Cody Taylor

Hewlett-Packard confirmed Tuesday that it is testing Google’s Android operating system as a possible alternative to Windows in some of its netbook computers.

Most netbooks are already fairly cheap machines, but these three deals from MSI, Acer, and Lenovo bring the cost down by 25 percent or more.

In the process of pillorying the intelligence of buying Macs in the recession, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may have admitted defeat in fighting Linux-based Netbooks.

Arnie87 writes “One Microsoft Way has an interesting article suggesting that the reason Microsoft is focusing so much on speed with Windows 7 is the whopping sales of netbooks. The article concludes by saying: ‘If you plan on adopting Windows 7, you have the netbook to be thankful for, because Vista’s successor would be a very different beast if Microsoft had less motivation to pursue performance.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For years, Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols has been trying to turn Linux into something it is not: A successful and popular desktop operating system. His latest foray into “Linux is the next big thing” is a discussion of Google’s Android operating system running on future netbooks.

Analyst Robert Castellano from The Information Network believes future netbooks based on the upcoming ARM Cortex-A9 architecture and running Linux could create a market for netbooks at price points Intel and Microsoft simply won’t be able to match.

snydeq writes “For the past several months, Microsoft has engaged in an extended public mea culpa about Vista, holding a series of press interviews to explain how the company’s Vista mistakes changed the development process of Windows 7. Chief among these changes was the determination to ‘define a feature set early on’ and only share that feature set with partners and customers when the company is confident they will be incorporated into the final OS. And to solve PC-compatibility issues, Microsoft has said all versions of Windows 7 will run even on low-cost netbooks. Moreover, Microsoft reiterated that the beta of Windows 7 that is now available is already feature-complete, although its final release to business customers isn’t expected until November.” As a data point for how well this has all worked out in practice, reader The other A.N.Other recommends a ZDNet article describing rough benchmarks for three versions of Windows 7 against Vista and XP. In particular, Win-7 build 7048 (64-bit) vs. Win-7 build 7000 (32-bit and 64-bit) vs. Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 were tested on both high-end and low-end hardware. The conclusions: Windows 7 is, overall, faster than both Vista and XP. As Windows 7 progresses, it’s getting faster (or at least the 64-bit editions are). On a higher-spec system, 64-bit is best. On a lower-spec system, 32-bit is best.

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“Google CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted that his company – or at least its partners – will one day subsidize the purchase of extra-low-cost Linux netbooks in an effort to promote the use of its myriad online services”

CWmike writes “Nvidia is considering developing an integrated chip based on the x86 architecture for use in devices such as netbooks and mobile Internet devices, said Michael Hara, vice president of investor relations at Nvidia during a speech that was webcast from the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference this week. Nvidia has already developed an integrated chip called Tegra, which combines an Arm processor, a GeForce graphics core and other components on a single chip. The chips are aimed at small devices such as smartphones and MIDs, and will start shipping in the second half of this year. ‘Tegra, by any definition, is a complete computer-on-chip, and the requirements of that market are such that you have to be very low power and very small but highly efficient,’ Hara said. ‘Someday, it’s going to make sense to take the same approach in the x86 market as well.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Netbooks will pave way for Google to squash Microsoft’s OS dominance in two to three years, thanks to its Linux-based Android platform, according to analyst.