As for your statement on one version, you are comparing apples to oranges, pardon the pun. Apple OSX was designed to be a home based operating system. Limited peer-to-peer networking and such. Windows on the other hand does MUCH more in a business environment, so it makes sense to have two primary versions of the OS, Home Premium and Professional.

Now, I don't condone the inclusion of Windows 7 Starter in North America, but I thought I should point out some of these facts.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archi…

BTW did the version stop piracy or hacks to get around the limitatons? I have no data, but I guess not.

Now, your point about that the market will not tolerate the starter version is right. But there is a spillover of dislike to the other versions, as people see the stupid limitations of the OS. Add to that that it will (probably) not sell at all except to a few people who do not know about computers and I think it will be a net loss for Microsoft, and for 7. And it will not reduce piracy.

And for the people stuck with one what are the options? Jailbreaking, piracy or switching to linux.

What I see here is that Microsoft refuses to realise that if they could sell an OS for $100 when a PC cost $1000, they can't continue to do that when a PC is costing $300!

This is nothing but an attempt by MS to sell a practically unusable OS to force unsuspecting customers to “upgrade” to a version much too expensive compared to the hardware they bought.

Consumer won't pay $400 for a Windows netbook when the same is available for $300 with Linux, So now they will sell the Windows netbook with “starter” for $320 and then charge $80 for the upgrade when the user realise the limitations of the software. this means that most people will pay a lot more for their OS than what they intended.

Unless the limitation is very clearly advertised this borders on fraud and will probably end up with a class action like the “ready for Windows Vista” debacle.

“For OEMs that build lower-cost small notebook PCs, Windows 7 Starter will now be available in developed markets.”
– http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/200…

It's certain XP will no longer be offered as an option by Microsoft for hardware manufacturers. They've been working on retiring XP for quite a while, but to fend off Linux on netbooks they've been forced to continue to offer XP– reportedly at giveaway prices. Starter will be the new giveaway OS to replace XP.

Some netbook makers won't touch it, because they know their customers will hate Starter. Others will be reluctant to increase prices on netbooks to include Home Premium, so they'll cross their fingers, install Starter, and promote the easy upgradability of Windows 7. I predict though that within a year or so the 3-app limit will have been so derided that most netbook makers will drop Starter from most machines, especially at retail. So there will be two versions of each netbook to choose from: a Linux version and a MUCH pricier version with Home Premium. It'll be a good day for Linux.

Microsoft could easily respond by offering Home Basic for domestic consumption (it's currently only for “emerging markets”) but I don't think they will. So Linux netbooks will sell pretty well.

why not ship ONE version (like Apple do)?

Or cripple the shipping version and allow people to buy the extra bits if they want them? Actually, that won't work… people will just find ways to key enable the extra bits.

Go on MS, have the balls to ship one version with options to turn off performance sapping bloatware on low spec machines. There, it's been said.

I tried Linux. Sorry, it might be alright for basic users who just want to run a few simple programs but for us middle group who like to/have to run Windows programs or who want to do simple things (like add extra fonts for their work processing programs) Linux is not user friendly enough. In the end I put XP on the netbook instead. Ran well, worked as expected.

I'm not anti-Linux. I also played with Vista on a new laptop and couldn't stand the way they moved things around (for no reason) and slowed it down so much. Reverted that to XP too and suddenly the new laptop actually performed like it was a new laptop

What does Windows 7 do better than XP to make it worth buying? Really? When Windows gained plug-and-play and USB ports and DVD drivers it was worth upgrading. Now it's just steep relearning curves, some eye candy and nothing really new.

- better SSD performance (unproven, to be tested, so far all I've seen is they will disable services like defragmentation automatically)
- better power management (again, to be tested)
- quicker boot times (haven't seen this one prove out yet vs. XP)
- quicker shutdown times (to be tested)

Also it does seem to me like some of the stuff, like the device stage, and the announcement service (replacing all those icons in your tray), and the icon based task bar are more space efficient than Windows XP.

Some of the stuff like the home group could be useful if you have other Windows 7 PCs on your home network, or you actually use your netbook on your corporate network (unlikely?) so maybe don't matter so much.

why not ship ONE version (like Apple do)?

Or cripple the shipping version and allow people to buy the extra bits if they want them? Actually, that won't work… people will just find ways to key enable the extra bits.

Go on MS, have the balls to ship one version with options to turn off performance sapping bloatware on low spec machines. There, it's been said.

I tried Linux. Sorry, it might be alright for basic users who just want to run a few simple programs but for us middle group who like to/have to run Windows programs or who want to do simple things (like add extra fonts for their work processing programs) Linux is not user friendly enough. In the end I put XP on the netbook instead. Ran well, worked as expected.

I'm not anti-Linux. I also played with Vista on a new laptop and couldn't stand the way they moved things around (for no reason) and slowed it down so much. Reverted that to XP too and suddenly the new laptop actually performed like it was a new laptop

What does Windows 7 do better than XP to make it worth buying? Really? When Windows gained plug-and-play and USB ports and DVD drivers it was worth upgrading. Now it's just steep relearning curves, some eye candy and nothing really new.