Microsoft has apparently told computer makers that machines with hybrid SSD and hard drive based storage don’t qualify for low cost Windows XP licenses. But MSI says that’s not going to affect its decision to sell the MSI Wind U115, which happens to be the only netbook on the market fitting that description right now.

The Wind U115 has just started to go on sale in the US, but it’s been available in Germany for a few months. And Netbook News.de has published a statement from MSI saying that the company plans to continue selling the hybrid netbook in that country through October.

The computer’s somewhat unique storage solution is designed to help extend battery life. The operating system and some programs can be installed on the faster SSD. The larger hard drive provides additional data storage. But when you don’t need to access any of the information on the hard drive, it can stop spinning, saving electricity.

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2 replies on “MSI to continue selling Wind U115 despite Microsoft’s new policy”

  1. You just wanna kick Microsoft in the soft bits don’t you !
    What a crock of …. change the licensing so that it is irrespective of the hardware and sell it based on the edition the user buys i.e. the more features (higher the edition) the more the cost

    Stop this foolishness where you do that AND you then charge them more based on the hardware they purchased !! It’s just plain wrong to do that especially when it is typically a single user system (not a server).

    I truly believe that there is a group of powerful corporates out there (incl MS and Intel) that don’t want the ATOM/Netbook thing to succeed as it is shaving their profit margins to an uncomfortable level.

    Look at Intel, they recently announced they hadn’t yet ratified all versions of Windows 7 on Netbooks except for the basic edition.

    I fear for the future of netbooks because I have seen the greed creep in and with it the prices are going up and up. They are now selling Netbooks at the $800+ range which brings them perilously close to the low end laptops. God I hate this corporate greed.

    I have a AU$600 Samung NC10 and when I purchased that it was considered expensive. However it still was cheap enough but powerful enough to mean I could do away with my Toshiba Brick.

    Nowadays it is getting harder to say that when it comes to price

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