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And that is why you dont see netbooks come with Vista.

I'll have to try this on my Q1 sometime. Vista ran relatively well on it, all things considered; though it did not have aero enabled. I actually preferred using Vista on it rather than XP, amazingly enough. ironically, the opposite is true about my dell M4300 -- while the laptop is a powerhouse as I've configured it, the display adapter isn't nearly powerful enough to drive the 1920x1200 display with graphics enhancements and stuff using the quadro FX 360M in vista. it's painful to use, and I'm not sure if the problem lies with dell's custom driver or the card itself, but i regret not getting a system with discreet graphics, in any case. while vista's processing performance is flawless on that system, the graphical performance is less so.

>>But it is not magic and does not suddenly make near-obsolete hardware relevant again. <<

Thats what Ubuntu and the other Linux variants are for.

Did you try disabling Aero? I just recently installed Windows 7 6956 on a 1200MHz Sony VAIO laptop with 512MB RAM and it run fairly well, considering.

Celeron's != Atom's.

A Celeron 220 can run Windows Vista.

An Atom 330 can run Windows Vista well.

A Core 2 Duo can run Windows Vista well, and playback full framerate high-bandwidth 1080p HD Video.

Any questions?

While I'd guess from the demos that Windows 7 may have lighter hardware requirements than Windows Vista, it's pretty silly to assume it will run on any arbitrary hardware.

As Paul said, it's not magic. And nobody claimed it was.

Now, when we actually see the hardware requirements then we'll know something.

"Thats what Ubuntu and the other Linux variants are for."

Or, for that matter, MS-DOS or Windows 95 as long as we're going to talk about old operating systems.

i am going to test win7 on my netbook when the beta is released to us, hopefilly tomorrow. mine has 2gb of ram, though. it's an asu 1000ha.

Most Linux versions don't run on less than 512MB of RAM nowadays anyway, and they're dog slow even then.

FYI: Mary Jo Foley says her sources say Windows 7 Server beta goes out on Thursday and Windows 7 Client beta goes out on Friday.

Take that for what it's worth since it's totally based on rumor.

FYI: Link to Mary Jo Foley's post

blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft

This surprise me, actually.  I'm assuming that the machice is Fujitsu U810/1010.  This is the machine that my mom used for quite some time.  While it's not really smooth, I can run vista with Aero enable and have a very usable machine.  The only scenerios that seem to make what Paul said happen to me is when I try to 1. Work with a video running 2. Video Chat 3. Put it with Dell 2407WFP monitor.  I'm not sure what make the different here.

Paul, is this the older Samsung Q1U-EL that you had? I have the same and loaded 7 on it, and it doesn't run that bad (upgraded to 2GB of RAM).

However, I will say that 7 just flys on my HP Mini 1000. I think this will work for Netbooks, now that Netbooks are in the 1.5ghz range, and coming with 1-2GB of RAM.

A netbook with a 1.6GHz Atom runs Win7 really well... I have been using a Dell Mini9 for the last three months as my main non-dev machine and it runs great (as in really great).  I sprung for 2GB of RAM ($20) and I have a 16GB SSD.  It goes everywhere with me, even shopping and the dentist, which shows how sad I am.  But I love the combo.. a truly personal computer at last.  Great for watching movies on flights (on Media Center).  I love the power supply (effectively a cellphone charger) and lack of moving parts / fans.. more like a consumer electronics device.  The suspend/resume performance is wicked.  I haven't turned on the iPod touch since I got this thing.  And it runs full office and windows live essentials.  And I only paid $350 for it.

>>MS-DOS or Windows 95 as long as we're going to talk about old operating systems.<<

Are you comparing the computing experience with Ubuntu to MS-Dos?

I didn't think so.

Zero:

How do you like the keyboard on your Mini?

"While I'd guess from the demos that Windows 7 may have lighter hardware requirements than Windows Vista, it's pretty silly to assume it will run on any arbitrary hardware."

Who are we kidding here, Windows 7 is Vista especially when it comes to hardware requirements.  Sure it may boot up faster, or give you a gui faster and continue to load the rest but 90+% of Windows 7 is Vista.

