RSSOn second thought, Microsoft lifts Windows 7's three-app limit for netbooks
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published May 29, 2009, 5:41 PM
If it's a counter that's determining arbitrarily how many applications your limited edition of Windows 7 should be allowed to run, how much precious system resources does that counter consume? And couldn't that memory and space be put to better use, say, running an app? Where and how should netbook manufacturers tell customers they can only run three Windows apps at a time? These were the kinds of questions Microsoft's engineers have been fielding with regard to a limitation in the company's forthcoming Windows 7 Starter Edition, a SKU of the operating system it wants netbook manufacturers to pre-install.
In an indication this afternoon that all this listening to consumers' wishes may be giving Microsoft's people a headache, the company's Win7 evangelist Brandon LeBlanc announced this afternoon the addition to Starter Edition of a kind of feature, if not in fact the subtraction of a feature that nobody wanted: The three-app counter will be gone.
Hiding his message in an announcement touting "worldwide availability," LeBlanc wrote, "We are...going to enable Windows 7 Starter customers the ability to run as many applications simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included. We believe these changes will make Windows 7 Starter an even more attractive option for customers who want a small notebook PC for very basic tasks, like browsing the Web, checking e-mail, and personal productivity."
Even that's just three items, and users could certainly add more to that list, breaking the old barrier. To make sure users hold it down a bit after being thrown a big bone, LeBlanc added that the company will not relent in its decision not to add the Aero front-end, sound and graphics customization, Media Player streaming, or XP Mode to Starter Edition. Many netbooks will run on processors like Intel's Atom, whose integrated graphics would not be capable of rendering Aero anyway, and which does not support the hardware virtualization libraries necessary to run XP Mode.
The Intel GMA950 on the Dell Mini10 (*not the 10v*) can handle Aero, but some say it's a bit slow and sluggish for their tastes, but still runs nonetheless. I think they should make it turned OFF by default on all Starter Edition installs and give you the option to turn it on and let you, the end user, decide if it's fast/slow enough for you. Microsoft should not be going around telling us what they think is good or not for us!
Also, those below who said Atom CPU's can't do VT, that's not 100% correct. The Z5xx series do indeed support hardware VT, per Intel PDF specs pages.
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|"they should make it turned OFF by default on all Starter Edition installs and give you the option to turn it on and let you, the end user, decide if it's fast/slow enough for you. Microsoft should not be going around telling us what they think is good or not for us!"
How is that *any* different from the current scenario other than the defaults are swapped? It is enabled by default and the user can choose to *disable* it. The only difference is that you're asking for the default to be GDI instead of Aero... which is kinda ridiculous if you stop to think about it considering Aero *is* the Win7 interface. GDI is ... *so* yesterday (to borrow a phrase from my daughter).
Aero is the interface of Win7. Of course it is the default if the install detects the GPU can handle it.
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|The overall point was that MS should *put/leave* Aero in the Starter Edition. Default on or off, guess it doesn't matter, although default of off would be more logical on machines that run Aero like dogmeat. That way the end user won't pitch a fit if Aero is running like crap from a default install. And yes, I know it's a 5 second job to turn it on/off, but some people are pure lazy and that 5 seconds is better left for other things.
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|I think Microsoft might have missed a trick by not making a "Set-top box edition" to complement the starter edition.
I would be great to have a basic (ie, cheap) version of Windows 7, perhaps with an application limit and Aero Basic, but with the Media Centre and ability to run on a TV set.
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|"Many netbooks will run on processors like Intel's Atom, whose integrated graphics would not be capable of rendering Aero anyway, and which does not support the hardware virtualization libraries necessary to run XP Mode."
Wow.
Scott...stick to hardware articles. Seriously.
1. Aero works *fine* on my Aspire One. WHat was your testing methodology for *this* claim? Was there any? Or did you just take a wild guess? Do you no longer bother to do *any* research for your Windows articles anymore?
2. XPM is for enterprise use. Not for grandma...not for the kids...it is there to allow enterprises to continue to use software they have yet to make vista/win7 compatible. Why on Earth would *anyone* run it on a netbook? Do you seriously think netbooks are going to replace the corporate desktop? Would you expect people to be running VMWare on them? No? Then why XPM?
