Windows 7 Starter Edition Is Too Wimpy for New Netbooks

Will Nokia's Booklet run the barebones Windows 7 Starter Edition or Home Premium, a far more capable OS that Microsoft has targeted for full-size portables?

By Jeff Bertolucci
Mon, August 24, 2009

PC World — Nokia's new Booklet 3G netbook looks impressive. With its sleek aluminum shell, 12-hour battery, Wi-Fi, 3G broadband, and GPS, it's a slick package (on paper, anyway, since we haven't tested it yet) that should appeal to folks who want a mini-note with the capabilities of full-size notebooks.

The Booklet 3G is one of several premium netbooks that are just now reaching the market. Two other examples, both priced below or near $500, include the Samsung Go, a new mini-note with a 10.1-inch display, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, and 1GB of RAM (upgradable to 2GB); and Sony's first netbook, the Vaio W, which has a 10-inch screen with an impressive (for a netbook) resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels.

Both the Samsung and Sony netbooks come with Windows XP. Nokia says the Booklet will come with Windows 7--no surprise there--but it hasn't said which version of Win 7. Will it run Windows 7 Starter Edition (SE), a barebones operating system built for cheap netbooks? Or will it feature Windows 7 Home Premium, a far more capable OS that Microsoft has targeted for desktops and full-size portables?

Netbooks are evolving rapidly. Many of the latest models aren't the flimsy, underpowered portables of a year ago. They're acquiring faster processors, higher-resolution displays, and better graphics. In short, they're too good for Starter Edition (SE), which smells a lot like trialware. SE lacks the cool tools that make Windows 7 fun, including the sleek Aero Peek interface, changeable desktop wallpaper, and premium games, as well as handy usability tools like the Windows Mobility Center. It also doesn't have multi-touch capabilities that seem particularly well-suited to netbooks, with their tiny keyboards and mousepads.

Given Starter Edition's lameness, you'd think that netbook vendors might shun it and install Windows 7 Home Premium instead. Not so. Samsung says its Go netbook will ship with SE, starting in November. Nokia's Win 7 plans are fuzzy at this point. And Dell recently told me that its netbooks will continue to offer a variety of OS options, including "Ubuntu and Windows-based editions."

Something's fishy here. It's not as if the entire genre of netbooks is too wimpy to run Windows 7 Home Premium. If that were the case, Microsoft would have announced recently that Win 7 SE users will be able to upgrade to Home Premium for $80. Rather, this is about Microsoft's desire to cripple the netbook category and upsell consumers to Home Premium.

Sadly, many buyers will shell out $400 or so for a reasonably-powered netbook with a 10-inch display, only to learn they've been saddled with a feeble version of Windows 7. A classic bait-and-switch? It sure looks that way. It's also a recipe for consumer ire. Nobody wants to pay a fairly significant sum for a consumer electronics device, only to learn they must pay an additional $80 for features they were expecting.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com.

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