It funny how the "Winmin" concept has just been dropped and you dont here much about it anymore.

"Are you comparing the computing experience with Ubuntu to MS-Dos?"

Hmmm. Both are serial character stream operating systems with the option of a GUI pasted on...

But, no, even I'd admit that Linux has had more stuff kluged on top of their serial character stream OS over the years. Of course, that may be because MS-DOS hasn't had people adding a bag on a bag on a bag to it in almost 20 years now.

"sprung for 2GB of RAM ($20) and I have a 16GB SSD"  With extra RAM and the speed of a SSD, even with an atom I would imagine it to run good enough.

I would not touch a Vista machine with anything less than 2gig of RAM.  At 2gig its a good, web browsing, email, download your photos PC.

I can confirm that Windows 7 runs very well on old or slow hardware like netbooks or 5 year old notebooks (I'm running it on two old notebooks - 2,66GHz Pentium 4, 1GB RAM, very very slow 80GB IDE harddisk).

I know when I get the beta I'll be trying it on old hardware just to see how it does.

Lindy

"It funny how the "Winmin" concept has just been dropped and you dont here much about it anymore."

Actually, nobody who understood "MinWin" (not Winmin, btw) was discussing it much at all because refactoring and other maintenance isn't that exciting or, for that matter understandable to non programmers.

The people with the bizarre concepts that it was a rewrite of the OS didn't have a clue about what they were saying. But, that didn't stop them from making it up as they went along. And getting lots of people to claim the bogus stories were true.

Consider it another of those tests that help you figure out which "journalists" deserve having the air quotes around the title and which don't.

I installed 7 on a Dimesion 3000 2.6P4 system with 512Ram and onboard video and was pleasantly surprised. Grant it, I never tried to even put Vista Basic on  it but I am pleasantly surprised at how well 7 is running in this rig.

so paul personally owns a vista capable piece of junk computer that chokes on it,  and he thinks apple is evil?  chutzpah this man has.

Just think how well 7 will run on newer hardware. So don't fret. There's a future for 7 in Netbooks. I can feel it. The netbooks will probably what we docs will use on the floors in COWS [computers on wheels, not the MacBook Wheel].

I think Paul should just turn Aero and all other eye candies  off. I don't expect my 7 year old Dell to run Vista but it did. Slow it was, but usable, as long as I don't turn all the fancy stuffs on.

Why I did that? I had to try.

DRWAM

When you said COWS, I flashed back to Character Oriented Windows System that was used by some Microsoft MS-DOS apps to look more Windows-like while people made the transition to Windows based applications.

Visual Basic for MS-DOS and the last versions of Word for MS-DOS and, I think, Works for MS-DOS were about the only major apps that used it.

I knew COWS probably had several other acronyms for COWS. There's probably many more. i also anticipated that you knew more than most of us.

My next avatar will be a fish, but he's camera shy.

>>But, no<<

I didn't think so.  

Desktop Linux is as useful as any Windows version and any Mac OS X version...

The Free Dictionary lists 37 acronyms for COWS. And since we're on trivia, it's nice to see acronym used correctly rather than as a substitute for abreviation. (For those not aware of the difference, an acronym has to be pronouncable and typically pronounced as a separate word. If it isn't pronounced then it's an abbreviation. COWS, RADAR, SCUBA and LASER are acronyms. CP/M, IM and AC are abreviations)

"Desktop Linux is as useful as any Windows version and any Mac OS X version..."

I'm sure, to some people, it is. Of course, to some people, punch cards and RPG plugboards are as useful.

>>I'm sure, to some people, it is.<<

It is.  It can do all of the most common tasks just as well as Windows and Mac OS X, and some of the more uncommon ones too.

Ocean

You just put lie to your own statement.

You said it is both "as useful" and that it can do "all of the most common tasks" and "some of the more uncommon ones".

If it's "as useful" it has to be able to do ALL the tasks, not just a selected subset.

As I said, it may be as useful for some people. But that's true of anything as long as you pick the people.

I am sure there is a future in netbooks and 7.  When it ships the standard netbook will probably have 2gig min, and the dual core atom.  SSD drives are the future.

