ITWire

Much has been made of the claim that Windows 7 has a much smaller footprint than Vista.

However, we now know that Windows 7 has at least a 10 GB footprint and requires 16 GB available disk, while Vista is reported to take up around 11 GB and requires at least 15 GB of available disk.

From that, it seems that Windows 7 is marginally leaner than Vista. However, compared to Windows XP, which only consumes 1-1.5 GB of storage, Windows 7 looks like a bloated pig.

Microsoft misjudged the market badly with Vista. It really can't afford another slipup with Windows 7.

The netbook space is not going to disappear and Microsoft only managed to gain dominance of the market because it had XP.

If Windows 7 really needs full blown notebook specs to run acceptably, then Microsoft had better be prepared to keep Windows XP going for a few more years complete with new service packs or cede the market to Linux.

Meanwhile, before Windows 7 RC is released to the public, this writer is downloading a review copy of the new OS to a Eee PC 1000HD. This is not an entry level netbook but it is powered by a Celeron 900 MHz processor. The results should be interesting.