GF wants one and the choice is between two similar speced and priced machines, one running XP and one running 7. Anyone got experience with both re: speed, ease of use etc?

She thinks ubuntu is weird so it is not really an option.

Thanks.

I've got windows 7 on mine. Not tried it with XP but I'm considering it to see if it runs any faster and smoother. I've got an MSI Wind with the N450 processor and 1gb of Ram if thats any help. Probably not though.

I have a Samsung NetBook running Windows 7 and its great. As always with any PC if you can get more RAM you should so get 2gb if you can.

My web designer friend always swore by apple macs but he recently had to use win 7 but he said it was impressed by it.

netbook with hackintosh OSX

netbook with hackintosh OSX

and a world of pain which most folk at a guess would not have the inclination to go through to get it working properly.

I have an Asus eeePC 9", 16Gb SSD, 1Gb RAM, Atom 1.6Ghz processor, and run WinXP (as that's what it came with). It's impressively quick. I use Comodo anti virus and firewall, which from experiments with my GF's desktop running WinXP is the fastest anti virus/firewall combo out of free versions of Avast, AVG, Avira & Zonealarm combo's.

Win 7 Pro runs a treat on my chunky 64bit laptop, but not sure how Win7 (I assume it's 7 basic on netbooks) will run on a netbook.

What models are you looking at?

my aspire one originally came with Fisher price my first Linux. I tried windows 7 but it was very slow. now very happy with a fast and stable nlited. XP build I put on with a bootable USB stick

W7 – it's been designed with a lot of thought for netbooks and as a user of both XP and W7 at the moment, I reckon W7 is much better and seems to run very nicely, reliably and it's easy to manage.

Bought a PB netbook a couple of months ago and thought about this.

Went for the windows 7 option as it was a cut down version on all netbooks. I think called windows 7 basic, it misses some of the fancy features off and multimedia stuff but is quick, surfs the web nicely and always works..

As cool/sexy/wonderful as she surely is, she's talking out of her behind saying Ubuntu is weird. The same Firefox, Open Office, same but better system (no need for a degree in IT). Let her try it (or install Linux Mint, loads of girlies like the looks).

I'd go for XP as it works, win7 whilst almost there is still prone to being fundamentally carp (even got the BSOD twice yesterday!)

Choice is a PB (I guess like ivantale) or an Asus or Compaq but I cant remember which is running which O/S.

Is it possible to upgrade RAM on netbooks running Win7 (as is not the case with XP I believe)?

While I'm not l33t enough to run ubuntu on a desktop I've had a play with the netbook version and it's pretty good. It's light weight and for hardware where you aren't going to be installing loads of bells and whistles apps (netbooks and servers) linux is fine.

Win7 basic has a 3 app limit but if you're regularly trying to run more than 3 apps i'd say you need a laptop rather than a netbook.

Is it possible to upgrade RAM on netbooks running Win7 (as is not the case with XP I believe)?

OS shouldn't care how much ram you have, XP just won't see more than 4gb without a little fiddling. Some chipsets used to use less than 4Gb but not that common now I think. Unless you get it upgraded at POS you'll probably have to remove ram to add more ie take out 2x512Mb and add 2x1GB

Hairychested – Member
As cool/sexy/wonderful as she surely is, she's talking out of her behind saying Ubuntu is weird. The same Firefox, Open Office, same but better system (no need for a degree in IT). Let her try it (or install Linux Mint, loads of girlies like the looks).

You know those people that think the CD drive is a cup holder? My GF is one of those people

she may find Linpus Lite (the fisher price Linux I mentioned) suits her needs. Its more like a super intelligent fridge freezer interface than a pc.

http://www.linpus.com/downloads.html

easy to find the basic apps you need. can install useful apps like open office and firefox as well as an email client if needed.

I have an Eeepc 1000H dual booting XP and Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu most. I wouldn't look at Windows 7 for a netbook, although my only direct experience of the operating system is running a beta version on a powerful desktop.

My parents in law also have Ubuntu on an Ace Aspire one, proving you don't need to be a geek to use linux once it is set up.

*Edit:The irony! As I was typing this on my desktop the Eeepc was running an update of .net framework on XP. It has crashed the laptop and is refusing to boot Windows now.*

I've messed with Linux for years. It's crap if you've any wish to do much beyond internet, email and the occasional letter.

i'm running win7 ultimate ( IIRC ) on an asrock ion 330 at home – basically a desktopped netbook mobo and this runs the same processor as my samsung n110 netbook. it has 4Gb of ram rather than the netbook's 2Gb, but i'm very tempted to put win 7 on the netbook – in fact will do so when i get around to bringing it into work.

Serious question about netbooks…

Saw an Acer Aspire for relatively cheap money (just over 200 note new) with a semi-decent spec (N450 processor, 160Gb HD, 1Gb RAM etc) and wondered if it was a decent buy at the price. Basically, the wife wants something for when I'm using my laptop and she's bored and one of those looked like a decent deal.