Netbooks today, are single core and 512meg of ram on the average.

www.target.com/.../181-2790090-6120636

We radiologist have some acronyms that are not know by other specialties. I was taught them as a resident, but stopped using them since I was getting phone calls about what they meant [in my report]. We often used DISH, for Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis of the spine. Then again, some radiology findings of no consequence alo can be unknown. We feel obligated to report them, but it confuses some docs. Hyperostosis frontalis interna comes to mind. Older women form a lot of bone in the inner table of the frontal skull. Totally meaningless, but I still make the call. Some things never change.

Couple things:

* As mentioned above, did you try turning Aero off?

* It may be that the Intel chipset commonly bundled with Atom is actually useful in accelerating Aero, while your UMPC may not be bundled with a similarly-capable chipset.

* Some good, comparative Atom performance data is here:

www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx

* Based on what I've seen, an Atom is about the same speed as the 1.0 GHz Pentium M CPUs shipped several years ago.  Useful and affordable Atom alternatives include used Dell Latitude X1 and X300 PCs for $250-$350.  They're similarly light about the same speed and include 12.1" screens, so the physical dimensions are slightly larger.  Atom battery life is better and hardware acceleration allows Netbooks to play high definition video, which an older Pentium M might struggle with.  For $600 or so, you can get a used Compaq 2510p, which is around an inch thick, includes a built-in DVD drive and a Core2 CPU that stomps the crud out of the Atom CPU.

@doc:

ACCK!  COWS!

The local hospital system spent $25K on COWS (each!) for what was essentially a Dell Pentium 4 desktop machine with a 3 hour UPS, and the thing weighs like 140Lbs.  What a waste of money.

They should've got these instead:

www.motioncomputing.com/.../tablet_pc_c5.asp

Think about how many of these they could've bought for just one "COW".

I've also said how bad the UX is with digital charting.  When they moved from paper to digital charting, the RPN's had to learn to fill out between 6 and 30 screens of information per chart.  With paper, it was one sheet.  I've often said that they should've just got a bunch of medical tablet PC's (like the C5's) and a piece of charting software that works with Windows' built-in handwriting recognition features or use a digital note-taking software for charting and store the notes as image data as it was written.  The learning curve would be next to nil for staff.

But nooooo....

"It may be that the Intel chipset commonly bundled with Atom is actually useful in accelerating Aero, while your UMPC may not be bundled with a similarly-capable chipset."

As of right now, the Atom processor only comes with a 945GC chipset, which includes the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950.  NVIDIA wants to change that with their new Ion platform, which couples it with an NVIDIA chipset with built in GeForce 9400GS.  Intel won't let them - yet.

The GMA 950 supports Aero, but it's the lowest-end graphics chipset from Intel that does.  It is a DirectX9 part (some processing is still done on the CPU though), and since Vista SP1, Microsoft has changed the WHQL cert for "Premium" Windows experiences to require a DirectX10.0 GPU (SP1 includes DX10.1 support too), even though Aero only requires DirectX9 hardware.  That means that for the foreseeable future, no Atom-based system will carry the Designed for Windows Vista Premium logo certification.  I hate that.

In the Samsung Q1, the Celeron systems shipped mostly with Intel 915 chipsets, which include the 915G graphics controller.  It doesn't support Aero, but I wonder if the current beta of Windows 7 includes the "WARP10" technology that supports DirectX10 (and Aero) in software....

Paul, that might be why the graphics are so slow.

Also, the 915G doesn't always support 128MB of graphics memory, and for that chipset, it's up the OEM to decide if the graphics controller has reserved system RAM, as well as the maximum amount of RAM that can be used by the graphics controller.  With the advent of the GMA 950, Intel made more options available to OEM's, but always allowed enough RAM to be available to graphics as to insure that Aero would function properly.

"Atom battery life is better and hardware acceleration allows Netbooks to play high definition video"

I've seen Atom 330's - the highest end Atom's you can get.  And they're dual-core.

They might be able to play low-bandwidth 720p video, but Blu-ray is right out.  YouTube struggles at full-screen, and even the Vista Media Center recorded TV samples get choppy.

