Microsoft brings back 1GB RAM restriction in Windows 7 Starter

Posted on May 25th, 2009 by Nidhi

Earlier this month, in our post “What Windows 7 Means for your Netbook,” we mentioned Microsoft was finally doing away with its silly 1 GB RAM restriction and we could expect future netbooks to come with up to 4 GB RAM. Well, Microsoft has changed its mind.

Rumor has it that the software giant has just released a new set of restrictions. While the good news is Microsoft is getting rid of the silly ’3 apps only’ restriction from the Windows 7 Starter edition, the company is enforcing it’s previous silly 1 GB RAM restriction to Windows 7 well.

Angry? You should be! Microsoft really needs to let netbook makers decide for themselves what kind of hardware the machines should come with. Sure Microsoft is losing share of the desktop/notebook market because of the netbooks’ rising popularity – but they’re still earning money from each netbook that sells with Windows 7!

Microsoft should stop concerning itself with how much its earning per PC/desktop versus how much it is earning per netbook and start paying attention to retaining market share. Especially with competition coming from Google Android and rumors of that Apple will be entering the netbook market.

Other restrictions include limiting CPU to a single core processor that does not exceed 2 GHz and limiting screen size to 10.2″ and under (measured diagonally).

NOTE: Microsoft has not yet confirmed these restrictions, but based on previous restrictions, they seem very likely.

UPDATE: Windows 7 confirmed to release Oct. 22

Related posts:

  1. Office for Netbooks – Microsoft developing Netbook specific version of Office 14
  2. What Windows 7 Means for Your Netbook
  3. Netbooks & Windows 7 Release Candidate
  4. Toshiba Dynabook UX 10″ Netbook – Big in Japan?
  5. Netbook Links + News for early March

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3 Responses to “Microsoft brings back 1GB RAM restriction in Windows 7 Starter”

  1. Meet my notebo-ultraporta-netbook…? | Acer Review, Asus Review - Netbook 10, on September 19th, 2009 at 3:05 am Said:

    [...] – If it weren’t for Microsoft’s restrictions, we’d be having this discussion months ago. In order to get Windows XP for free, netbook [...]

  2. 1.83GHz Intel N470 to come out in March! | Acer Review, Asus Review - Netbook 10, on October 28th, 2009 at 12:59 pm Said:

    [...] Microsoft restrictions come and Microsoft restrictions go. Turns out it’s the same with Intel! Your Intel Atom processor running netbooks have been limited to only 1GB of RAM because well, the big guys don’t make so much money off them lil’ processors. But with Intel gearing up to launch its Pine Trail line, the restrictions are slowly fading away. [...]

  3. Robin Wilton, on June 21st, 2010 at 9:07 am Said:

    This should make the folks at System76 very happy (I have no commercial stake); their Starling netbook comes with Ubuntu and 2Gb of RAM.

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