During the close to one year I used the Aspire One as my portable computer I had WIndows XP on it until the very last week. When I got the EEE 1101HA, I immediately put Windows 7 on it – something I’d also done with the Aspire One a week earlier. So which of the two is best for netbooks?

Windows Vista should never ever be on a netbook. Heck, it shouldn’t really be on any computer – it’s a resource hog that doesn’t really deserve to be alive. Windows 7 however is much more low-end hardware friendly and can easily be run on a netbook. This results in a generational split where your choices in Windows systems for you netbook is between the 8 year old XP and the brand new Windows 7.

Resource usage

One of the major limitations of netbook hardware is the limited system resource you have, such as a slow CPU and limited amount of RAM. While more and more netbooks come with easy access to the RAM, there are still netbooks out there where you’re more or less locked to the 1GB that comes on the machine.

Windows 7 is definitely the most resource needy OS of the two, as can be expected. Running 7 with no other apps you can expect it will use about 450-500MB of RAM depending on version etc, and using Aero, desktop widgets and other Windows 7 specific features will not help with conserving RAM. With 1GB however you’ll most likely not ever have any RAM issues, and if you upgrade to 2GB RAM you can forget about memory consumption altogether and let it run wild.

When it comes to CPU usage Aero and such features will again be the real resource hogs that make 7 the loser. If you run 7 on the basic theme you won’t really notice any difference, and even with Aero on it’s more than usable – I have Aero on the 1101HA and even the 1,33GHz Z520 CPU can run that fine.

Bottom line is that the only things that will really affect the smoothness of the OS on a low powered netbook on 7 vs XP is the features than XP don’t have anyways, and so it’s not really an issue.

Drivers and compatibility

Many people have asked if it’s even possible to run 7 on their netbooks at all, due to drivers and compatibility issues with such a new OS. The answer is both yes and no. Some netbooks will run fine with 7 on it, while others will have problems. The basic hardware will in most cases always be supported, but things like ACPI drivers (the software that’s specific to the netbook, controlling for instance FN keys and such) might not work on 7. In the case of the 1101HA, you need an older version of the BIOS to make the ACPI drivers work. The main issue with this is to get FN keys to work, so it’s not extremely critical even if it doesn’t work.

Applications will run just fine on 7, as it also features a compatibility mode which lets you choose exactly what OS you want 7 to emulate when installing a program. This is something Vista had issues with when it was launched, and not having this problem on 7 is very important for usability – even if most apps you might run on a netbook are mainstream and will already be optimized for Windows 7.

Basically, you should always check with people who have the specific netbook to see what the issues with 7 might be before installing. No matter what netbook you have, there’s a forum somewhere with someone who’s already tried it.

UI and usability

This is where the real differences between the OSes show. XP is old, and is starting to look the part with overly complicated menus, a star menu and task bar that isn’t very low resolution friendly and general quirks that reflects it’s age. Windows 7 however looks very polished fluid. Windows 7 is to XP what Maemo is to S60, if you know smartphone operating systems. The “awesomebar” as it’s called (task bar) itself is a reason to run 7 instead of XP as it uses icons both for shortcuts on the bar and also for running apps – instead of those giant labels XP uses. This is much better suited for low resolution screens, and it also nests windows belonging to the same program within the same icon to save space. This works by default for actual windows, but over time it will also work for tabs withing FireFox (already works for Internet Explorer tabs). The task bar is a mix of open programs (has a button shape around them to indicate they’re open) and shortcuts you’ve placed there – basically a mix between the dock in OS X and the old XP task bar.

If you right click the awesomebar icons – the ones that are pinned to the bar as shortcuts – you will in some cases get a menu of locations within the said shortcut. For instance, the shortcut to the libraries can be right clicked to bring up a menu with more detailed locations on the computer, such as removable drives, individual libraries and so on. With some apps it will display the last used files, and so on. You can drop in new shortcuts within this menu, such as shortcuts to hard drives or specific folder locations. This way you have a full list of locations on your computer accessible from a single icon on the task bar.

While the task bar is especially useful for netbooks, there are hundreds of new interface tweaks in Windows 7 that is useful no matter what computer you’re on and so it’s naturally better than XP on netbooks as well. Small things like being able to snap windows into place, the libraries, less Windows 98 looking menus etc all help to provide an overall better experience when using Windows 7.

Conclusion

I like Windows 7 a lot. The tiny amount of extra resources it uses over XP is not enough for me to give up on all the new features that running 7 gives you. The awesomebar itself (that’s the actually name, btw) is a reason to win 7 – especially if you have a low resolution netbook. There are of course more differences than I’ve touched on here, but these three topics seem to bewhat most people are curious about when it comes to Windows 7 on a netbook. It is important that you check driver compatibility before upgrading – from someone who runs Windows 7 on the exact model netbook you have – but other than that I say go ahead with 7.