A Core [1] Duo at the same clock speed is better.  I used to have one.  I had a T2300 when they came out.  I could easily play 720p movie trailers on the 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 that was on my laptop at the time.  1080p trailers couldn't play without dropping frames.  The Atom can't do either properly.

Notebook makers want to prevent Intel from releasing the Core i7 platform for mobile and mainstream desktop, but I say "let em".  It only means that Core 2 Duo processors will drop into the Pentium dual-core price ranges, and Atom will become a niche product.

>>You said it is both "as useful" and that it can do "all of the most common tasks" and "some of the more uncommon ones".

If it's "as useful" it has to be able to do ALL the tasks, not just a selected subset.<<

If we're going to turn on semantics, Ok:  Linux can do anything Mac OS can.  Mac OS can do anything Windows can.  Windows can do anything Linux can.

It may not run the same software to do it, but all three do the same thing.

I second the Mini comments: 1GB RAM, 16GB SSD, $270 with holiday refurb deal, Win7 flies. Very happy with it.

Keyboard's main problem is that backslash is an alt key. On Windows? They've gotta be joking. Also. F4 is kinda crucial, also an alt key.  Otherwise is ok.

Windows 7 benchmarks:

lifehacker.com/.../windows-7-beta-boasts-sub+30-second-boot-time

@mikegalos: ""Desktop Linux is as useful as any Windows version and any Mac OS X version..."

I'm sure, to some people, it is. Of course, to some people, punch cards and RPG plugboards are as useful."

The beauty is that Linux users don't have to worry about viruses. Unless the viruses are now something you list as a "choice" that Microsoft offers to Windows users. Since you think that all their "choice" is a great thing, then maybe viruses are just that. No wonder Apple point that out to naive Windows users in their Get A Mac ads.

@mikegalos: "Or, for that matter, MS-DOS or Windows 95 as long as we're going to talk about old operating systems."

Not worth the virus and trojan troubles that your typical Microsoft OS brings with it - including the old dogs like MSDOS and Win95.

Go away robert

Log off ocean. For good. Thanks.

Pingback from  Windows 7 is good, maybe even great. But it&#39;s not magic &#8230; | Computer Mod News

I'm sure that 7'll run better than Vista on comparibale hardware.

Plus, I installed the latest Ubuntu a few days ago on a relatively low end computer (AMD Sempron 3000+, 1GB ram), and it was fast even with the effects on high.

Ocean

The Windows 7 boot time article was interesting (although premature since beta OS timing is always suspect)

For those not reading it, the author time both boot to fully loaded desktop and boot to logon screen.

In both cases:

Fastest was Windows 7 Ultimate build 7000 (assumed to be the upcoming beta).

Next was the PDC build of Windows 7 Ultimate

Third was Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

Slowest was Windows XP Professional SP3.

Interestingly for all those people who believe the stories about Vista performance, Windows Vista was faster than Windows XP by a greater margin than Windows 7 was over Windows Vista.

Windows 7 is good or maybe even great? This is what Microsoft told you to say? Like they did when they emailed you the "Apple Tax" trash? I loved that post. Microsoft send you an email talking shite, then you say .. "hey they are right". Love that FUD.

Im running Windows 7 Beta 1 on an old Celeron 2.66ghz, 1gb of Ram and a Nvidia x5600 with surprising results.

I thought it would be lagging to hell but its actually quite smooth, not as smooth as my higher end machine but more than bearable.

Any ideas what they have took out or modified to make it run better on low end machines?

Your story was featured in Dapx! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: dapx.com/.../Windows-7-is-good-maybe-even-great-But-its-not-magic

"But, no, even I'd admit that Linux has had more stuff kluged on top of their serial character stream OS over the years"

Considering Linux is a kernel, if it didn't have things on top of it, it would be rather useless. Try learning about how operating systems work some time: You may be able to make meaningful comments about them

Boot times can be affected by so many things.  Triple booting a computer puts each OS in different locations on the drive.  Three seconds could easily caused by position and fragmentation level of the OS/drive.

