Samsung Open to Using Intel CULV, Not So Keen on Win 7 Starter

Samsung is all about jumping on board with the coming months new technologies. Well to a degree. Yesterday afternoon at the CEA’s Digital Downtown event in New York City, LAPTOP Magazine Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer hosted a panel on the future of netbooks. Todd Bouman, Samsung’s U.S. Director of Product Marketing and Development Mobile Computing, shed some light on the company’s notebook plans. On the subject of Windows 7 Starter Edition for netbooks, Bouman indicated that the company wasn’t sold on the entry level Microsoft offering. “Samsung will run Windows XP for as long as we can,” he stated. Samsung has been one of the few netbook vendors without a Linux offering and it doesn’t plan to change its tune on open-source anytime soon. “The feedback on the Linux offerings is that they don’t have the environments down yet. It doesn’t mean we are opposed to one who is doing it right,” he added. Bouman also added that Samsung is looking carefully at Intel’s ULV platform for its notebooks. “We see it as a gap filler and as an emerging technology that allows us to fill the needs consumers,” he explained. Currently, Samsung uses Via’s Nano processor in its NC20 product, which is a likely candidate for the ULV platform.