It was also red, which is her favourite colour. Actually, I think that was the main driver.

willard – id be tempted to see how rubbish this is:
http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?ProductID=6202

😉

this is the linpus running acer aspire one going cheap at the moment:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?ProductID=5968&CategoryID=404&SubCategoryID=414

I paid a little more than that (about £160 I think) from expansys for one with an integrated 3G card. I then took Linpus off and now run XP as I needed it for Excel (cant use open office).

I got one of these from the same seller a few months ago for £110 –

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASUS-Eee-PC-901-Laptop-16GB-Black-Webcam-8-9-N270-/290466006284?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH#ht_3990wt_941

They are great! Mine even came with a 3G modem so it has the SIM card actually in the machine rather than a gets-knocked external dongle. Battery gives about 6 hours. comes with sleeve to put in and a small PSU.

Depends what you want the netbook for/to be, but I wanted something robust (i.e. SSD rather than normal hard drive), small compact and light. Rather than the current trend for them to be more like small laptops.

[EDIT] WARNING! The one linked to above doesn't have a PSU. weird. Look out for 901's from the same seller as they usually do have it.

As a few here clearly have, we have two Acer Aspire 1's. It comes with that limpus linus which I wiped on both immediately but it's probably going to be good for people who aren't keen on Linux. I tried WIN 7 on one of them and I'm a big fan of windows 7 on proper PC's but I just found it a little too slow. I use Ubuntu netbook edition now which works great on both.

I've messed with Linux for years. It's crap if you've any wish to do much beyond internet, email and the occasional letter.

LOL!

(even got the BSOD twice yesterday!)

For balance, never had a BSOD on any W7 machine.

FWIW BSODs are not usually caused by Windows – more likely driver software.

Re Linux – you have to WANT to not use Windows to bother with it, imo. And despite what the geeks say, Open Office is nowhere near as good as MS Office.

There are loads of small niggles here and there. My parents for example like this Bridge game that someone gave them. Guess what OS it runs on? Also my mum used to use this little wordsearch generating program.. again, guess what it runs on? Etc etc etc.

Oh, and for those on a budget, we bought both ours as B grade stock from here, apart from my son breaking his screen by slamming it shut (I dunno, I guess his groomer refused to meet him or something), which I replaced myself for 40 quid, they've been faultless.

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/box_opened_laptops/prod.asp

Samurai,

Funny you should say that… I'm planning on getting myself a "proper" laptop for the sole purpose of banging linux on. I've got both windows and linux boxes at work, and whilst the bulk of my day-2-day work is Windows-based, I prefer the way the Ubuntu does things and can live with the small downsides. It's also a shit-load quicker that Windows on the same hardware.

My only grip is building/compiling random code from source… WHY MAKE IT SO HARD??? Grrrr. Took me a hour yesterday to sort something out on it.

LOL!

Try and produce a large document in OpenOffice. It's a pain in the neck. For the standard desktop user, Linux isn't great. It's very good at other stuff, but it's not a brilliant desktop OS. Mainly due to the choice of software available.

Granted, Linux can do all sorts of stuff very well, but it's not things that are on the average user's list of wants.

tron – Member

I've messed with Linux for years. It's crap if you've any wish to do much beyond internet, email and the occasional letter.

????????????????????????????

Try telling that to these people

http://www.cray.com/Products/Products.aspx

I take it you don't do any scientific computing? A lot of the code in the science community is written for *nix

now run XP as I needed it for Excel (cant use open office)

I run Microsoft Office 2007 on Ubuntu using Crossover Office. It even runs most of my Windows games.

Crossover Office

*Just noticed there is a trial version……which is nice!*

I take it you don't do any scientific computing?

LOL! This is ending up like the car for single mother video on the estate car thread 🙂

My only grip is building/compiling random code from source… WHY MAKE IT SO HARD??? Grrrr. Took me a hour yesterday to sort something out on it.

hammer->hit(nail.head);

That's exactly why Linux is not much good for the average jo(e). If you think it is, you're a geek and you don't understand how the average jo(e) could think of computers so differently to you.

I take it you don't do any scientific computing?

You know what? I don't. I'm mostly involved in psuedoscience myself.

For me, and many average computer users, the lack of MS Office becomes a major problem with a Linux desktop. OpenOffice might be similar, but it's not the same. Google Apps is handy, but it's about equivalent with MS Works.

I can understand the appeal of Linux, the ability to really tinker with things etc. but most of us just want to have the damned thing do what we want with the minimum of fuss.

I'm really not against Linux per se. For average joe users doing very basic stuff, it's fantastic. My mum had a PC running Debian for years. It did what she wanted and didn't pack up like Windows machine would. However, if she were actually trying to get work done on it, and had prior experience of MS Office (she'd always had a secretary), she'd have lobbed it out the window.

I take it you don't do any scientific computing?

So, which netbook would you recommend for building a Beowulf cluster out of…?

Samuri,
how much ram did you have in the aspire that you tried win 7 on?

LOL @ the 'groomer' comment

Del – for info, my Aspire One had 1Gb when I tried W7 and it dragged really badly.

