Lots of people bought Windows 7 Starter because it just made sense for them at the time. You make it seem like no one has a Windows 7 Starter netbook when there are millions of them out there.

I'll have to read up on the differences between Starter and Home Premium but $50 doesn't sound like a bad deal to upgrade your OS. I don't think it's been that cheap since you could go to XP from Windows 98 or Me.

OR you could just give the _free_ and _open-source_ Linux system a test run and save the MS upgrade money.

Unlike the costly and heavy MS windows versions targetting desktop machines, there are Linux “distributions” that are both light-weight and optimized for netbooks' smaller screens.

Because MS has most hardware manufacturers under restrictive bulk licencing schemes (keeping competition from being preloaded) sometimes latest models of netbooks may have components or setups that aren't fully supported by the Linux distros yet, but it's worth checking out anyway: just download a “live OS” system (or two, for comparison) for your USB stick and boot. Or google for the name and model of your netbook together with popular Linux distros for netbooks and laptops, such as:

Jolicloud, Moblin (now known as Meego, by Intel and Nokia), Ubuntu Netbook Remix or perhaps Chrome OS or Android by Google.

They're as light or lighter than windows XP but up to date like Mac OS X or windows 7, and more secure too.

In fact MS is only giving this “discount” for upgrading from the silly windows “starter edition” to a more (or perhaps too) functional desktop OS because enough people have already chose to use Linux instead.

Btw. Netbook-centric sites like this one would do well to increase their coverage and reviews of non-MS alternatives (specifically aimed at these lower-end systems no less) as a useful and informative service to your readers, but it's your call is you want to concentrate on listing bog-standard specifications (+ “windows starter of course) with the odd screenshot.

Or you could keep your $50 and install Ubuntu or Jolicloud and get a universe of software FREE. Checkout these simple screenshots for more information:
http://www.humans-enabled.com/2010/04/ubuntu-un…

Find out what you're missing, get yourself onto GNU/Linux.
Read more at Ubuntu.com, Jolicloud.com, and Linux.com

You fail to mention that not all netbooks can handle the upgraded version of Windows 7. Many will bog down on the extra CPU time used for background processes if they upgrade.

Ubuntu is a great alternative.

When Google Chome OS comes who will shell out this amount?

Oh, well; another waste of my time. I clicked on this 'news' article because I thought Microsoft had finally come to their senses and was giving us users of real, supported, problems-fixed-immediately, major-upgrades-every-six-months operating systems $50 to try their offering, to see if we could live without all those benefits, which should be standard fare for an OS costing $100-$200, or more.
On second thought, if they did that, the price for the inferior operating system would still be 'way too high.

Not worth the $50. The most important feature, “XP compatibility/Virtual PC” mode, isn't available until “Pro” and higher. Until then, all you get are some worthless gizmos and things which will probably only serve to drain your battery even faster.

I mean, if the most important things you do on your PC are change backgrounds, whine about bezels, and watch movies, it might be worth it.