…is running pretty smooth, actually.
I have installed yesterdays MS Windows 7 Release Candidate (Build 7100) on my MSI Wind U90 8.9″ atom based 512 Megs of RAM netbook. Surprizingly, it runs very good. Just a very little bit slower than Ubuntu. Startup time from turning netbook on till all the icons on the desktop show up is about 50 – 55 seconds (comparing 40 seconds for the latest Ubuntu). GUI with the simplified Windows 7 Basic theme is responsive and smooth. Basic Aero features are working but slowing down the whole system a bit.
Installation is fast and simple. All the MSI Wind’s hardware working fine right out of the box without any additional drivers installation, even the built-in camera which I have failed to set up in Ubuntu. Windows 7 Ultimate – the only option during the beta test – ate seven Gigs of my HDD space. There are a lot of bundled software most of the people hardly ever need, so I think it could be cleaned up for a half a Gig easily.
Overall, Windows 7 is pretty fast, comfortable and netbook ready operating system. RC Build 7100 is quite stable so you sure can give it a try on your secondary PC.
2.3 for RC 7100 on a u100
I can confirm that Windows 7 RC is working nice and smooth on the MSI Wind U90 with 2 GB RAM, just driver for Synaptic touchpad in order to have additional scrolling capability was needed. It is faster than Win XP. And with Windows 7 installed Function buttons are working fine, with nice graphics. Even several modes of battery saving are available, which did not work under Win XP.
Windows Experience Index: 2.0
• Processor 2.0
• Memory RAM 4.4
• Graphics 2.2
• Gaming (3D) graphics 2.2
• HD 5.4
Skype also installed without problem, and all multimedia is working fine.