Also with out knowing what was installed on each OS is a huge gap of information.  XP right after install with patches is blazing fast.  Add 5 or 6 applications that add junk to startup, defender, AV, Adobe Reader, Java, Quicken, HP printer software all add stuff to the bootup to check for updates or pre-load stuff into memory so they seem faster when you use them.

Also I would bet that Windows 7 boot up times are sped up over Vista, by giving you control of the gui sooner, by loading less before you get control and then continuing the to load what is loaded up front in Vista after you have control in Windows 7.  On a fast machine, lots of ram fast CPU, fast Hard drive that is defragged its not that noticeable.  On a slower/older machine you will get a gui but its going to have chunky response until the boot up process running in the back ground finishes.

A good test would be 3 machines with exact hardware, with fresh installs of each OS, and all MS patches applied.  Test it then.  Test the repose right after you get control.  To be fair, give Vista and Windows 7 a day of up time to catalog everything for its search, because a fresh install of Vista kicks off the search catalog process, or when you install something big like Office.

Then add the exact apps to each, again give Vista and Windows 7 24 hours to update the search.  Then test boot up again.

I keep reading comments like "not bad with Aero turned off," "doesn't run that bad," "ran relatively well," and "chunky responses."

I realize that these are older and/or netbook machines, but I don't want to save money on one end, only to have a computer that "almost" runs well.

So here's my question:

In order for me to run Windows 7 so that:

- it runs beautifully (I know, subjective)

- has no lagging

- I don't have to turn off any features

- it runs as fast as it "supposed" to

what would be the minimum hardware requirements? Can anyone give me an example of a Dell model?

Thanks.

@chipwinter - That is hard to say at this point. I am sure in the next day or so that MS will be announcing the hardware requirements for the beta proram, though.

--tayme

"I'm sure, to some people, it is. Of course, to some people, punch cards and RPG plugboards are as useful."

Unix at least must have had something of merit, however; otherwise, Microsoft wouldn't have used its network stack for NT, up until Vista...

I'll give you 2/10 for the troll. Good phrasing. I'm not a kernel/os developer, but everything I've read over the past 20 years tells me that there is nothing fundamentally poor about its design, even from a standpoint of adding on a gui. (It wasn't that win95 was bad, it's that it was resting on dos instead of nt, after all.) And for goodness sakes, NT1 was originally going to be command line only until BillG intervened...

Thanks Wae. I will pass on the info. Hopefully the hospital bought those expensive COWS from you!

"Also I would bet that Windows 7 boot up times are sped up over Vista, by giving you control of the gui sooner, by loading less before you get control and then continuing the to load what is loaded up front in Vista after you have control in Windows 7."

They've done work like this for years now.  It's one of the most noticeable things they did in Windows ME.  It boots faster, doesn't have the APIPA network lag like Windows 98 does, and you get access to the GUI much sooner, even if the experience is dragged down by SysTray apps loading after boot.

Windows ME ran better than 98SE for me, but then I had hardware that was actually made by makers that created WDM's for Windows ME.  Windows ME had something that 98 didn't though that was extremely important at the time - native OHCI 1394 support.  It made using an external hard drive actually, er, usable on a PC for the first time.  USB 2.0 didn't come out for a few years later, and native support never showed up until XP SP1.

@Doc:

They didn't.  I don't have the contract with the hospital.  It's a fairly large privatized (but provincially-regulated) organization consisting of 5 hospitals, but AFAIK they have an enterprise purchasing agreement with Dell still.

@Doc:

The COWS that they bought were from about 4 years back.  They were Dell Pentium 4 desktop systems with 17" LCD monitors on a cart with a plastic shell around the outside to hide the "guts" of the system - the tower, cables, and UPS.  It would run for about 2 hours, but would take all day to charge.  They usually just plug them in at each stop when doing rounds though, so it's a waste.

The system itself would've probably cost about $800 at most, but when they took them as a cart, with the UPS and such, it equated to about $25000 a piece.

That's what's wrong with the hospital system though.  They have some self-taught jerkoff with no formal computer education who got the job from some six-figure salary weasel executive who's a friend of theirs(yes, literally - without exaggeration!).

