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It looks like the question of whether netbook makers will ship machines with the crippled (but cheap) Windows 7 Starter Edition has been resolved. They will.

We’ve already learned that the Samsung N130 and N140 netbooks will be available at launch with the stripped down version of Windows 7 instead of the pricier Windows 7 Home Premium. And now PC maker Herculues has announced plans to launch the eCafe EC-1000W netbook which will also ship with Windows 7 Starter.

Hercules isn’t a household name in the US, but the company has a handful of netbooks under its belt in Europe. The eCafe EC-1000W is a 10 inch model with your usual netbook specs including a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB hard drive. The netbook has a 6 cell, 4400mAh battery.

The laptop has a chiclet-style keyboard and an attractive looking lid. Hercules will also give customers 40GB of online storage space to backup their files. The EC-1000W will set you back 349 Euros, which is about $497 US.