With the surging growth in netbooks, and the sour taste left by the debacle of trying to run Windows Vista on 1GB netbooks, you'd hope that the brains in white lab coats at Redmond have a better plan for their next operating system, Windows 7.
According to a Sydney Morning Herald report (and various other sources), Microsoft have just announced the hardware specs for the upcoming Windows 7 Starter edition, although it's not exactly what we we're hoping for.
With a little careful reading between the lines, the specs read more like a set of draconian restrictions, especially when it comes to memory, which sets a 1GB base. But, why stop at 1GB? Surely Microsoft must of realised that the relative cheapness of memory makes it easier than ever to provide 2GB on board - so why not support it?
The report specifies that hardware manufacturers must build all future netbooks with the following in mind:
- 10.2 inch display (down from 12.1 inches for XP)
- 250GB hard drive, or 64GB solid state (up from 160GB/32GB for XP)
- 2GHz single core processor
- 1GB of RAM
However, if Microsoft are keen not to repeat their old Vista mistakes, they'll want to take a close look at how smoothly Windows 7 runs on netbooks, under a variety of settings. True, most netbook users won't be playing games or designing homes in Autocad 3D, but that won't stop enterprising consumers from purchasing their netbook as a cure-all for much of their personal computing needs. And they'll expect the best, otherwise the whole netbook sector will end up hurting.
Microsoft already have Ubuntu (Linux) and Android (Google) breathing down their necks as viable OS alternatives, so the pressure is on Ballmer's droids to get this right from the get-go or feel the big heave-ho from the customer at the check out.