"That's what's wrong with the hospital system though.  They have some self-taught jerkoff with no formal computer education who got the job from some six-figure salary weasel executive who's a friend of theirs(yes, literally - without exaggeration!)."

One of the many benefits of socialized healthcare!!!

:-)

--tayme

@ DRWAM

"That's what's wrong with the hospital system though.  They have some self-taught jerkoff with no formal computer education who got the job from some six-figure salary weasel executive who's a friend of theirs(yes, literally - without exaggeration!)."

Yep, we have those here as well, although not quite six figure.

A colleague of mine works as a "sound engineer" believe it or not, in a hospital. He earns around £7K a year more than I do, and his duties consist of setting up digital whiteboards, projectors, and, well, that's it.

I don't think he's ever seen a mixing console, and has handled a microphone maybe twice in his life?!?

It's not the wage he gets that annoys me, (hell if I had landed such a cushy job, I'd be more than happy!) but his job title. It kind of demeans those of us who actually are sound engineers, when basically a technician gets landed with the title.

Or am I just bitter?

"One of the many benefits of socialized healthcare!!!"

'scuze me?  Have you honestly looked at your own medical insurance companies lately?

@tayme:

I get life insurance through my bank, because of a business line of credit that cost me nothing to set up.  The policy includes accidental death, loss of work due to illness, emergency medical charges for business travelling (emergency domestic medical costs are covered by the state/crown), the whole gamut.  It covers up to $150,000.

It costs me all of $3/yr.

Can you say that about your insurance company?

@Wae

"In the Samsung Q1, the Celeron systems shipped mostly with Intel 915 chipsets, which include the 915G graphics controller.  It doesn't support Aero, but I wonder if the current beta of Windows 7 includes the "WARP10" technology that supports DirectX10 (and Aero) in software....

Paul, that might be why the graphics are so slow.

Also, the 915G doesn't always support 128MB of graphics memory, and for that chipset, it's up the OEM to decide if the graphics controller has reserved system RAM, as well as the maximum amount of RAM that can be used by the graphics controller.  With the advent of the GMA 950, Intel made more options available to OEM's, but always allowed enough RAM to be available to graphics as to insure that Aero would function properly."

Thank you, that's exactly what I thought and almost posted until I saw yours.  If Paul is seeing Windows redraw like that I'd guarantee he's got a Intel 915 chipset or some legacy (pre-DX9) Via or SiS chipset.  Aero runs just fine on GMA950 with an appropriate amount of shared RAM made available to the chipset.

Despite that, Paul's point about obsolete hardware (such as that based around the Intel 915) is well taken.

I agree Gorath and gents. Too much waste, especially in staff. Years ago [15] they were making a lot of Nurse practioners into a VP of something. Eventually, spending caught up to them and they got laid off. But they didn't stop at the nurse VP's. It got worse when the hospital merged. The new system was doing great until our Fed cuts arrived, but they are treading water, which is good compared to most.

Wae, our IT trialed those C5's cause I got this response from the head IT MD:

"Thanks, we have trialed these and they are pretty cool.  We are looking to see where they fit in to our overall strategy."

They do look ideal to me too.

Doc

Another; I'm definitely getting this OS:

>>Windows 7 could be one of Microsoft's greatest operating systems, if it fulfills the promise shown by the unofficial beta version (build 7000) we have been testing for the past couple of days.

--

Microsoft has spent a lot of effort with Windows 7 on delivering a solid operating system that won't "wow" anyone but will satisfy them on a much deeper level.<<

news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10134184-92.html

"Despite that, Paul's point about obsolete hardware (such as that based around the Intel 915) is well taken."

Let's not forget that the 915G was one of the exhibits of the Vista Capable case.  Microsoft didn't want to support it, but Intel wanted it in because many systems were still selling with it.  Microsoft should've just left out a native driver and "supported" it with a standard VGA driver, which works fine with most unsupported graphics chipsets.  The VGA driver, like all other XDDM drivers, doesn't support Aero though.

Still though, is there any official word from Microsoft that Windows 7 beta will include WARP10?