Is it possible to upgrade RAM on netbooks running Win7 (as is not the case with XP I believe)?

Microsoft have a definition of "netbook" which puts upper limits on the specification. The reason for this is that they sell Windows to OEMs at a discounted rate for installation on netbooks. If the manufacturer goes over spec, it's no longer a netbook as far as MS are concerned and they have to pay full whack.

It's certainly possible to upgrade RAM on Netbooks running XP, from a Windows point of view. Part of the Netbook spec is no more than 1Gb of RAM – this is why you never (rarely?) see Netbooks with more fitted. There's nothing to stop you from adding more RAM though, assuming the machine will physically take it. I upgraded an NC10 not so long ago, there's only one SODIMM slot so you've to discard the old 1Gb card and fit a 2Gb part instead, but it works perfectly.

I've not had cause to look at W7 on Netbooks (Starter Edition IIRC) particularly closely yet, though I believe there's restrictions on the number of applications you can run simultaneously. Not perhaps the dealbreaker it first seems, it is a netbook after all? Other than that, I don't believe there's anything stopping you fitting a RAM upgrade here either, though I've not looked at it in depth so could be wrong.

Stoner – thanks.
i ran 7 ultimate on the ion 330 with 2gB of ram to start with and it ran just fine, though it was early days, and i probably wasn't trying to do that much with it. i imagine 7 will get bigger and bigger over time, if previous experience is anything to go by, so 7's performance in a year's time might be very different with only 2gB than it was 6 months ago…

A bit late to this one, so my comments may not be that useful – but this seems as good a place as any to ask my questions, given I found this thread doing a search on "linux".

Personally I'd choose to run XP on a Netbook. The only real downsides are not having the latest flashiest interface, and maybe the lack of future proofing, though realistically the latter is unlikely to be a real problem. W7 is still a bit more resource hungry than XP, so likely to run slower. Pretty much everything will run on XP and if you can tell the difference run faster. Linux is all very well, but as mentioned not any good if you want to use SW which only works on Windows, which tends to limit you somewhat to more common apps.

I'm actually typing on my brand new thin and light laptop – not much bigger or heavier than a netbook, but with a proper processor and graphics, along with a more usable keyboard (I had a netbook for a while – got my money back as it broke – and found it just a bit too small – even making lots of typos on this, which supposedly has one of the best keyboards for an 11.6!). Got W7 on this which is nice – but then they don't sell these with anything else, and it's got the spare power to cope.

Anyway my questions:
Looking at installing Linux on a dual boot partition to play around with – what's the best option? Lots of mentions of Ubuntu – is that what everybody else uses?
This comes with an integrated Gobi 3G card. Can I just stick any 3G sim in and expect it to work, or will it only work on some networks?

FWIW I work with both Windows and Linux on a regular basis (for proper scientific computing) – Solaris too. They all have their advantages and disadvantages – from a professional basis, Linux is a real pain for some stuff which Windows does well. Actually come to think of it, maybe I should triple boot with Solaris, as that's more powerful than either Windows or Linux for some things (unless I just put it on VirtualBox).

As per Stoner, Del, I have 1G in my netbook.

W7 is still a bit more resource hungry than XP, so likely to run slower.

I'm not so sure about this, windows 7 runs *much* faster than XP ever did on my desktop, boot up is astonishingly quick.

I use Ubuntu though. Every time I rebuild a new laptop for work or home I'll do a quick scout around and try a few of the others but for general desktop use I'd say Ubuntu has the win for the moment.

They all have their advantages and disadvantages – from a professional basis,

Indeed, and that's what I'd expect, they're all geared up for different jobs and that's where people make the mistake, expecting there to be a perfect do it all OS for everything.

If you want ease of use go for windows, if you want free raw grunt go for linux, if you want to impress people on the train go for OSX.

Win7 basic has a 3 app limit but if you're regularly trying to run more than 3 apps i'd say you need a laptop rather than a netbook.

I humbly disagree. I have a HP netbook on XP with 2GB RAM, and run Word, PowerPoint, several multitabbed firefox windows, VPN, Skype etc etc 90% of the time and don't have problems doing it.

The trick there, konabunny is having enough RAM – the difference between 1 & 2GB is very significant (I can vouch for that having been using my old 1GB XP desktop for the past month – was definitely the lack of memory causing me problems with my multi-tab browsing habits). Most netbooks do only have 1GB so more limited. Given most of your tasks are presumably in the background and so not using processor cycles, no reason why it should be a problem – it's only when you start trying to do multiple things at once (rather than just having several inactive apps running at once) that the Atom processor becomes limiting.

BTW just in case anybody is interested, I meant to mention that I use Centos in work – very specific reasons why we're using that which don't apply to my home use, which I'm assuming it's not optimum for. Oh and the really confusing thing is using both Linux and Solaris on the command line – I'm sometimes multi-tasking with both – superficially very similar, but in crucial ways just that bit different!

Been running W7 for almost a year now and it's great. Faster than XP, had no blue screens yet and it looks nice.