Windows 7 RC runs Photoshop CS3 on Hello Kitty Netbook

[brecklundin]

http://technabob.com/blog/2009/04/01...photoshop-cs3/

Amazing that an 1.6ghz ATOM processor based netbook can run something as CPU intensive as PS CS3. And running using Aero to boot. I despise Vista and saw zero compelling reason to move in that direction, and never will, it is Windows Millennium all over again. That said as much of a skeptic I would ever move to Win 7 might have been dashed on the rocks ofter that video.

So, what is the tie in to ebook devices? Why our good buddy Mary Lou. In her presentation about the release of the 3Qi displays she mentions that the processor wars are done, beyond specific high end needs it is to the point that the underlying hardware is completely immaterial. I passed that off as a fair bit of marketing/fund raising hyperbole. Now after seeing this video, I am actually downloading the current RC for Win7 Ultimate. If we had a very powerful OS, the 3Qi display AND the ability to run a few of our important apps like Excel, Word, Open Office, OneNote, EverNote or whatever as well as something like Photoshop, on the very same device I can use to comfortably read ebooks, then to me eink is a "flat cat" for anything but a pocket reading device.

I have already decided I certainly will buy a pocket device because, as I have mentioned, it can be nice to just take it along a small size reader to a fav local eatery or even a sack lunch in the park, sit in the sun and read. And if I knew I needed outside but still wanted to read a bit then get some more work done in nice weather...boom out comes the net-slate/tablet reader device. And even though I do not at all like eink to read on, outside it's very, very good. Even on my K1.

From that video there is no chance I even consider a reading only device EVEN if it has a 3Qi display, unless they pass along the savings of the cost for the display. MFg's and their mouthpieces have whined about the high cost of eink displays, now with the 3Qi it is put up or get trampled by the competition time. My money is on companies like Asus getting most of the business. Of course ONLY if Win7 actually delivers as that video implies...in case you don't know, Photoshop can be one of the most demanding apps around. And in fairness the tasks they showed were very basic. Still, that is runs, at all is great but to run with some acceptable speed is even better.

With that and pretty much ANY desktop based reading software out there able to run on the Windows platform, that is a winner for everyone...but a down side I see is the DRM thing, Win7 only keeps that alive in the minds of the publishers.

Just thought the potential is impressive, and even as this is a very early RC, I already had ordered a new 500gb HDD for my laptop so I can install Win7 on one of my other drives to play with...no room for a dual boot, my 160GB drive is down to around 50GB and that is way to close to full.

Win7, FBReader, 3Qi and the ability to work on a 10-12" device OUTSIDE....OUTSTANDING...

[TallMomof2]

At first I thought it was an April Fool's prank because the date of the article is April 1 *but* it referenced an article from January.

I will say that Win 7 is far better than Vista (easily) and XP. My current PC is Win 7 and I will be converting it to dual boot Win 7 and OSX (ye olde Hackintosh). It's cool to see it running on a netbook.

Good luck with Win 7, personally I found it easy-peasy to install on a new hard drive. It took maybe 90 minutes! All the drivers I needed were included. I installed it on a brand new setup and I never had to load drivers for the motherboard or the video card from CDs. A couple of times through Windows Updates and I was running all the current drivers.

My experience with Win 7 is very positive. It handles everything I throw at it. The only minor problem I had was getting it to run SageTV Client software. Had to install a third party free audio codec. A couple of resource intensive programs took a couple of tries to install correctly but I am running a release candidate and everything won't perfect.

All in all, Win 7 has given me a more positive opinion of Microsoft.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

Just thought the potential is impressive, and even as this is a very early RC, I already had ordered a new 500gb HDD for my laptop so I can install Win7 on one of my other drives to play with...no room for a dual boot, my 160GB drive is down to around 50GB and that is way to close to full.

Win7, FBReader, 3Qi and the ability to work on a 10-12" device OUTSIDE....OUTSTANDING...

