The Digital Home

A report surfaced on Monday claiming that the new Acer Aspire One Netbook featuring Android will start shipping in August. The price of the Netbook is still unknown.

The computer reportedly will have the Google mobile operating system installed but will be configured as a dual-boot system, also shipping with Microsoft's Windows XP.

In June, just a few days after Acer announced that an Android-based Netbook would hit store shelves, the company told Digitimes that deploying a dual-OS strategy was in its best interest.

"(Acer Chairman) Wang pointed out that the dual-OS strategy is much safer for Acer, since consumer acceptance of the Android platform is unclear for the time being," DigiTimes reported. "Acer will be able to promote Android as a value-added feature, similar to Asustek Computer's Express Gate, to account for any price premium."

It's an interesting decision. To hedge its bets, Acer has decided that consumers wouldn't want an Android-only Netbook. So if you're looking to buy one of these computers, you'll have two operating systems from which to choose. Which OS would you pick?

Through July 11, Microsoft is offering steep discounts on Windows 7 upgrades for the Home and Pro versions of the software--but not Windows 7 Ultimate.

Windows 7 Professional: What you really need.

(Credit: Microsoft)

According to a CNET report, users can "preorder Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional at roughly half the list price, but the Ultimate version is offered at the full $219 price."

Those who currently use Windows Vista Ultimate and were hoping to switch to Windows 7 Ultimate were understandably upset. After getting little more than a few extras with Vista Ultimate, like Microsoft's BitLocker Drive Encryption software, they were hoping they'd be treated better this time around when they opted for Windows 7 Ultimate.

No such luck.

But instead of railing against Microsoft for treating its Windows Vista Ultimate customers so poorly, perhaps we should turn our focus to Windows 7 Ultimate itself. It might be the follow-up to Windows Vista Ultimate. Microsoft might have thrown every feature into it. But if we take an objective look at what it really offers, I don't think Microsoft can justify its existence as a consumer operating system.

Netbooks are helping boost the PC market as it continues to slide with the economy, but it's only a matter of time before something precipitates a market upturn.

Thanks to the announcement of the Archos 9 PC Tablet on Wednesday, there's even more evidence helping fuel speculation that touch screens can transform the Netbook experience from basic computing into multitouch bliss.

Touch screens are undoubtedly popular in the mobile market, but they have yet to break through in the computing space. Will they be as revolutionary for PCs as they have thus far been for smartphones?

The new Windows 7 packaging.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Before Microsoft announced Windows 7 pricing, the company detailed earlier this week how it plans to package the operating system.

Microsoft claims that Windows 7 packaging "has a 37 percent weight reduction, and the econometrics score has improved by 50 percent over its predecessor." Instead of forcing customers to read instructions on how to open the box, Windows 7 packaging will open just like a DVD case.

"We've reduced the number of elements in the package down to three: the plastic case, the paper sleeve, and a simple Getting Started Guide," Microsoft wrote in a blog post. "The plastic case opens easily like a standard DVD case, and it will have a single easy-to-remove seal at the top--and that's it!"

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, packaging accounts for a third of consumer garbage. And as CNET pointed out on the Green Tech blog, "plastics comprise 12 percent of U.S. waste each year, but are rarely recycled, while some scientists fear that irresponsible dumping is making a plastic soup of the world's oceans."

Although software arguably should not require any packaging, instead relying purely on Internet downloads, and plastic packaging could (and should) probably be avoided altogether, Microsoft's reduction of packaging materials corresponds with a trend that I think is better for all of us.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it's planning to release Windows 7 for the 2009 holiday season. The operating system was originally slated for a January 2010 release.

Now that we finally have an idea when Microsoft will be releasing Windows 7, we can project its financial impact on the company. But we need to be careful. We don't know how the market will accept Windows 7. And we still aren't sure if the enterprise market will adopt it for existing machines.

Looking at past figures, we can develop an understanding of the impact Windows launches--and especially that of Windows Vista--have had on Microsoft's financial state and project that forward.

How important is Windows to Microsoft's financial performance? Will the Windows 7 launch play an important role in Microsoft's financial performance over the long term?

Let's take a look:

In a recent study from Forrester Research, analysts found that Dell and Hewlett-Packard provided customer experiences that were well below par, while Apple came out on top.