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|Good, now everyone press Microsoft to allow customizing wallpaper, sounds, themes or "personalization" in their language.
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|Netbooks are the top selling computers currently. For MS to only be able to provide a crippled version of Windows to use is "poor thinking". A Hackintosh install on MSI Wind or Dell provides a completely functional version of OS X. Apple is not even trying and they are doing a better job than MS.
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|"Many netbooks will run on processors like Intel's Atom, whose integrated graphics would not be capable of rendering Aero anyway, and which does not support the hardware virtualization libraries necessary to run XP Mode."
All Atom chipsets use the 945GSE chipset that uses the GMA 950 integrated GPU. It is not in any way, 'awesome' but for stuff like Aero, it works just fine, even on Vista.
I actually have a Acer One Netbook with a 270 Atom, 1GB of RAM, and Win7 Ultimate installed. Aero works great and is actually extremely fluid on the Intel GMA 950 GPU.
(Side note: Win7 is remarkably faster and more usable than XP that shipped on the netbook. Not only are IE and Explorer just snappier, but it does standby instantly and resume from hibernate is 2-3 seconds - in contrast to XP where standby was 2-3 seconds and hibernate was 10-20.)
As for XP Mode, ya that is not going to work on a Atom Netbook, but I don't think people fully understand XP Mode, as it is just a virtualization environment that runs seamless on the desktop, and is intended for corporate applications that just simply fail on the Vista or Win7 architecture.
Atom can't do HW virtualization, you are correct about that, but there are TONS of CPUs that also can't from Pentium4s to even the D class and many Core Duos that are also still being sold.
This will be confusing enough to people, but again, most people really shouldn't pay much attention to XP Mode unless they are in an IT or corporate environment with legacy software that doesn't run on Vista or Win7.
Running an application in 'XP Mode' is going to be slower than just running it natively if the application will run on Win7, which 99.9% of the software out there will.
Additionally, you can still run Virtual PC 2007 on Windows7, and run XP or several other virtual OSes, and in effect you are getting the same thing, just that the applications will be contained in the 'Virtual PC' Window and not appear on the desktop as a seamlessly.
(Or VirtualBox or VMWare, etc... Virtual PC is easy example as it also uses the VHD format and seems to have better performance when running on Windows and Guest hosting any version of Windows.)
Also people need to keep in mind and 'remind' users that the 'NetBook/Starter' Edition of Win7 is only so OEMs can buy it for a few bucks a copy instead of the full OS price, letting them put Win7 on cheaper devices.
They need this 'cheaper' version because Netbooks are almost 'appliance' devices and are slowly replacing the UMPC and even Windows Mobile markets. (Don't be surprised to see phones running Win7 before Windows Mobile 7 is released, which is a different product.)
As the low end market s***s and phones and tiny netbooks can run a desktop OS, there is a need for a 'cheap' or limited version that companies like Verizon or ATT can use and and configure and sell cheaply, as you are already seeing with ATT Acer 3G Netbooks at Radio Shack for $49.99...
(Which is why I picked one up to add to my 3G on the road abilities and it makes a great PDA/Media Player, and full desktop computer as well. In fact, it is being my ad-hoc router for my other computers at my Hotel that doesn't have WiFi as I type this. If you are mainly using Web and computing features, why have an iPhone when you can have a full computer cheaper? And you can always do Skype and other VOIP with a bluetooth headset, but it is a few inches bigger so not recommended as a phone replacement, grin...
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|Considering the memory requirements of XPM, I'm not sure why anyone would expect to see it on a netbook.
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|Scott, the Atom chipset works just fine with Aero (it's 950GMA and the graphics should only improve with the new Atom chipset this summer).
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|Looking into my magic ball... I see a near hack for enabling XP mode on Starter Edition... even if it will works like running MacOS in a non-Apple PC...
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|I have an acer aspire one and have no issues using aero with the atom chipset and intel graphics. Running windows 7.
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