Windows 7: Windows 7 Starter Or Xp...

Just bought this netbook and was wondering what OS I should put on it? Windows 7 or XP?

What OS is better for performance/battery life.



UPDATE

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...xp,2339-3.html

Made up my mind...

Did you notice that they're benchmarking against the 'Release Candidate'? This was release early last year and there have been significant changes since it RTM'd

Yes I did, are you saying that the RTM will now offer better battery life for netbooks? Cause I doubt it...

Hi there
I recently bought an acer aspire one AO150 which came pre-installed with Windows 7 Starter.

System has 1 GB RAM and the newer AMD processor.

I removed Windows 7 Starter and all the "crapware" that is usually installed on store bought computers and installed Windows 7 PRO 32 bit instead.

Works fine. Also installed Office 2010 and Photoshop CS5 (just photoshop -- not the whole CS5 suite).

System performs perfectly adequately although running photoshop for long periods on a small netbook isn't ideal. It's fine though in a Hotel room while travelling.

If you get these small netbooks there is NO reason why you have to put up with Windows 7 starter.

Almost ANY Windows 7 32 bit edition will run just fine on these.


BTW if you do change or re-install the OS on these acer netbooks download the drivers before you start.

The one's you will need are the WIRELESS, CARD READER and WEBCAM.

For WIFI there are two drivers and for the webcam 3 drivers -- download them all and after you've re-installed your OS just try them out in turn. Only the correct one will work -- this depends on the actual hardware in the netbook.

You can also get rid of the "hidden" restore partition as well since you won't need it any more

Cheers
jimbo

SevenNerd,
Go with Win 7. I have an Asus netbook that came with XP. I wiped the disk clean and installed Win 7 Ultimate. Performance is better and the OS is much, much better.

Oh yes, at the time I did this ASUS didn't even offer drivers for my model. Since that time they now offer Win 7 drivers, but I'm happy with the way the system is.

Understood, by the way isnt the reason net books use windows 7 starter is for its low resource count?

I have a Samsung N140 that came with 1 GB RAM and Win 7 starter. It is S L O W but I wouldn't consider XP. The CPU usage is poor with this system but I just attribute that to the CPU. I see 50 to 100% usage a lot. I upgraded it to 2GB of RAM as it was also showing high RAM usage with relatively nothing open.

The battery life is rated at 8 hours after full charge, I haven't tested that but the battery life is very good.

I recently installed Win 7 Pro 32 on 3 Acer Aspire One AOA150 netbooks with the older ATOM processor. Win 7 installed all needed drivers except the one for the built-in card reader. I also maxed the RAM out on all 3 to 1.5G. Performance is good, as least as good as it was with XP.

Just a couple of things.

1) MS is due to pull life support from XP at some point in the near future, keep that in mind.

2) Most netbooks come with 1 gb ram and onboard graphics which means the GPU will suck a part of the memory. So try maxing your ram. Remember the recommended minimum ram for Windows 7 is 2gb.

3) A lot of benchmarking studies say XP gives better battery life. But if you arent going to be moving around that much, it doesnt matter.

4) Consider junking either option and buying a Windows 7 home premium. For a few extra dollars you'll get a full featured edition.

Bill,

Straight from Microsoft:
That said, I always recommend two gigs as a practical minimum.