Comments on: Report: Windows 7 Netbook price tied to size

Intel is on the record with size limits for Netbooks, and Microsoft may tie this to Windows 7 pricing, according to reports.

[cvaldes1831]

Maybe they should just charge by weight.

[sharmajunior]

Then that means, professional business laptops and high end gaming machines would have a hella expensive license.

[cvaldes1831]

Sure, someone has to pay for it. Actually, the big corporate servers would owe the heaviest sums. Or the price could be capped at a certain amount.

[Mweaver2k9]

Wow, that's just....absurd

[monkeyfun14]

It is?

Who the hell buys a 11inch netbook? You might as well get a laptop.

They are trying to save there own ***** so they don't have oems purchasing netbook licenses then using them on laptops.

[TheReaperD]

The distinction is ridiculous. All this is for is to try and artificially preserve the $1000 laptop. This, as all artificial barriers to innovation, will eventually fail.

[assman]

You're saying it's absurd because you're programmed to dislike anything Microsoft does, even when they are lowering prices for you. Wow. How about you back up your opinion..

[Seaspray0]

@ReaperD. The average price for laptops is below $1,000. Some estimate the average price to be in the $700 range. There are not many people purchasing a laptop that costs over $1,000 these days. I doubt restricting windows 7 starter to 10.5" displays and smaller is going to have much effect on a $1000 laptop.

[assman]

Makes sense. Allows for netbooks to be cheaper, and the lack of a limit on graphics hardware allows for more capable computers that can run Windows 7 properly and play microsoft games.

Microsoft is supporting netbooks by making the license cheaper, they could've just charged the same higher fee if they wanted to.

[Carion]

Yawn, double Yawn..... Who cares. Just buy what you want and install Linux.

[t8]

The problem is that you end up paying for Windows anyway.
This should be illegal.

[sythara]

I'm running Win7Beta and Ubuntu on my netbook. Some stuff you cant do on linux, unfortunately. And Win7 works flawlessly.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@t8:

"The problem is that you end up paying for Windows anyway.
This should be illegal. "

Absolutely right. Unless it comes with OS X on or Linux preinstalled, then it should be considered illegal. Oh wait, I forgot OS 2/Warp... and BSD. Okay, unless it offers a choice of every single operating systme on the planet, then it should be illegal. Oh, and it should shoot candy out the SD card slot too.

[Dalkorian]

by Vegaman_Dan May 27, 2009 8:51 AM PDT
Oh, and it should shoot candy out the SD card slot too.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Candy can be hard and if fired out of the slot with sufficient velocity it might injure someone. No, it should shoot pudding out the SD card slot instead. No one has ever been injured by pudding!

:-D

[Seaspray0]

It should shoot beer out of the SD slot and have Daisy Duke graphics on the cover.

[t8]

Android could clean up the Netbook market at some point. It is also free.

[gerrrg]

I agree, but not until Donut comes out.

[ralfthedog]

Question, Is the software the same? If Microsoft is just charging more or less dependent on the size of the device, that is cool. If they have an ultra light version of 7 that uses less memory, and they are saying you can only run it on a computer that is this small, that is uncool.

If a user wants to run a less bloated version of Windows on a larger box let them.

[DrtyDogg]

That is what this is about, price and features. Basically if an OEM wants the 15$ copy of Windows then these are the specs the machine are limited to. They are still free to use the $45 copy if they choose and make the consumer happy.

I personally hope that the big names in netbooks choose to skip the home basic/starter editions since we have already seen there machines can handle Home Premium.

[Vegaman_Dan]

The code is the same and you could take any existing netbook installation and do an in place upgrade simply by buying the appropriate key from the OEM to unlock features of higher versions.

[gertruded]

Nothing more that monopoly restraint of trade. They may get away with it in the US where corporations control the government, but not else ware.

[sythara]

You don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about.

You are not guaranteed a right by the constitution to buy a computer how you want it. You are guaranteed a right to have a choice whether to buy or not. You don't like it, don't buy it. Simple free market economy, which communists like you don't understand.

[hetzbh]

I smell... lawyers from the EU

[sythara]

Yeah that what we all need, more communists impeding the works of free market.

You don't have to use Win7, get linux or buy an apple. sheesh

[kwhsy82]

I smell ... lawyers from Korea. Microsoft and Intel have both lost antitrust cases there.
I smell ... lawyers from Taiwan. From a 2008 article:
The [Taiwanese] government investigation into Microsoft will also look into complaints Microsoft is limiting consumer choices by restricting the availability of Windows XP on new PCs and whether or not pricing of Microsoft products is fair to consumers on the island.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Let's see...

Intel has determined a netbook will not exceed a screen size of 10".

Microsoft has deteremined that netbook will not exceed a screen size of 10".

Sounds fair to me. Anything larger is a notebook. The entire point of a netbook is to have a small, compact unit that is low powered and has just enough to get the job done. Why would you want to put a large featured OS on a product that won't be able to make use of it? Doesn't make sense at all.

if this results in a lower per unit price for the OS to the OEM's, how can people be against that?

[ahickey]

My understanding is that WIndows 7 Starter only allows 3 applications to be run at one time. Now the with srewy pricig based on screen size and other spec type things this looks like good news for Linux.

The pricing mdoel does look mad. What valid justification can they provide for it being approprate.
Maybe something like CPU utilisation may be better, but everything else as far as I can tell is subjective.

[Dalkorian]

I saw an article here yesterday claiming they were considering getting rid of that 3 app limit, so my interpretation is this size limit will replace it. Even hating M$ as much as I do (I don't hide the fact that I *despise* the M$ plantation), this feels like a decent move for the consumer in general.

[NW-J]

Maybe Microsoft would like to tell Samsung that their NC-20 is not a netbook.
Maybe advise cNet also. (see review: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/samsung-nc20-silver/4505-3121_7-33573285.html).