A Peek at Windows 7 Starter's 3 App Cap

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Are netbook users really going to be running an e-mail client, a web browser, a word processor and, say, a photo editing program all at the same time?
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Absolutely. On my 8.9" Aspire One I typically run:
Live Messenger (open, not just in the tray)
Live Mail
2-3 instances of firefox, each with 1-3 tabs (I use instances for the general category of websites, then tabs for individual websites)

While those are running I find myself sometimes also opening one or more of the following: OpenOffice Writer, Paint.net, Spotify, WinAmp or Media Player.

I often have 10 buttons or more on the taskbar for various running programs. RAM usage is typically below 700MB and CPU usage
 
with limitations such as this being placed into the base windows 7 platform. It makes me wonder why anyone going the route of cheap netbook would wish to use Windows at all? Most people who are netbooking, aren't looking for power computing and don't intend of playing intense games on their machines.

It almost seems smarter to forget Windows 7 Basic entirely and go the route of a pre-installed Linux package. Free, No limitations, and unlimited expandability.

This is just the ticket that Linux developers needt o jump all over to gain that impressive market share in low end computing.
 
[citation][nom]thedipper[/nom]You do know that Win7 is barely over the resource usage of Windows XP on a small-memory system, right?You do know that NT6/6.1 uses more memory when you have more, and unloads that extra usage when something else needs it, right?Oh right, you don't. You don't know what you're talking about and I suggest you learn. You're spreading bad hype and driving away customers from an OS because YOU don't understand them.P.S. New OS are small upgrades from the last, I suggest you look at the history of Windows.[/citation]

wow, driving away customers, i didn't know my purpose in life was to bring in suckers, i mean customers

i don't work for microsoft, i personally dont' care either way, i posting just what i see, what are your credentials there buddy, what's your beef, jack, i'm running windows 7, running it for some time, i can see how much memory it's using, how much of my cpu it's utilizing, i can compare it to windows xp, windows 9x, windows nt, ect. i have them all running here, have a good number of machines running all kinds of oses, aix, hpux, solaris, ect...

maybe you should take the time to do the same before telling me i'm driving people away, i'm sorry to hear microsoft created a dud with vista and windows 7 is nothing more than a tweaked vista. google for it, see infoworld and other publications and what they have uncovered about what is under the hood, their benchmarks, ect.

i'm so sorry, not, that i'm not lead like a mindless sheep by marketing hype, excuse me, i've worked too many years in the industry getting noobs like you and friends to pay gold for sh*t to be fooled by any of it.

haven't you seen what happens, the hype, the interviews, the favorable previews, ect. then you buy the game and it's like eh... the magazines, websites, ect have sold their sold for a free copy, for the swag.

oh by the way how do you get your copy of windows, do you go out and buy it, do you get it pre installed on some machine you buy, i get my copies free of charge directly from microsoft. got a case of vista ultimate edition the other day, a way of them saying thanks for helping them out, got lots of copies of all their books, software, ect... been to microsoft got thousands of dollars of goodies for dropping by, nice place, nice lunch, nice people, nice company store,

got so many copies i don't know wtf to do with them anymore. maybe ebay ;-)
 
oh by the way if they want a netbook that runs half decently they would have you install windows 9x and office 9x, because thats basically the hardware you are getting, slow cpu, not much memory and storage, unless you want to spend $500 or more, ok harware prices will come down, just about what was around when it was around, not vista nor windows 7. netboks run linux well because linux is good with lowend hardware, always has been, and yes i've run linux since day one, since before linux, any of you all heard of minux and xinu... go google for it, jr. ah, the good old days when people knew reality and were not blinded to the thruth by marketing billions...
 
[citation][nom]thedipper[/nom]A Stoner, You do realize that Microsoft really doesn't care that you're not buying Win7, right? A small amount of their income is OS sales, they really don't care. People like you, who don't know how to use the OS then come whining with feedback in the wrong places, is why we can't have anything nice. It's why Vista was given false, bad hype for years. I see you wrote a bunch of garbage about security, why don't you take that to Microsoft feedback instead of a comment section on a news and review site?[/citation]
If they did not care, Windows 7 would be Windows Vista SP2, and not a whole new product with new branding to brighten it's prospects. I do know how to use the OS, my wife has it (Vista) installed on her new laptop. I had it installed on my computer for a few weeks, well months, but I always booted into XP, and on her primary for quite a few months. I dealt with all the crappy issues of Vista during that time. Two Vista computers that were iffy if they were going to allow printer sharing, or drive sharing. One day, sure go ahead, next day it took five or six reboots reconfiguring internet settings to get two computers to communicate. Never had that issue between two XP systems, EVER. Then try to get Vista to talk with my XP system, I can use the VISTA system hard drives from my XP system, but vista refuses to connect to the XP station at all. All the while you are configuring things, UAC is asking, are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you Sure? Where the hell was this UAC feature when the settings went from functioning to not functioning? My wife's Vista system got 5 virus' that required full disk wipes, while my XP system in that same time got 1. Even with UAC active and antivirus software installed.

