Windows 7 Starter Edition for Netbooks Loses 3-App Limit

A reversal seemed highly likely from the moment Microsoft announced a three-application limit in the Windows 7 Starter Edition OS planned for netbooks. You could practically hear the industry utter a collective boo even before the electronic ink was dry on that Microsoft decision. Credit Paul Thurrott who got the goods about Microsoft removing the app limit.

The three-app limit (a max of three applications running concurrently) was Microsoft’s way of stopping users from taking W7 Starter Edition and running it on more powerful hardware, figuring netbook users could get by with just running three apps concurrently. It may even be questionable whether most netbooks can run much more than three apps anyway. (I’m still not convinced networks will be much more than a very small niche part the market, but then again, that’s for a different blog post. ) But the last thing Microsoft needs to do is help out full featured netbook contender Linux, by imposing seemingly capricious limitations like the app limit.

As a product developer, it has been my experience that customers hate what they perceive as arbitrary software limitations, resulting in something we frequently call “crippleware”. All of us in the network world can remember back to the days when Check Point priced their software based on the number of IP addresses exposed on the outside interface of the firewall. Under the covers it was still the exact same software, with a governor applied to restrict outgoing network traffic to a certain number of IP addresses, unless more dollars were forked over for more IP addresses. I’m sure no one put a proxy server in place behind the firewall to fool it into thinking there were only a few internal IP addresses trying to get through the firewall. Nah.

Customers generally will accept that lower priced software has fewer features compared to more expensive, higher end versions. The problem here is that isn’t the case with the Linux alternative. All the same Linux stuff is available on a netbook, no features were removed or crippled, and the $0.00 Linux price is also very attractive. Just like Vista’s Home and Home Premium editions have fewer and more features, respectively, Microsoft will either have to figure out if they can still apply that same approach for netbooks, or be forced to rely on the speed and processing power of the lower spec’d netbooks to be the limiting factor.

On the flip side, Microsoft’s gaining a lot of value by being so transparent about Windows 7 decisions like the 3 app limit. It’s reminiscent of the recent reversal of the decision to lower the default UAC setting in Windows 7. (See this related blog post .) After some very vocal feedback, Microsoft has now reversed both of these decisions early enough to make adjustments prior to the Windows 7 product launch.

Credit Microsoft for not only listening, but also changing these kinds of decisions in time to include them in the final product. That’s very promising, and is something I hope we’ll see more of.

NOTE: Also check out this related blog post, Windows 7 UAC Fix Doesn’t Address UAC’s Fatal Flaw.
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Retailers Taking Orders for Laptops With Core I7 Chips

Retailers are now taking orders for what could easily be the world’s fastest laptops, powered by Intel’s speedy Core i7 desktop processors.

U.S. retailer AVADirect and Canadian retailer Eurocom are offering variants of Clevo’s D900F laptop with the Core i7 processor, a chip usually included in high-end gaming desktops. The chips, launched in November, were dubbed the “world’s fastest chips” by Intel until the company’s Xeon server processors were introduced in March.

The laptops will come with 17-inch screens and are intended to be desktop replacement PCs. The machines don’t skimp on features and include a full array of components one would find in Core i7 desktop systems, according to laptop specifications on the retailers’ Web sites. AVADirect, in particular, decided not to wait to bring the Core i7 hardware to consumers in a portable form.

“While power usage will be higher, AVADirect does not need to wait until Intel or some other company designs and implements mobile offerings of current desktop hardware,” AVADirect said in a statement. Laptop hardware usually lags desktop hardware by up to 12 months, so the desktop hardware needed to be redesigned for notebook usage, AVADirect said.

The laptops come with Core i7 920, 940 and 965 quad-core processors running at speeds from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz, and include 8MB of L3 cache. The laptops draw 130 watts of power, and will come with the X58 chipset and an Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) to boost graphics performance.

The laptops will support up to 6GB of DDR3 memory, which should provide a tremendous performance boost. The machines will support up to 1.5TB of RAID hard drive storage and include wireless 802.11a/b/g/n technology. They will ship with either Windows Vista or Linux OS. Eurocom’s customized Clevo D900F system — which is called the Panther D900F — weighs a whopping 11.9 pounds (5.4 kilograms).

With standard components, the D900F laptop’s starting price is around US$2,500 on AVADirect’s Web site. The price crosses $6,000 for an extravagant configuration that includes the fastest Core i7 965 processor, three 500GB storage drives, internal Bluetooth capabilities, a DVD-RW drive and additional cooling features.

Intel’s Core i7 chips are a significant upgrade over Intel’s Core 2 Duo chips, which are currently used in desktops and laptops. The new chips are built on the Nehalem microarchitecture, which improves system speed and performance-per-watt compared to Intel’s earlier Core microarchitecture.

Each core will be able to execute two software threads simultaneously, so a laptop with four processor cores could simultaneously run eight threads for quicker application performance. Intel has integrated the chips and chipset with QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) technology, which integrates a memory controller and provides a faster pipe for the CPU to communicate with system components like graphics cards.

Intel later this year intends to introduce new chips for desktops and laptops. The chips, code-named Arrandale, will be dual-core and start shipping in the fourth quarter this year, with laptops becoming available in early 2010. Arrandale chips are expected to be faster than existing Core 2 Duo chips and consume less power. However, laptops with Arrandale chips may not match the speeds of Core i7 laptops, considering the chips will be dual-core and built to draw limited amounts of power.

Laptop Hunters Ad Wars: Apple Strikes Back

Apple released today three new Get A Mac ads in reply to Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters campaign. The ads take a stab at the prolific Lauren from the first Laptop Hunters ad and ridicule customer care (or the lack of) for PC users.

One of the ads, titled Elimination, suggests that there are no PCs immune to viruses and crashes — that is, according to Apple. Megan, Apple’s version of Lauren, gives her list of specifications for the computer she wants (ding dong!) until all that’s left is a Mac. And no, Megan does not mention a price limit. Here’s the ad:

The second ad, called Customer Care, finds the PC character trying to get customer service while the Mac character flaunts one of the Mac Geniuses next to him. The third ad in the series is called PC Choice Chat, where PC is running a radio chat show and gets flooded with “prank calls” from wannabe Mac switchers. Here are the other two ads:

What we’re now seeing is an ad war between Microsoft and Apple, targeting each other directly in their campaigns. Interestingly enough, Microsoft was criticized for not mentioning Windows as an operating system in its campaign, but this time around Apple doesn’t mention it either (unless you count the Mac computer and Mac OSX as one item).

Meanwhile, Microsoft attacked Apple again today — the iTunes Music Store, more precisely. The new Zune advert find Apprentice star Wes Moss pointing out that filling the latest iPod with music can cost you up to $30,000, and that you should get a monthly Zune Pass. The truth in this claim is discussed largely in this post. But here’s the ad for you:

To say that Microsoft or Apple has a better campaign out there would be like getting into the Mac VS PC debate. So I’m going to ask you: Which of the two campaigns is more effective? Apple’s or Microsoft’s? Please sound off in the comments.

Follow Daniel on Twitter @danielionescu.

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