Win 7 is great. I've been using it since just before build 7077, which I upgraded too once that was released and am still using it (I believe 7201 just leaked)

it's a great system, the smart bar is great. its stable. anything that works with vista works with win 7, older programs are a bit more stable, but anything that doesn't work you should really be looking for a replacement, because its so old and lacks support.

My Install is currently at 46 gb, but that is with file versioning turned on, and full MSOFFICE07 and CS4 Installed too. it uses less than 2 gigs of ram (I have 4 installed, can only see 3 due to x86... my laptop is missing some x64 drivers) sidebar is currently using half a gig of ram (its been on for like 3 weeks, only sleep mode sometimes. Firefox is at 300 megs, and so is Everything (which accumulates as well over time. a quick restart of that and its at 15 megs again. I don't think is uses much more ram than XP all in all. (xp can fill just as easily, but when was the last time anyone tried to use xp with 256 megs of ram? its impossibly slow. it doesn't hit its stride to 1 gig, and zooms as 2 gigs, win 7 zooms at 2 gigs too)

[mklynds]

That is pretty sweet. Great post. Makes me think that I should finally give in and give win 7 a go.

[phenomshel]

I'm dual booting Win 7 and Ubuntu. Much to my husband's chagrin, I haven't booted over to Ubuntu all week, though. I think he'd like it if I'd go back to Linux full time. Unfortunately, I don't see it happening, even though having Linux handy makes things like Python scripts a bit easier.

[Tuna]

I think the thing to remember is that an e-ink based, low powered and portable device - either pocketable or the size of a notepad for larger documents - could drop to a sub $100 price fairly rapidly with market penetration. Netbooks, particuarly netbooks running Win 7 will remain at much higher prices, say $400 upwards.

Whilst netbooks are increasingly able to run applications that previously only ran on high end desktops, no-one in the industry is keen to see the premium price of laptops and desktop pcs eroded. To that end, netbooks will remain constrained by industry agreements. Screen size and resolution, memory and graphics processors are going to ensure that whilst you can run high end applications, you're not really going to be able to run more than one at a time and the experience will be somewhat limited. There will be a netbook edition of Win 7 that will reinforce the difference between the cheaper devices and more expensive laptops.

At present, it's also worth noticing that the industry agreed definition of a netbook actually puts it at a significantly lower resolution than a kindle DX. How Pixel Qi's screens will fit into the natural separation between products has yet to be seen.

[wodin]

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate RC1 (Build 7100) with Aero, MS Office Standard, MS Project, PhotoShop 6, and a full suite of reader/library software on an eee PC 1000HE, (2 GB RAM and 250 GB hdd) and it runs at least as well as the XP Home that it came with!

It is NOT, however, and eBook reader! For that I have two very much more portable devices (pocketable actually). A jetBook, and a Nokia N800. I also have a Sony PRS505, but rarely use that as I doesn't fit in my pocket.

[brecklundin]

wodin:

Nice info on the eee 1000HE and W7RC. I have been around Windows since 1.0 when, if people really want to know, it was truly awful. I have had little faith in any version of Windows for a long time. Constantly short on delivery of promised improvements and feature changes/additions. I haven't done my install yet but will get to is soon as the new drive gets here. I forgot I only have one extra SATA drive and the thing is full and I have nowhere to stuff the data on a different drive...d'oh!!

As to the netbook you have now as an ereading device...nobody is saying it should be. We are all looking past that sort of device to later this fall or early winter when the 3Qi displays hit the market in convertible tablet and slate devices. THAT is what is being discussed. And remember even still there are many many people who find no issue reading on a netbook device as they currently exist. It's just that some are less pleased with it than others. In fact some like me find reading on my K1, the Sony 500, Sony 505 and any other eink based reader I've either used to demo'd all very difficult to read on under all but the brightest lighting conditions.

So, for me that makes eink devices as they exist today 100000% NOT viable ebook reading devices. So, I opt for LCD device out of necessity as well as they don't strain my eyes. Plus after 35yrs of either CRT's, LCD or whatever other screens, my eyes are likely as fried as they will ever be...nearly 50 now and still read on them w/o any prob. BUT I have always kept the brightness to the minimum level I need to actually read the or see whatever is on the display. Plus I have always spent my time outdoors in that stuff called SUNLIGHT and no LCD display on the planet can come close to that candlepower beaming into your eye from any direction.