Hopefully, if you got 3 active programs on every second of your computer's life, maybe you will be immune to virus'. As far as taking it to Microsoft, I was a beta tester for 7, and I did take it to them.
 
[citation][nom]A Stoner[/nom]If they did not care, Windows 7 would be Windows Vista SP2, and not a whole new product with new branding to brighten it's prospects. I do know how to use the OS, my wife has it (Vista) installed on her new laptop. I had it installed on my computer for a few weeks, well months, but I always booted into XP, and on her primary for quite a few months. I dealt with all the crappy issues of Vista during that time. Two Vista computers that were iffy if they were going to allow printer sharing, or drive sharing. One day, sure go ahead, next day it took five or six reboots reconfiguring internet settings to get two computers to communicate. Never had that issue between two XP systems, EVER. Then try to get Vista to talk with my XP system, I can use the VISTA system hard drives from my XP system, but vista refuses to connect to the XP station at all. All the while you are configuring things, UAC is asking, are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you Sure? Where the hell was this UAC feature when the settings went from functioning to not functioning? My wife's Vista system got 5 virus' that required full disk wipes, while my XP system in that same time got 1. Even with UAC active and antivirus software installed. Hopefully, if you got 3 active programs on every second of your computer's life, maybe you will be immune to virus'. As far as taking it to Microsoft, I was a beta tester for 7, and I did take it to them.[/citation]

i agree they do care, i guess they care more if you are not running windows, because without windows you would not be running office, and not using .net , buing their keyboard, mouse, games, ect... ok maybe they would sell you an xbox 360, so they would not have much to sell you. if you running an older version, they sort of care because they have to keep updating, supporting those older versions, and if like with xp not enough people switch to the new dog food, vista, they have to extend that support, it's hard to support all those versions, just see the notes in their sdk, ouch... so many versions...
 
So, Jsloan gets Microsoft software for free because he visits and walks around a bit, grats to him for getting mythological stuff, I guess.

P.S. they're pulling your leg, it's because you probably have an MSDN license.
 
[citation][nom]sot010174[/nom]The starter edition is an elegant way to translate Windows TRIAL EDITION. I disagree with this 3 progs limitation, but I don't see any other alternative except charging less for the basic edition, but then, everyone would jump to the basic bandwagon... I personally use vista HP for about a year, and I never missed having Aero on. Aero doesn't add nothing really useful and just bogs the system down and raise power consumption...I think this will only drive users to format their brand new lappies and put a pirated copy of XP. Problem solved.[/citation]

right on, it's like trial ware you get with a new computer, you know all that old fax software, that you could send a page, but if you wanted to send a cover letter or send some more you had to buy the full release and here is the link... than again netbooks are like trialware, they are slow, underpowered, ect, sure they are cheap, sort of you paying for their marketing piece and if you like what you see then you will want to buy a real computer... they are sort of forced into it, the price is like $200-$300, the price you can get a real low end computer during the holidays if you shop around after all the rebates you'll never get, and then their are the new $500-$600 ones, i dont think many people would buy em, most will just regular laptop, so microsoft and friends had to respond to the linux crowd, didn't want to be apple and say we don't create one that low, and they didn't want to hurt their sales, so they come up with something that is like trialware. you'll buy it, then you have to pay more and more, and in the end you will end up paying more than a regular laptop... first you will find you need more memory, and then you'll find that it's like slow, real slow, the cpu is not a regular cpu, it's an atom, slow. then you'll find i can only run a limited number of things, no world of warcraft for me, ok i can browse, i can have it on plan, i can get corporate application on it, but it's like slow if its a .net app and its crunching stuff, then it gets worse when i try to do office software because of the memory limitations, i guess i can listen ot music, watch movies, ect. what i can do on low end machine, maybe play solitaire, but not crysis for me, i'm already wishing i would have bought a regular laptop, on those i can at least run wow on a dedicated graphics card, at least i can install most anything, at least i have enough storage, ect. i dont think companies will switch to it, laptops are cheap, and they dont like to support many different models that you can't interchange parts. would you want 8gb drive from one of these in your laptop, no way, could not even install windows and office. would you want the cpu from these, no way cant even use it, what about memory, same, what am i to do with like 512, throw it away, give it to the needy. but wasnt that what it was all about, the one laptop per child, the 3rd world, ect, and we have to do something to offer in respond to these people pushing it, pushing linux, new os, new ideas, ect not intel, not microsoft, not the establishment, ect. so we create these machines, the problem is the poor, the 3rd world didnt want the little, cheap underpowered machines, with weird os and software, they wanted an intel, amd, they wanted a real machine, running windows, running office, ect, so where we are. and of cource microsoft would want it running vista, i mean windows 7, not 9x (i mean windows ce), not windows mobile, not windows nt, 2000, xp, but windows 7, so some group is task with creating a version, and so we get the starter edition, i mean the we are too poor to buy a regular release edition, which is trialware, because they are not really interested in the one child per laptop, one computer per poor person, they alreayy have a regulr release, low end computers, and are not interested in undercutting those sales
 
