Laptop Magazine tested Windows 7 Ultimate (Pre-Beta) on an ASUS Eee PC 1000H. And just as Microsoft said: it works.
The Eee PC running a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1GB of RAM handles the new operating system pretty well, just as it ran Vista pretty well when we loaded Vista Basic on it a few months ago. We still had a problem getting a few of the Eee PC drivers to work with the system, but for the most part we were able to get all of the features to work using the XP drivers provided by ASUS.
Unsurprisingly, it takes 58 seconds for the system to boot the OS. Of course, it has actually taken a minute for some systems to boot XP as well. However, the Eee PC 1000H boots in only 40 seconds with its default operating system.
Once booted, it was pretty neat to see Windows 7 on the 10-inch screen. As we mentioned in our Windows 7 overview, things pretty much look and feel like Windows Vista.
At the Inside Windows 7 press demo last Sunday, Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky said that all software and hardware that works with Windows Vista will work with Windows 7, as driver support remains the same. Hooks for “cloud computing” will enable applications to run online. It should be available next year. Some time.
Acer, the world’s third-largest PC vendor, said shipments of its Aspire one netbook could reach 6 million units this year, which would edge out the popular Asus Eee PC at the top of the market.
Asustek President Jerry Shen said that by 2009 his company will offer an entry-level Eee PC beginning at $200. Intel and Asus launched WePC.com, a Web site that solicits ideas from consumers with the goal of producing “the world’s first community-designed PCs.”
