Jerry I am not quite sure how to read your post.

If you are considering buying the lowest version of Win7 just because your XP computer will not have 'support' I feel you will be wasting your money. With or without 'support' XP should be good for another five years or until your computer quits for good.

Regarding Windows 7 check Wiki below, your starter version is lower than the one created for the emerging third world countries. I think you would be bitterly disappointed if you bought that. Home Premium is the sweet spot for most users.

Read this article on the starter edition.

Ars Technica shows the Home Premium upgrade for a mere $120 and do not even list the 'Starter' version

Here is a link that might be useful: Check the versions

I agree, Netbook with windows7 starter is a disaster waiting to happen.

Thanks for the fast responses, I am about to make a "move". The subject just went critical as I decided to buy my wife a Netbook and the Acer Aspire looks like a good choice, and one that I saw in a thread search was purchased by "Raven".

She got the AOD250 that has an Atom N270 and XP Home. I see it is now possible to buy a model AO532H with an Atom N450 (newer, more powerful?) and W7 Starter. That said, I purchased a Gateway Notebook about two years ago from some old stock at BJs because it was deeply discounted and it has XP Home... that's what I'm still using myself.

That was what stimulated my reading posts here and making this post. It seemed reasonable to go for the newer Acer and W7 as that is the windows of the future. Sounds like W7 may have some of the Vista problems, right?

No, just get at least windows 7 home premium.

Windows 7 home premium is great, but I doubt it is available (yet)on a netbook. So if you want to wait a while longer and see if that happens, okay. But if I were buying a netbook right now, I'd go with XP.

I would not have bought mine with 7 starter edition have seen too many bad reviews for the starter edition, now if you plan on immediately upgrading it to home premium you could go that way, if not then I would get xp instead which is what mine has. They do have xp sp3 which will continue to have support for some time it is sp2 that will be ending support in the next year but no biggie.
Mine was one of the early ones the newer ones have a bigger screen size and an updated processor I think. I posted in your other thread the number I see on mine is N214.

Thanks all, I'll advertise any problems with W7 Starter I can understand. I purchased the Acer Aspire AO532H-2588 at Target ($299)a few minutes ago. It has W7S. I figured if it isn't workable I may go to Linux.

I like the upgrades on this Acer: Newer (better?) Atom N450
and 8 hour 6 cell battery. The price was the same, well in fact Office Max had a few of the AOD250 with $10 off/cheaper, putting them at $289.

We will not be doing anything beyond what Firefox and Thunderbird and a simple digital picture program requires, that's not asking much of the OS, even the latest tragedy by Microsoft should be able to handle that. I understand Linux Ubuntu is good and popular among Windows converts. I haven't heard of any Mac users going there :)

I use linux daily am using it right now, I have not put it on my net book but many do, I personally love MEPIS linux and currently use MEPIS8 I have used ubuntu but found MEPIS more user friendly and worked out of the box. I also much prefer KDE desktop over Gnome so suggest to many if they want an ubuntu flavor to try Kubuntu since it comes with KDE instead of Gnome. I originally started out in a ubuntu flavor and just added KDE to it but it is best to just go with Kubuntu from the get go if that is what is wanted.

There is a new way to add ubunutu to a windows machine with out doing any partitions, it uses the wubi installer and installs linux right in windows as an application so it can be removed through add remove programs, this is a pretty slick way to go and is an easy way for someone to give a go.
I always suggest at least getting a few free linux live cd's of various distros and try them out, you just boot the pc from the cd and use it, no installing or anything just lets you get the feel for it, and if you decide you want it you already have the cd.
Wubi
SimplyMEPIS

enjoy your new toy! I sure have enjoyed mine, I read my kindle for pc books on it all the time. You got a good price for yours especially with the bigger battery and the upgraded model.

some good info about the 7 starter edition
Living with the limits of Windows 7 Starter Edition
LetÂs talk about Windows 7 Starter
Understanding The Limitation Of Windows 7 Starter Edition
at the bottom of that video you will see some very good related posts you may want to check out to help with the limitations.

Raven, thanks your references put some substance to the criticism of W7S - and I can live with the limitations without any problem, for now at least.

I have an old laptop (I use the terms netbook, notebook, and laptop to mean three distinct sized of portable computers) a large HP that I loaded with a double boot: SUSE Linux or Windows XP. I have the KDE desktop and find it familiar looking but still very different than XP in its use. I have not used it much, and not at all for a couple of years. Still I threaten to go back to Linux someday and I would have purchased a netbook preloaded with Linux if I had found an attractive one, I in fact did not see any.