Sorry to ruin your day, but most people are PC users because most people cannot afford Apple hardware.
Click to expand...
So your saying that people only buy PCs because Macs are overpriced??? I just can't stand using the piece of junk that is an Apple and would never, ever, EVER buy an overpriced paperweight. That being said, if MS took away the 'Starter' edition and only sold the Home Basic at it's regular price that would put up the price of all Netbooks that would otherwise come with the 'Starter' edition and therefor people would be complaining anyhow!
 
[citation][nom]thedipper[/nom]So, Jsloan gets Microsoft software for free because he visits and walks around a bit, grats to him for getting mythological stuff, I guess.P.S. they're pulling your leg, it's because you probably have an MSDN license.[/citation]

no, try again... i'm almost a somebody, believe it or not... ;-) msdn, dont pay for those either, get them for free... msdn does not get you microsoft press, t-shirts, keyboard, mouse, ect... i was wearing nice new white microsoft tshirt today, got it the other day, i guess theyre trying to get me to like them, the problem is they dont have enough swag to buy me off. now i do admit windows 7 is better than vista, for now, we'll have to wait til it's release, still time to improve on it, i mean break it. when you've been around the industry as long as i have you get all the sh*t for free, a way of saying thanks for the memories... ah yes the good old ms-dos days, now thoese were the days...
 
[citation][nom]jsloan[/nom]no, try again... i'm almost a somebody, believe it or not... ;-) msdn, dont pay for those either, get them for free... msdn does not get you microsoft press, t-shirts, keyboard, mouse, ect... i was wearing nice new white microsoft tshirt today, got it the other day, i guess theyre trying to get me to like them, the problem is they dont have enough swag to buy me off. now i do admit windows 7 is better than vista, for now, we'll have to wait til it's release, still time to improve on it, i mean break it. when you've been around the industry as long as i have you get all the sh*t for free, a way of saying thanks for the memories... ah yes the good old ms-dos days, now thoese were the days...[/citation]

If you would stop typing like a 12 year old girl, people might treat you like you're intelligent.
 
"...then you try to open a web browser, you’ll see a message telling you that you already have three programs open." Hmm, but I thought Internet Explorer was an integral part of Windows and not a separate application? That's what they told the courts when they bundled IE into the OS to force browser competitors out of the market.
 
I read this.
And since the loss of my previous notebook (15.4 compaq died last week). I'm in no rush and was looking for a new laptop for next year. I've been looking at netbooks for portability factor. I don't need a full blown laptop.

However, One thing i DO often do, is use more than one application at once. Excell, Access, Word can all be open at any given time. Not to mention Firefox, MSN, yahoo, Xchat, Winzip / winrar, WMP / WInamp.

yes these systems aren't powerfull, but this isn't powerfull use. this is everyday computing now. The OS limitation on how many i can run would pose a real annoyance to me.

As I mentioned, if Netbooks are going to come bundled with WIndows 7 that has the hard limit of 3 open apps. I will opt for the Linux version.

The limitation in todays computing environment is nothing more than Microsoft attempting to force you to buy an upgraded version of their software
 