According to the study, which asked 4,500 U.S. consumers to rate the usefulness and enjoyability of products, Dell received a "poor" rating in overall customer experience. The company mustered a "very poor" when it came to the customer's enjoyment using Dell products. HP's experience was rated as "poor," while Apple led the way for computer manufacturers with an overall "good" experience.

Bruce Temkin, the study's author, wrote that while PC manufacturers have some work to do to enhance the consumer's experience, Windows also contributed to the low marks.

"I do think Microsoft's software has a bit to do with it," Temkin wrote. "Consumers don't distinguish problems with the operating system from problems with the PC manufacturer. Bottom line, the Windows ecosystem needs an extreme customer experience makeover."

I agree with Temkin. But I also believe that Windows 7 is the single Windows OS that can improve the consumer's experience.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened his big mouth again. He decided to dish on Apple, saying the company competes by providing little more than a logo and a higher price.

"Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction," Ballmer said in a keynote speech at Media Summit 2009, discussing Apple's recent gains in the market. "The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment...to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

Apple fans came out in force, responding to Ballmer's latest bullet. Commenters tried to correct Ballmer, saying, "That extra $500 gets you an OS that doesn't get viruses and allows you to run for the life of the computer without having to wipe the computer and reinstall." Others were more reactionary. Said one, "Ballmer is an idiot...period."

But is he? Sure, he opens his mouth when most competitors wouldn't, but it's hard to argue with his track record as a CEO. Over the past four years alone, he has presided over a staggering increase in Microsoft's bottom line. During that period, profits at the company have risen from $12 billion in 2005 to more than $17 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. Revenue has nearly doubled in that time. And shareholder value--a measure of a company's ability to increase its free cash flow over time--has increased since he became CEO of Microsoft.

Microsoft updated its Windows 7 Engineering blog Friday by discussing its decision to allow users to turn off features in Windows 7. It also released a list of Windows 7 options that can be turned off in the upcoming Release Candidate.

"For Windows 7 we've engineered a more significant list of features and worked to balance that list in light of the needs of the broad Windows platform as well," Jack Mayo, Microsoft's group program manager for the Documents and Printing team, said in the post. "We want to provide choice while also making sure we do not compromise on compatibility by removing APIs provided for developers. We also want to strike the right balance for consumers in providing choice and balancing compatibility with applications and providing a consistent Windows experience."

To achieve that goal, Microsoft has released a screenshot showing what is ostensibly the complete list of features that users will be able to turn on and off in Windows 7. It includes games, an FTP server, Windows Search, and more. But the most important option (and the one that gets the most attention) is the ability to turn Internet Explorer 8 off.

Internet Explorer 8 cannot be uninstalled from Windows 7. According to Mayo, any feature that's turned off "will not be available for use, which means binaries and data are not loaded by the operating system (for security-conscious customers) and not available to users on the computer.

"These same files are staged so that the features can easily be added back to the running OS without additional media. This staging is important feedback we have received from customers who definitely do not like to dig up the installation DVD," he continued.

That's understandable and a welcome option. I will be turning some features off, like all of Microsoft's media services and a few extras like the FTP server and Tablet PC components, which I won't use any way, but Internet Explorer 8 is a different story altogether.

I'm sure some are excited to see they can finally kill Internet Explorer, but I'm not. I won't be using it, but I won't be turning it off either. Why should I?

The $50 Windows 7 Upgrade?

(Credit: Microsoft)

I need a new computer. Badly. My old iMac, which I'm using to write this now, has seen better days. My Windows machines, strewn across the house, are old and tired. But I'm unwilling to buy a new computer today. It's not that I haven't seen machines that I really would like to have, or that I don't have a desire to build my own. But there's a single factor that's forcing me to wait: Windows 7.

I'm done with buying Macs for a while. I really do love my iMac and my MacBook is my trusty companion when I travel, but after using Windows 7, I now know that I'm ready to jump back into the world of Windows. In my testing, Windows 7 isn't just an outstanding operating system that provides an ideal experience, but it's also a great alternative to Mac OS X. I find it superior to Apple's software on almost every level. It's that good.

But there's more to this story than Windows 7's superiority. I want to wait for Windows 7 for a number of reasons.