Jerry,

When I was shopping for my netbook I thought I saw an HP with Linux.

I did notice several HP models in various stores/web-lists, but didn't notice Linux, but it well be available.

So far I am happy with W7 Starter in the Acer I purchased. It boots and shuts down very quickly, but the Notbook is lightly loaded, so that may be the reason. My Netbook has only 1Gig of RAM.

Nothing wrong with the Starter edition of win7. Its the real deal. Just lightened up to use less background memory.
Any programing that you might need, that win7 starter ed doesnt have, is easily available from other software programs.

I've got a new HP netbook with Win7 Starter, and so has a friend. We have had no problems and it seems to work fine, in fact, better than my older netbook with WinXP. Just my 2 cents...your mileage may vary.

I have an Acer Aspire 1410 which runs Win 7 Home Premium. It is an 11" Netbook, it was $400. Comes with 2mg of Ram and Intel Celeron processor which isn't their best but it is more powerful than Atom and can run 7 Home Premium.

It is my understanding that netbooks with Atom and 1mg of Ram cannot run anything but Starter. (or XP)

the problem with starter 7 is that microsoft originally had it so locked down you could only use 3 apps at one time that is ridiculous, they have since then now changed that somewhat which makes it better. I personally love to customize and would hate one that I could not even change the desktop wallpaper on.
As is evident from the MS comparison chart of versions 7 starter is lacking many that other versions have.
Windows 7, what's the difference between the editions?

7 starter was originally created specifically for emerging markets not for the general public use in the US.
All the Flavors of Windows 7 Explained

I have seen several mention on blogs of upgrading to 7 home premium on their netbooks and not having any resource problems with Atom and 1 gig. The thing they did complain about was having to pay the additional money to MS to get that home premium version when it should have come on the thing in the first place not the stripped down starter. That was of course the ploy by MS just to get more money.

One thing that a lot of people didn't realize before Microsoft removed the "3 application limit" was that it wasn't even that big a restriction originally because many things didn't count as applications, such as browsers and a number of other common "applications."

MS has no plans to end XP support, as it is one of the best OS they ever came out with and they know it!!!

that is wrong they have announced the dates of end of support for xp sp2 already and have had the end of life cycle published for some time now.
Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Vista RTM End of Support Information
"Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system will end July 13, 2010"

Windows Vista RTM, XP SP2, 2000 support will end soon

End of support for xp sp3 is April 8, 2014.

Here is a link that might be useful: end of support info

I have xpsp2 with the xpsp3 hidden in windows updates because of all the warnings/problems it caused. Are you saying it's okay to install the xpsp3 update to get support till April 2014. Wants change with xpsp3. TY

sp3 is exactly the same nothing has changed with it what I am saying is those are the end of support days that MS has issued. If it caused problems originally it is still the same service pack and would likely have the same response.
I have one of mine that still has sp2 also because of the AMD processor and some of the conflicts it had with sp3, whether I will try to go to sp3 I have not decided yet. But if I did I would do it not through windows updates but from the actual sp3 update site either by ordering the cd or downloading the update then I would follow all the original suggestions for installing it like disconnecting from internet, disabling all antivirus programs and firewalls and doing the install that way or even in safe mode, that would give the best results and is how it has been suggested to do it since the beginning.
Of course many people had no problem installing sp3 but for those who did have problems it was pretty scary going and definitely put some off of trying it.

should anyone need the link to where you can download the actual sp3 download from or order the cd here is that info.
How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

the actual download link it self
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers

pay no attention to the IT professionals and developers part this is the sp3 file for everyone. Just save it to your computer so you can install it once you are ready.

to order cd
Windows XP Service Pack 3 CD

and the suggested steps by MS
Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3

My 3 year old Gateway Notebook and my wife's Dell Desktop are both XP sp3. I had to check as I had forgotten what we have, I think it has been at least a year.

So far the Acer Netbook with W7 Starter is running fine and my wife uses it regularly to send me email. Said another way W7 is running without me having to answer questions or fix problems, good thing as we are at the moment 1200 miles apart.

My desktop has an AMD processor and I downloaded Service Pack 3 because I had not read about any warnings or problems.

I have not had any problems.

I love XP and won't be "upgrading" my desktop to 7 unless I absolutely have to.

Not all the XPs with AMD processors had the problem with SP3. My XP notebook had the AMD processor and it was just fine. My older desktop with a different AMD processor had the bootup problem, which we solved. The problem seemed to be confined to certain HP and Compaq models with an AMD processor.

Thanks RC, I took notes and saved your links. Getting more feed up with Microsoft these days!!