[citation][nom]jsloan[/nom]right on, it's like trial ware you get with a new computer, you know all that old fax software, that you could send a page, but if you wanted to send a cover letter or send some more you had to buy the full release and here is the link... than again netbooks are like trialware, they are slow, underpowered, ect, sure they are cheap, sort of you paying for their marketing piece and if you like what you see then you will want to buy a real computer... they are sort of forced into it, the price is like $200-$300, the price you can get a real low end computer during the holidays if you shop around after all the rebates you'll never get, and then their are the new $500-$600 ones, i dont think many people would buy em, most will just regular laptop, so microsoft and friends had to respond to the linux crowd, didn't want to be apple and say we don't create one that low, and they didn't want to hurt their sales, so they come up with something that is like trialware. you'll buy it, then you have to pay more and more, and in the end you will end up paying more than a regular laptop... first you will find you need more memory, and then you'll find that it's like slow, real slow, the cpu is not a regular cpu, it's an atom, slow. then you'll find i can only run a limited number of things, no world of warcraft for me, ok i can browse, i can have it on plan, i can get corporate application on it, but it's like slow if its a .net app and its crunching stuff, then it gets worse when i try to do office software because of the memory limitations, i guess i can listen ot music, watch movies, ect. what i can do on low end machine, maybe play solitaire, but not crysis for me, i'm already wishing i would have bought a regular laptop, on those i can at least run wow on a dedicated graphics card, at least i can install most anything, at least i have enough storage, ect. i dont think companies will switch to it, laptops are cheap, and they dont like to support many different models that you can't interchange parts. would you want 8gb drive from one of these in your laptop, no way, could not even install windows and office. would you want the cpu from these, no way cant even use it, what about memory, same, what am i to do with like 512, throw it away, give it to the needy. but wasnt that what it was all about, the one laptop per child, the 3rd world, ect, and we have to do something to offer in respond to these people pushing it, pushing linux, new os, new ideas, ect not intel, not microsoft, not the establishment, ect. so we create these machines, the problem is the poor, the 3rd world didnt want the little, cheap underpowered machines, with weird os and software, they wanted an intel, amd, they wanted a real machine, running windows, running office, ect, so where we are. and of cource microsoft would want it running vista, i mean windows 7, not 9x (i mean windows ce), not windows mobile, not windows nt, 2000, xp, but windows 7, so some group is task with creating a version, and so we get the starter edition, i mean the we are too poor to buy a regular release edition, which is trialware, because they are not really interested in the one child per laptop, one computer per poor person, they alreayy have a regulr release, low end computers, and are not interested in undercutting those sales[/citation]


Sorry, but this had to be said. TL;DR.
 
What the hell is wrong with MS? All i see lately is "compatibility buttons", Renamed Service Packs (Win 7) and now this applications limit. They should release another starter version that only shows you half of the screen. Now that would be a best seller.
And they wonder why people turn to Linux or OSX or hacked versions of their OS.
 
I could agree if MS put a 1 or 2 GB limit on the netbook OS,just from kernel perspective; but MS is going too far!
A netbook happily can run 4 to 5 programs at once, even my celeron powered EeePc 701 can run Azureus, anti-virus, firefox, notepad, and perhaps a calculator!

MS marketing researchers are absolutely doing the worst job, just like Asus' Eeepc marketers. They seek to fill their own pockets, instead of looking what a customer actually needs and desires!

MS:
1: Limiting the amount of RAM, screensize and disksize of which netbooks can have WinXP!
2: Limiting win7 users to 3 programs on the basic version, is just plain stupid! Now unless they can create Win7 smaller than XP (less than 1GB installed size) I would not know why they even build that OS!
It would be much more beneficial to install a Win98 or XP!
 
Considering that a netbook is a lobotomized PC, I can easily see MS limiting the apps to three at a time in order to minimize the complaints of fools who buy the least amount of hardware capability out there and then try to run 6 apps concurrently.
 
oh by the way if they want a netbook that runs half decently they would have you install windows 9x and office 9x, because thats basically the hardware you are getting, slow cpu, not much memory and storage, unless you want to spend $500 or more, ok harware prices will come down, just about what was around when it was around, not vista nor windows 7. netboks run linux well because linux is good with lowend hardware, always has been, and yes i've run linux since day one, since before linux, any of you all heard of minux and xinu... go google for it, jr. ah, the good old days when people knew reality and were not blinded to the thruth by marketing billions...
Click to expand...
Your an idiot. I am currently running windows 7 64bit on my main machine with 8 gigs of ram and it uses 2 before i even open a program. You know why because it can, and will give up memory if I open a memory intensive program. I am also running it on an old centrino laptop with 2 gigs of memory and it uses 700mb before I boot. And I would seem to think that a netbook may be just a little different than my laptop, but not by much. So your a tool and you need to load 7 on one of your machines using 98. Then you would know that 7 is extremely memory effiecient.
 
[citation][nom]thedipper[/nom]LOLA netbook user isn't going to (and cant go to) Mac OSX. Sorry to ruin your day, but most people are PC users because most people cannot afford Apple hardware.[/citation]

Ummmm gotta disagree with that. Different strokes for different folks dipper. Check the elitisim at the door
 
Does this mean I can have any number of the same app running? If I open notepad.exe, notepad.exe, notepad.exe and notepade.exe does it throw the warning. What if I rename opera.exe to notepad.exe?

-Bounty
 
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