I just am thrilled with the fact even this RC version runs so freak fast and that is WITH the debug code still in there trapping errors.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Tuna

Whilst netbooks are increasingly able to run applications that previously only ran on high end desktops, no-one in the industry is keen to see the premium price of laptops and desktop pcs eroded. To that end, netbooks will remain constrained by industry agreements. Screen size and resolution, memory and graphics processors are going to ensure that whilst you can run high end applications, you're not really going to be able to run more than one at a time and the experience will be somewhat limited. There will be a netbook edition of Win 7 that will reinforce the difference between the cheaper devices and more expensive laptops.

At present, it's also worth noticing that the industry agreed definition of a netbook actually puts it at a significantly lower resolution than a kindle DX. How Pixel Qi's screens will fit into the natural separation between products has yet to be seen.

Cheap laptops start at $400 though. my brother got a 15.4 inch, Dual Core, 160 gb hd, 3 gigs of ram for 400. I got mine, 15.4 inch, dual core, 4 gigs of ram, zooming vid card, and metal body, for 555.

net books will be cheap small computers, but there are cheap larger laptops that work just as fine. Netbooks try to keep the weight down. the sub 5lb notebooks are cheap ussually, and insanely fast.

[wodin]

@brecklundin

I didn't mean to imply that eBook readers should not be capable or running advanced OS and apps, or that they should not have color backlighted displays. My emphasis was on the size/portability. I can fit a Sony or other 6" reader in a manbag and I can fit a jetBook or N800 in my pocket. I cannot fit a netbook in either. I have a nice little Targus netbook case for my eee, but when I carry that it's pretty obvious what it is I'm carrying. A computer!

My N800 is a very capable computer, more capable than the first several generations of computer that I owned; but unless they look closely, no one would know that I have it in my pocket.

[Tuna]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

In fact some like me find reading on my K1, the Sony 500, Sony 505 and any other eink based reader I've either used to demo'd all very difficult to read on under all but the brightest lighting conditions.

Really? How do you get on with faded old paperbacks? I really don't think you're going to get better viewing conditions out of a PixelQi screen - it's still essentially an LCD.

My point was basically that whilst you can run current release candidates of Win 7 on a netbook, that's not what they'll come installed with. For the vast majority of purchasers, that'll mean that netbooks fit a particular segment and will never be the 'one size fits all' solution that some people here are hoping for.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Tuna

Really? How do you get on with faded old paperbacks? I really don't think you're going to get better viewing conditions out of a PixelQi screen - it's still essentially an LCD.

My point was basically that whilst you can run current release candidates of Win 7 on a netbook, that's not what they'll come installed with. For the vast majority of purchasers, that'll mean that netbooks fit a particular segment and will never be the 'one size fits all' solution that some people here are hoping for.

The Win7 release candidate is the ultimate version, and when it is finally released will probably cost more than the netbook; but make no mistake, M$ is very aware of this market segment and will have a version tailored to the hardware/use/price point of netbooks.

[sirbruce]

My one complaint about Windows 7 is no ability to select the Windows "classic" look and feel. I love my old blue and grey square borders!

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

My one complaint about Windows 7 is no ability to select the Windows "classic" look and feel. I love my old blue and grey square borders!

I've never noticed that. but I still cringe when I see people using that on xp or vista.

and using the pre XP start bar on Vista.. boy the pre XP menu just sucks for doing anything! I always have to find some round about way of getting to things like my computer when someone at the office does that..

and they disable the vista start menu. which just rules. press the windows key type the name of the program hit enter. takes 2 seconds, much faster than looking for anything and when they go to the windows 95 version it just makes me sick

[wodin]

On the other hand it took me a week to figure out how to turn on single click, and I'm not sure if I could do it again now! There's something to be said for familiarity.