Windows 7 worrying by Linux but Hope For UMPC

Smaller memory footprint, faster boot, better UI and longer battery life. Windows 7 is not only going to be interesting for the laptop and desktop, it’s shaping up well for Netbooks and UMPCs too. Vista always offered better touch and natural input mechanisms but it was a struggle to run it on Ghz-class devices. The reports coming back from Windows 7 pre-beta testers point towards a much more usable system on these devices.

t really looks like Microsoft will put a lot of effort into making it work well on Netbooks where Linux is obviously taking sales but if it carries a standard licensing price and XP for ULCPCs goes away, there’s still a chance for Linux on the really cheap devices. Unless of course Microsoft surprise us with an X86-build of Windows Mobile 7 which would close off one of the last great hopes for consumer Linux.

Lets assume that there won’t be an X86-build of Windows Mobile though. I wanted to highlight some thoughts about why Windows 7 might be good for low-end PCs it might not be a solution for MIDs. Linux has a great opportunity here, as does a re-worked XP.

• 10gb of install requires either an expensive flash drive.
• Boot times on W7 are still not as fast as XP or a slim Linux.
• Battery life might be improved over Vista but is it improved over XP? I doubt it.
• Why run using 512MB when it can run in under 200MB (XP Home requires much less memory)
• Your, likely, most-used applications look the same on any operating system.
• XP or Linux is likely to cost less. (testing, license, deployment and support.)
• User interface changes could be added to XP using overlays (Origami was a good start, work seems to have stopped now.)
• Why carry support (drivers) for hardware you will never have on your device.
• Why carry programs (Gallery, Media Player, Email client) that you may never use.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just take a stripped-out XP with a nicer UI and touch integration so that we could run our programs efficiently on MIDs? If MS want to cut-off Linux in the netbook arena with low-cost XP then why don’t they do that? Maybe Intel got it right by putting serious investment into Linux area. If XP goes away, its currently the only hope for 2009/2010 MIDs.