Comments on: Microsoft Defends Windows 7 Starter Edition for Netbooks, Calls Linux Users Geeks

By: James Lehman

James Lehman — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 22:02:47 +0000

So the choice for Netbooks is clear

Win7 Starter-Too Limited
Win 7-Other Version Too Heavy
XP-Too Old
Linux-Too Strange.
Windows Fundamentals-Too Scarce and Illegal!

Sigh maybe I’ll get a netbook when all this clears.

By: Marie

Marie — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:59:40 +0000

Solution=Ubunu Netbook Edition or Ubuntu

By: John B

John B — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:26:51 +0000

The heavy invasion of netbooks I think is definetly great for the industry, allowing more individuals to get their hands on decent technology while remaining portable and powerful. It would have been nice to see these types of netbooks be offered for the one laptop per child program if it was possible, but the energy cost to run these units might have been prohibitive.

Furthermore I would like to see the option of netbooks being sold without an OS or preloaded software to keep prices even lower. If Microsoft doesn’t produce a custom OS for these “mini” types of technology then it will be as if they are trying to use a flat head screw driver for a phillips head job, it just won’t work effectively.

By: Ian D Nock

Ian D Nock — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:49:14 +0000

Nice to see Microsoft releasing a crippled product that no one wants to justify keeping their prices high. £200 for a consumer OS is not justifiable, and even the £60 OEM prices are not justifiable. The direct costs for OS support and development do not justify more the £15 OEM/£50 Consumer pricing and netbooks have really been challenging to get this. A consumer cannot understand why a bunch of hardware in their hand costs LESS than the piece of software.

This approach of releasing the starter version will fail to sell as consumers see no value in artificially crippled software and this can only be the start of the alternative desktop’s success.

Consumers want computing equipment in the £150 to £400 range – hard to do when the OS is £50 to £200, and they will have little loyalty to Windows when you compare full function software and low cost hardware with crippled software and low cost hardware.

By: Dennis Murczak

Dennis Murczak — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:32:15 +0000

Wherever Paterson lives, it isn’t reality. I especially like the refences to “their data” that has obviously nothing to do with where the market is and what consumers want. I also like the sprinkled-in Anti-Linux FUD, which unfortunately nobody buys into anymore today.

Yes, this is exactly what I expected to hear from a Microsoft spokesperson. Nothing to see here, move along.

By: TomLoon

TomLoon — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:07:55 +0000

Comforting to see ARROGANCE is still alive and well at Microsoft

By: pimlicosound

pimlicosound — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:26:52 +0000

I don’t know anyone who owns a netbook who falls into the demographic Mr Paterson describes above:

“college grads, in their 40’s, with a family, making over 75 grand a year”

In my experience, people in that demographic have never heard of a netbook. Every netbook owner I know is in his 20s, single and on a middle income.

By: Fanfoot

Fanfoot — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:20:28 +0000

Good article. Thanks for the interview.

Personally, I don’t care a whit about the three app limit that everybody is making so much noise about. I don’t tend to do that many things on my netbook, unlike my other computers.

When you say no multi-touch though, do you mean the multi-touch SCREEN like in the T91 or are you talking about multi-touch on the trackpad, something added to XP today via device drivers by lots of OEMs. I’m assuming Microsoft can’t really prevent the latter no?

As far as the better performance of Windows 7 vs. XP on a netbook, I expect you not to take Microsoft at their word. The RC is out, you should be able to do some benchmarking even now. Is the battery life better with 7 than XP? What about the startup and shutdown times? Microsoft has made a certain amount of noise about these things, and while people “feel” that Windows 7 is “snappier” that often hasn’t translated into benchmark wins that I’ve seen so far, but that was pre-RC…

Keep up the good work.

By: Louis

Louis — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:20:10 +0000

You quoted him as saying “look at the best selling skews.” It’s not “skews,” it’s “SKUs.” SKU is a stock keeping number, it’s the item number.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:01:54 +0000

I don’t like the way this guy looks at the netbook market.