that will run on anything, including netbooks, no matter which version. But Windows 7 isn’t here yet, and in my experiences, Windows 7 RC just doesn’t run as fast, on netbooks, as Windows XP – or Linux distros. Perhaps this will change with the RTM code, but that’s all yet to be seen. Microsoft needs to protect its revenues, and MS wants Windows 7 to have a blockbuster launch and be a big success, but a couple of things are getting in the way. As already noted, Windows 7 isn’t here yet. Yes, the release candidate is great on modern non-netbook computers, but this can’t be sold pre-loaded onto computers from the big names or your regular computer store. But it is coming, and word comes from Dell from an online interview that Microsoft wants to charge MORE for Windows 7 than it was charging for Vista. So, Microsoft shoots itself in the foot with a crippled Starter Edition when Win 7 finally comes, reports of more expensive pricing in the time of global recession, if not depression, and no word yet on how much to “upgrade” Starter to Home Premium, with the expectation that it will cost a lot. After the entire Vista experience, and despite ever-better Linux and ever-more popular Mac OS X, Microsoft is going for the jugular of your wallet, and will try to extract as much cash as it possibly can – rather than being a company that produces products and services people are truly delighted to use, and delighted to pay for. Given the gargantuan Google empire growing to ever greater heights and Microsoft’s moves to mount its fiercest online assault yet, Windows 7 should nicely renew the Windows cash-cow for a few more years yet to battle Google, Linux and everyone else. Whether that happens or not, and how successful Microsoft’s competitors are against it, is unfolding before us, but I, for one, wish Starter Edition or Home Basic simply did not exist, and that Windows 7 pricing will reflect reality, as unlikely as it now seems to be. In the meantime, I hope an Apple OS X powered iNetbook/iTablet/iPhone Pro comes out this year rather than the predicted 2010, because it would theoretically and dramatically add to the competitive and innovative mix, especially if it emulates the iPhone’s popularity – and should give Windows powered netbooks a giant run for their money! |
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