@Ocean:

The writer doesn't realize that the 200MB partition would be for WinRE.  Funny how it's 200MB though.  A typically configured WinPE partition converted into WinRE takes almost 1 full gig according to Microsoft's instructions.  Maybe they stripped out everything except the Automated Startup Repair option.  The full WinRE is quite flexible.

At least, that's my first take on that partition.  The other thing it could possibly be is an EFI partition, but UEFI isn't on Pentium 4 systems, which is what they said they were using.  Those partitions are typically 200MB though, with another smaller EFI partition to go along with it.  The main data partition is a still NTFS on a GPT disk though.

This is the biggest "duh moment" in that article though:

"Microsoft appears to have an antivirus package installed under the hood; when downloading new software with Firefox, we were told that our downloads were being scanned for viruses."

This was the comedy moment though:

"Even on our modest machine, Windows 7 didn't thrash the hard disk or ever feel unresponsive, except when we were installing Apple's iTunes, a notorious pain on Windows systems."

That article was full of Windows fanboy fluff.  Window 7 ran great with no disk thrashing with only 512megs of RAM???  Does it cure cancer as well?

Open up Word 2007 and IE8 and tell me how the hard drive is doing.

@doc:

The C5's rock.

Motion Computing has been a major Microsoft partner in vertical and healthcare markets ever since the Tablet PC's inception.

Charting is a major hassle for nurses here though.  Switching from paper to electronic changed their workload from a 10 minute job for the floor, to over 2 hours long per worker.

The hardware is great, but you still need good note-taking or handwriting-recognition software to go along with it.  Thankfully, Motion Computing does bundled "solutions" not just the hardware.

Looking at the pricing though, you can get 5x C5's, with a 5-bay recharge station, and desktop docking stations, keyboards and mice for each of those for less money than 1 COW.

Ergotron also makes a cart for them if necessary (I don't see why, but whatever).

Ergotron is also a big company in swing arms, carts, and storage areas for computers, and caters to medical industries.

Paul, I'd guess you are having driver issues as it runs fine on my MSI Wind Netbook with 1gb RAM...  Check device manager and see if all is well - most likely as you may know it is the video driver causing your molassesness.

d

>>Microsoft's Eric Wilfrid, the new Mac BU general manager:

Q: Do you use a Windows Mobile device, too, or are you pure iPhone?

Wilfrid: I'm only iPhone.

Q: It can be a little uncomfortable opening your Mac in a Microsoft meeting. Is it the same way with the iPhone?

Wilfrid: (Laughs) There are some Microsoft meetings where I choose to keep it in my pocket. But it's nothing new. There's WIndows against Mac, which is a vigorous, important competition. There's Windows Mobile against iPhone, which is a vigorous, important competition. I totally understand that there are a lot of people at my company who are deeply invested in a different solution, and yet the iPhone is definitely an important thing for me to carry and use everyday, just to be familiar with, just because so many of our customers also use that.<<

www.techflash.com/.../QA_Quizzing_Microsofts_Mac_chief_about_iPhone_app_plans37182044.html

Come on, you tried Windows 7 beta on a UMPC, which is significantly less powerful than virtually all available netbooks,with AERO on on machines which is not even supposed to be able to handle it, and you conclude that it runs poorly on hardware comparable to current netbooks ?

I am pretty sure that by the time Windows 7 is released, even  low end netbooks will have enough power to run circles around your UMPC.

So if you really want to have an idea of how Windows 7 will run on netbooks, you should try it on a Acer Aspire One or an Asus Eee PC with at least 1 GB of RAM and not on some outdated and obselete UMPC which belong to a family whom poor performances and excessive price explained why these devices have never taken off.

Personally, I don't know wny anyone would buy a netbook, especially given that you can get a fully-loaded laptop with 250 gigs of hard drive and 2 gigs or more of RAM for $500-$600. So I'm out of the game anyway.

In any case, I'm running Win7 (finally) on my refurbished Acer, which has 1.5 gigs of RAM and 120 gig hard drive. Works great so far and boots fast. Since it's being used as a media center, I haven't re-installed office or anything real heavy, If I did, the boot speed would go down a tad.

