Josh's Windows Weblog » Microsoft Windows coming to Netbooks

Microsoft Windows coming to Netbooks

 Versus

You know those really tiny notebooks, often called Netbooks. Well, according to an announcement today by Microsoft there will soon be a lot of these little guys running Windows. 

Microsoft is working with over 20 OEMs to bring Windows to these recently popularized devices.

Microsoft is working with more than 20 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including Acer Inc., ASUSTek Computer Inc., BenQ Corp., Dell Inc., First International Computer Inc., Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd., HP, Inventec Corp., Lenovo, Medion AG, Micro-Star International Co., Positivo Informatica, Pegatron Corp., Quanta Computer Inc. and Wistron Corp. to deliver Windows-based offerings for consumers.

Now the only question is...What version of "Windows" will these devices be getting?

A read of the press release which is very carefully worded doesn't seem to give a good indicator which version they are agreeing to let these tiny devices run, it just says "Widnows"  engadget says its all about Windows XP.

If that is true, does this mean that Microsoft is conceding that even Windows Vista Home Basic is too much for these devices? Or are the OEM's making this demand of extending XP's life on Microsoft?

Posted Jun 03 2008, 09:28 AM by Josh Phillips
Filed under: ,

Follow Me on Twitter

Did you enjoy this article? If yes, then subscribe to our RSS 2.0 feed or

Comments

Bink wrote re: Microsoft Windows coming to Netbooks
on 06-03-2008 9:38 AM

The truth is Vista is amazingly bloated—and Microsoft knows this—so the only way to run Windows on lower-end hardware is to use an older version of Windows.  Perhaps if Microsoft comes out with an actual embedded version of Vista, like it’s done for other versions of Windows, we might see Vista on lower-powered hardware.  (There’s a Windows Vista for Embedded Systems, but it’s basically a full version of Vista with restrictions.)

Windows Vista, for all of its advancements, just kind of seems a bit Windows Me-ish.  Sad.

Josh Phillips wrote re: Microsoft Windows coming to Netbooks
on 06-03-2008 9:44 AM

So you don't think they could make a Vista "NetBook" edition that basically disabled all the eye candy and took out some of the overhead?

and if they did, would the OEM's even want it?

Bink wrote re: Microsoft Windows coming to Netbooks
on 06-03-2008 9:53 AM

I definitely think they can, but Microsoft hasn’t been thinking too well lately—and I agree that with all the bad press Vista’s gotten, the OEMs might not even want it.

Truth is, I practically use Vista daily, and happily use it over Windows XP, but I would be woefully unproductive if I had to run this beast on older hardware.

JoeM wrote re: Microsoft Windows coming to Netbooks
on 06-03-2008 10:58 AM

I think Vista Basic should be fine for those machines.  I have installed Vista Basic on 4+ year old machines, and they run fine (the same as XP was running on the same machine).

Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Powered by Community Server (Non-Commercial Edition), by Telligent Systems Themed By nb development