<p>I am not a computer person. What does window 7 offer that is special? Best buy is selling it for $50 and $100. Should I buy it and can it be install in a netbook which use window xp?</p>
<p>try the release candidate to see if you like it. it’s free.</p>
<p>[Notebook</a> and Laptop Reviews](<a href=“http://www.notebookreview.com%5DNotebook”>http://www.notebookreview.com) </p>
<p>should register there for all laptop/software help etc.</p>
<p>a couple of things:</p>
<p>1) If you are not a computer person, then going from vista to 7 really doesn’t provide much of a difference if all you do is simple word processing and internet surfing or the like.</p>
<p>2) Windows 7 is less of a resource hog, has many new features, etc. Research yourself if you want to know more about it.</p>
<p>3) They are only selling the upgrade versions of windows 7. Windows 7 is going to be released October 22 I believe. The upgrades requires that you have vista, i’m not sure if you require to the previous versions to upgrade to the current versions (home premium, business, ultimate).</p>
<p>4) Only if you require more features that you will actually use should you buy it for your netbook. XP doesn’t require much resources which is why it’s usually found in netbooks much more often than Vista. I think Windows 7 requires atleast 16GB of HDD space and you should have maybe about 1GB of ram, but I’m not sure about how much ram it uses.</p>
<p>Do not do it because Windows OS always have bugs and problem when they first come out.</p>
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<p>That’s an illogical reason to not get Windows 7-- every single piece of software/OS has bugs and problems when it is first released.</p>
<p>I second tastybeef. </p>
<p>I’m running Windows 7 right now, and I have to say I like it better than Vista. You can download the release candidate for free and it will last you until Spring 2010. Since you’re going to be using a laptop/netbook in college, that itself may be enough reason to purchase Windows 7 since I’m getting about 30 minutes runtime more from battery. Windows reports my computer can last for 4+ hours, but in actuality, it lasts for around 3.5 hours, which is an improvement over Vista’s 3 hours. </p>
<p>I may be wrong, but I think Windows 7 is slightly more efficient than even XP. You might as well get it while it’s cheap…If you don’t pre-order, the price will be much more expensive.</p>
<p>Did you have any compatibility issues (drivers, software)? Do you create a new partition and install or is it really just an update?</p>
<p>If you want to be safe, install it on a partition, but I’m running it on my primary partition. I have no issues with drivers, but I had to uninstall Skype and reinstall it after the upgrade. Even my 8+ year old printer works fine in Windows 7. However, Microsoft provides a tool where you plug in all proprietary devices you wanna use in Windows 7, and the program searches your hardware and software to check for compatibility.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1B544E90-7659-4BD9-9E51-2497C146AF15&displaylang=en[/url]”>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1B544E90-7659-4BD9-9E51-2497C146AF15&displaylang=en</a></p>
<p>Does Windows 7 merit a clean install? I am definitely not going to try to reformat my desktop (especially when I am in Berkeley) to install Windows 7</p>
<p>From everything I’ve read on CNet, it seems that Windows 7 is definitely worthwhile to have over Vista and most likely for XP.</p>
<p>stick with xp. it runs on fewer resources. upgrade to windows 7 only if u want the features.</p>
<p>Not right now.</p>
<p>I suspect that you’ll want to get a new laptop in after a while.
Wait until your current laptop dies. By then, all the laptops will have windows 7 pre-installed. Then just buy a new one.</p>
<p>A netbook is only like $200-300 right? So buying $100 software isn’t a great deal at all. Might as well wait to get a new machine.</p>
<p>EVERY review I’ve read so far indicates that Win7 is a WHOLE lot better than Vista…</p>
<p>I didn’t do a clean install since I didn’t think Windows 7 merited one. It did save me about three hours of reinstallations and reconfigurations, but a clean install would’ve been worthwhile. </p>
<p>If you’re thinking about trying Windows 7, get the RC1. It’s worthwhile.</p>
<p>I ALWAYS do a clean install with a new OS. Windows 7 scales pretty well across different configs so I’d definitely get it for your netbook. I’ve been testing the RTM-escrow builds and they’re all shaping up nicely. I’ll be getting it as soon as it RTMs sometime in July.</p>
<p>its worth it… mostly because vista has serious problems. but yeah, I am on the windows 7 RC right now, and I absolutely love it. I am going to be a freshman @ UCD next year, and my sister is @ berkeley for her senior year in the fall, so today I just ordered 2 new laptops. I got them from HP because HP is offering a great july 4 deal and free upgrades to windows 7 from vista when 7 comes out. I believe some other companies are doing the same thing, such as sonystyle. I would say its worth it =] $99 value upgrade .</p>
<p>I heard HP is crap quality though.</p>
<p>Depends on what you’re comparing it to…HP vs. Lenovo? No contest. HP vs. Dell, particularly in the netbook field, HP might win.</p>
<p>yea, HP’s pretty much crap. only thing it’s good for is if u wanna use it as a heater. :)</p>
<p>supposedly Windows 7 runs more efficiently than XP, even, so there’s probably no comparison to Vista ;)</p>
<p>Also, i’ve had some pretty good success with Dell, although there’s definitely a large gap in quality between Dell’s XPS and Inspiron lines…</p>