Of course, the Acer also booted real fast with Vista -- until I loaded it up with Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and a whole lot of video. Hell, my Toshiba booted fast with Vista -- and still does, even with the entire CS4 package, Silo, Office and Sony Vegas.

Ultimately, boot speed depends on a lot of things -- including what do you actually do.

>>Personally, I don't know wny anyone would buy a netbook, especially given that you can get a fully-loaded laptop with 250 gigs of hard drive and 2 gigs or more of RAM for $500-$600. So I'm out of the game anyway<<

As a supplement to said laptop.  Something you can toss in your rucksack and cart about with ease.

Wae, screw the nurses [Oh yeh, I did].

Ocean, did you mispell that and is that anatomically possible? My *** doesn't open. Are you Lance Armstrong?

A rucksack is a backpack to an american.

I have no idea what you're talking about; I get the sense that you are drunk.

>>planetsave.com/.../<<

New Macbook Pro Falls Short of Steve Jobs’ Green Promise

DRWAM - Been visiting the anesthesiologists again? You need to share that fun!!!

--tayme

Wow, in the last few days I have been accused of being both an Apple Fanboy and a Microsoft Fanboy on this site. I think it is clear that I am neither. Like I said...for the extremists on both sides of the fictitious OS War, it is "Your either with us or against us". There are many of us here and around the world that are just plan technologists and fans of technology.

--tayme

"Wae, screw the nurses [Oh yeh, I did]."

OH NO, YOU DI-IN'T!

www.hisworshipandthepig.org.uk/stderellas06w.jpg

sicko!

"New Macbook Pro Falls Short of Steve Jobs’ Green Promise"

Don't tell robertsjoe that.  His little world may come crashing down after he takes out the trash and finishes his multiplication tables (if they even still do that in school these days).

Dipsh

Nah, I just assume he's in a Cultural Math course where they teach them how to count change and figure out how to compute a tip (for people who don't have 25 different tip calculators on their iPhone)

"I just assume he's in a Cultural Math course where they teach them how to count change and figure out how to compute a tip"

Is that after the social studies class where he learns how to ask if they "want fries with that", and not to charge for smiles?

"Is that after the social studies class where he learns how to ask if they "want fries with that", and not to charge for smiles?"

Nope...its right after the Health class where they teach them how to wash thoroughly enough to avoid acne.

--tayme

"Nope...its right after the Health class where they teach them how to wash thoroughly enough to avoid acne."

Or the sex-ed class taught by "Waethorn"...the poster child for birth control.

Back on-topic:

"This machine originally “ran” Windows Vista, and indeed it has a Windows Vista sticker on it as if sporting such a thing would make it true."

*snort*

That's MonkeyBoy Marketing 101 right there.

"Or the sex-ed class taught by "Waethorn"...the poster child for birth control."

"*snort*

That's MonkeyBoy Marketing 101 right there."

*snort*

May I present Kettle.

@dipshitadmin: ""Sharepoint is a horrible dog piece of software."

And by being in high school, you know this how?

You're posting kind of late in the night.  Doesn't your mom want you in bed now?"

Knowing more about software, hardware and IT in general than you; I've had the unfortunate situation of using the dog that is Sharepoint. It is a horrible piece of software.

I like your name though, and it goes well with your posts "dipshit".

"Knowing more about software, hardware and IT in general than you"

Hah!  You only know the stories that Uncie Steve tells you while you sit on his lap.

....is it just me or does this guy sound like RCK the more he writes?

Love the anti-Apple article at Windows IT Pro. Microsofties do suffer from an inferiority complex. Studies have shown that the "Microsoft user's inferiority complex" is a real disease. Has to be. Otherwise the articles and posts would be about Microsoft, right? Must be so slow and boring in that work that one needs to look over the fence, and away from the dreary grey walls, at the green pastures of Apple.

"green pastures of Apple"

Hah!  That's a laugh.  Just because Jobs says Apple is "green" doesn't make it so.  Environmentalists will concur.

"Must be so slow and boring"

Slow and boring?  Did you see the MacWorld keynote?

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by Cynthia022: Is Win7 GOOD??http://bit.ly/l3zel