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Netbooks: Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter?
Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter?
by PCAMLV - 10/27/09 1:06 PMI've decided to get a netbook for when I'm out of the office -- keep up with emails, download and forward pdf files, etc. The iphone's great, but I need a bigger screen. Anyhow, the Asus 1005HA-P is where I've landed. Now the question is, which operating system do I want? Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter?
What are the +/- of each? If I go with Windows 7 Starter, can I upgrade to Home Premium if I find it's not working for me? If so, what $ am I looking at to do that?
I've seen the charts comparing the various versions of Windows 7, but I need someone to speak to me in user terms if at all possible.
Things that are important to me:
- Quick access to internet. Want it to go from in my bag to up and working in as little time as possible. I'm impatient and loathe waiting. Plus my job is super fast paced.
- Multiple internet windows open. I'm a multi-tasker.
- Battery life is nice, but I'll be buying a plug anyhow so I don't imagine it's a deal-breaker if one lengthens/shortens the life a tad.
Oh, and I should add that I've been a mac user for years. So... it's not like I'm familiar with any of the recent versions of Windows.... except Vista, which causes me to want to hurt someone each time I touch it, but since that's not part of the discussion, we'll stop there.
Get XP
by d_adams - 10/30/09 8:02 PM In reply to: Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter? by PCAMLVI would not advise trying to use Windows 7 on any of the current netbooks...they are just too underpowered, especially if you are, as you say, a multitasker. Also, if you dislike Vista, it's extremely unlikely that you'll take to Windows 7. They are VERY similar.
As far as Windows 7 is concerned, the "starter" version is probably all you'd need for what you listed, but I repeat, if you get windows 7, don't expect to be able to multitask a whole lot. XP is a much 'lighter' OS, in terms of memory usage, and particularly demands on your graphics card, because it was made back in the day when most computers had slightly less power than a modern Netbook.
Most netbooks come with 1GB of memory and an onboard graphics chip, meaning the GPU(graphics chip) is using a part of your system memory. And, 1GB is the stated system requirement for win7, BUT I'd advise 2GBs at least, especially if there's an onboard GPU. Remember all the boasts about the 'eye candy' in Vista/Windows 7? Well, that's going to tax your GPU a lot, and thus your memory. So, in a netbook, I'm fairly certain this will come at a great cost to performance. Plus, Windows 7 (or at least the "starter" version) doesn't do a whole lot more than XP. It's just got a fancier interface, an instant search ability, and...well, that's it.
I think the upgrade cost to Home Premium is $150, but I'm not certain about that...
Anyway, for what you said you'd use it for, XP should be OK. I am not a big XP fan myself, but I'd rather have it than 7 on a netbook.
Final verdict: XP and Win7 Starter are going to have about the same capabilities, so it's really going to come down to performance, and I think XP has it's newer cousin beat in that respect. It may look 'old school' with the blue taskbar and nontransparent windows, but these small losses do enable XP to run better in a lower performance computer.
Have fun with the new machine!
Note: I personally completely bypassed the whole netbook thing and got a new MacBook Pro 13" to act as my 'supernetbook', but it was kind of costly.
Get 7
by R. Proffitt
- 10/31/09 7:43 AM
In reply to: Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter? by PCAMLV
It's not heavy on the machine and you get all the latest without having to deal with an old OS.
7 Performance was fine here.
by R. Proffitt - 11/21/09 7:29 AM
In reply to: Get 7 by R. Proffitt
I ranked it same as XP on out test machines. Both were single core machines with 512MB and 1GB RAM. Both were running XP before and after the 7 tests. 7 booted and ran as fast as XP. Naysayers may not have done these tests.
Bob
Performance on win 7 worse
by canonyau - 11/21/09 5:37 AM In reply to: Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter? by PCAMLVTried out Windows XP and Windows 7 Starter side by side on a netbook in a local shop, just opening and closing applications and I can easily see that thing like word processing opens much more smoothly (ie instantly) on XP when minimising and maximising it from the task bar. Windows 7 on the other hand seems to stutter, the top of the page coming up a split second before the bottom of the page. I will stick with XP on a netbook as the extra cost of a windows 7 with worse performance just doesn't make any sense. Clearly not what netbooks were designed for.
Just my opinion but the personal characteristics
by Steven Haninger - 11/21/09 7:04 AM In reply to: Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter? by PCAMLVyou've presented yourself to have don't sound like a good match for current netbook offerings. You say you're impatient and a multi-tasker. That's strikes one and two. As for getting on the internet, the only limiting factor I see with a netbook is that it loads a browser more slowly than a higher end laptop. The difference won't be more than a second or two, however. If this won't be an aggravation, you might be ok but you're not going to open a lot of programs and work between them with much speed. If you've used these already, you probably know you'll be dealing with a smaller screen and probably find yourself scrolling horizontally as well as vertically. The keyboards are smaller as you should know. How well they work for you will depend largely on how well you type. I'm a reasonably good typist and don't "hunt and peck" well because my fingers know where the keys are better than my eyes do. Scrunching fingers to fit a netbook isn't fun. Still, for traveling, they are reasonable. They do come with 12 inch screens now but this puts them in the realm of smaller and more powerful laptops that might be more suited to your cited character. A couple hundred more $$ might fetch something you could live better with. Just my thoughts.
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