Microsoft has received compliments for its Windows 7 operating system, but the OS still has been unable to become relevant in the netbook market.
The Windows 7 Starter OS, which looks fine on paper, uses higher system resources and drains more battery life than Windows XP. Furthermore, the Windows 7 Starter edition lacks some of the basic features of regular Windows 7, which has left some netbook owners frustrated.
Unless Microsoft makes several drastic changes, such as allowing users to change the background, XP will remain the most dominant OS used on netbooks. Windows 7 Starter also doesn't allow external DVD support, so users are unable to watch movies or read data from a DVD if using an external drive.
The software giant now faces increased pressure from Google Chromium and other Linux-based operating systems that could become more popular on netbooks. I'm a Linux enthusiast -- especially Ubuntu Linux and Debian -- but have had better luck using XP-powered netbooks. Despite giving Microsoft additional credit for releasing a fairly stable OS for PCs, I haven't enjoyed using netbooks running Windows 7 Starter, as the OS is difficult to work with.
My netbook, similar to many other popular models, didn't ship with an internal DVD drive -- I purchased a USB DVD drive, and it's useless when using Win 7 Starter. Microsoft's answer to this problem: Pay $79.99 to upgrade the netbook's OS from Win 7 Starter up to Windows 7 Home edition.
Building off some of the starting blocks in Windows Vista, the Windows 7 GUI itself is sleek and easy to use, though the same cannot be said about Windows 7 Starter.
If you're a netbook owner, does your netbook run XP or Windows 7? Have you tried Windows 7 Starter on your netbook? If so, what do you think?
