I have Windows 7 starter edition on my ASUS NetBook. There are plenty of little shortcomings with this ‘training wheel ‘edition of Windows 7 to the degree that I am near to deciding to upgrade (Windows 7 Home Premium). From what I have found in my online research in this topic, it seems that the sole reason for NetBooks being equipped with this dumbed down version of windows was to save a few dollars.
To be honest, I can’t see much value in investing several hundred dollars for an OS upgrade (such as Windows 7 Ultimate Business…) on a small computer which cost me less than $400.00… It doesn’t make any sense, but an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium is only a bit over $75.00… there a some who would suggest traveling over to Ubuntu or some other Linux variant (for free…), but I am far to inured to using MS Word to really feel the need to head back to Open Office (or whatever it is called these days…a nice office replacement for free, but only that…).
The fact is that there is only a finite list of potential upgrades that you can perform to improve some aspect of performance to your computer experience when you have a NetBook. First off, you can use some flash memory as a RAM booster (this is literally a no-brainer in the world of performance improvements!!!), you can upgrade system RAM (i.e. swap out a memory stick), or upgrade the hard drive (a bit more involved, but only in physically swapping out the drive, the rest of the transfer and format tasks a pretty simple to deal with). That pretty well covers all of the conventional upgrades which any reasonably savvy home user can perform. After these issues are dealt with the only remaining topic is changing or upgrading the OS…
NetBook’s With Windows 7 Starter, What You Won’t Be Able to do
http://netbook-planet.com/2010/08/01/netbooks-with-windows-7-starter-what-you-wont-be-able-to-do
Windows 7 Starter Edition limits NetBook designs
http://windowssecrets.com/2009/06/04/03-Windows-7-Starter-Edition-limits-netbook-designs
How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14943/how-to-upgrade-your-netbook-to-windows-7-home-premium
I use and enjoy Windows XP, for it's flaws as well as it's joys. But I didn't pop up here just to rave about windows. Tad off topic, but you brought it up - I switched over to Open Office several years ago and have been pleasantly surprised by how robust and how well-featured it is. At least for a word processor. I have no need of other elements of the suite, like spreadsheets and such. But as word processors go, it's uncomplicated and does what it is designed to do. MS Word? It does much the same. But at a price. For me, there is no contest. When it's free, there's a bonus. I get to buy a cup of coffee and perhaps a Breakfast Banana Split once in a while.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like