Restrictions on OpSys for Netbooks Defined

Steve Ballmer confirmed that there will be a limit on what the classification will be for Netbooks that can come preinstalled with Windows Starter Edition. OEM Manufacturers have a very tight margin on the low end units so it is very important to them to be able to available as low of a priced Operating System that they can manage to get from Microsoft.

Steve Ballmer stated a recent Microsoft-hosted day with the Wall Street analysts: "Our license tells you what a Netbook is,". "Our license says it's got to have a super-small screen, which means it probably has a super-small keyboard, and it has to have a certain processor and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

The graphic above shows you the hardware requirements of what Microsoft machine limitations that qualifies a Netbook to use either of the two lower priced operating systems. The Windows XP Home will actually be priced less than Windows 7 Starter Edition (a premium $30-$40 price point).

We have already seen several machines axed by Microsoft’s Software Police. Dell Inspiron Mini 12 (12 inch screen), MSI Wind U115 (both SSD and Standard Harddrive combined in the System), Archos 10 (500GB HDD and 2GB RAM), Raon Everun Note (Dual-core processor) and Dell Mini 0 (2GB RAM). All of these models are hearing the Death Nell.

You will be able to upgrade your Windows 7 Starter Edition to more capable versions of Windows 7 as you wish but Microsoft’s whole guideline is based on their trying to get the right operating system on the right machine to give the user the best experience. I have been running Windows 7 Ultimate on a 2GB upgraded Acer Aspire One Netbook with no problems what so ever. The video streaming could be a little better but that is the only thing that I could ask for on this level of a machine.