I don’t need an indexed search, because I know where everything is on my portable. Pictures, some music, lots of documents. I know where they’re all stored.

On a mobile computer, I’d be happy with an embedded smartphone OS. I want a snappy, quick to life system that just does the web/email/document basics QUICKLY.

So far, the Foleo was actually most interesting to me. Next might be the MIE Linux build that HP is cooking up for January. If that doesn’t work, I’m nliting an XP build to as small a footprint as I can get it… :)

You don’t need to take this as a criticism. After all, I came here looking to see what you and Kevin had to say about the new software.

Second, netbooks are still an emerging market. While many manufacturers are now introducing models, keep in mind that the CPU choices have been limited to the current Intel Atom, and that is mainly for performance reasons. This tells me that users still look for performance, not just to run the OS but to run all their apps, yet with a netbook somewhere along the line you’re going to have to sacrifice that performance to get the battery time, small size and light weigh.

In the long run I think it falls down to not only what MS can do with Windows 7 but also with what CPU manufacturers can produce for netbooks. Intel HAS to develop the Atom line, not only to provide a next gen Atom that is more powerful yet within the same TDP envelope, but pair it with a chipset/wireless solution that is also low TDP to match. With such a platform available to manufacturers, I would think tomorrow’s netbooks, those out by the time Windows 7 is released, will not only be running Windows 7 well, they will be as powerful as todays basic laptops.

With the XP restrictions finally gone, we will also get a new generation of netbooks – 8.9 and 10 inch screens with 1280 resolution, 2GB or more of ram on board, 64 bit environment, nice roomy hard drives and other more incredible features.

I think the fun hasn’t even begun!

If you want to see how Windows 7 runs on a netbook then perhaps you shouldn’t have ignored the whole Win7@PDC announcement and done what other sites like GottaBeMobile have done and downloaded your own copy of the pre-beta. There aren’t many tech sites that ignored this year’s PDC but it’s been pretty obvious that JKOnThRun wasn’t at all interested.

Indexed search, insofar as it is integrated into programs like Ink Seine and OneNote, mean I can find things faster on the go. Which means less time spent poking around trying to find stuff, which means less battery consumption. So long as bulk of the indexing is already done (during some time when the machine was plugged in#, it is a great mobility feature.

I feel the same about a lot of Vista features – they don’t cry out to be dumped from my ThinkPad. BitLocker makes sense for a mobile machine – more sense than a desktop PC in a secure location. Even Media Center seems like a great way to control media playback with touch, due to the large and simple targets.

My experience with mobile computers over the past decade seems to be this: as an OS gets old, OEMs add more and more applets #mostly in the system tray# to handle new hardware features that weren’t anticipated by the original OS. These applets bog down the system with a gazillion processes that can conflict with each other.

Then the next version of Windows comes out, and integrates a lot of the features and functionality that WAS being accomplished by the OEM add-ons. Some customization is sacrificed #ie. MS Bluetooth stack, umm, blows compared to Widcomm) but it all tends to be slimmer and more internally consistent.

So in some sense, don’t we want the OS bigger and more all-encompassing, so that we don’t have to run as much 3rd-party software?

Now let’s look at the other workflow of putting down an OS. You buy parts and build your PC. You insert the OS disk to install it. Instead of an hour install of Microsoft only installing what you want, it can push an image down to the HD in less than 10 minutes. Allowing you to log on for the first time another 5 minutes after that. Once the image is down you can wipe out anything and everything you don’t want. It gets the OS deployed much faster. Removing parts you don’t need is just optimizing the OS. Besides, name an OS you didn’t have to tweak after a fresh install anyway.

The indexing is clearly a feature for a desktop system that is on all the time. Not for a mobile computer.

Which features would you eliminate, based on current Vista? I’m not sure that I would eliminate anything. Maybe we just need better hardware instead?

I also remember when Microsoft boasted that Vista would turn on and off as quickly as a television set. Look how that turned out.