Net book with Windows 7 or its compatibility primarily for iTunes

Question

Which is the best net book, that is compatible with Windows7.

Better if it is shipped pre installed with Windows 7.

A little backgroud:

My primary system always runs Ubuntu (and I love it). It has been years since I used Windows practically, and if I have to use Windows, it better be the best and the latest Windows.

And I need Windows on this netbook because, I am buying it primarily for iTunes (Media collection, podcast download, iPod syncing) as I am frustrated with syncing iPod from Linux.

Answer 1

I would definitely hold off for a few months on buying a netbook until the manufacturers have had a decent chance to test their hardware with Windows 7 retail.

I have an eeePC 900HA, 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB hard drive. I run WIndows XP Home and have no inclination to upgrade to 7.

Why? My netbook was manufactured early 2009 and so ASUS had not had a chance to look carefully at Windows 7 and ensure a base level of performance and compatibility.

More importantly it does everything, including running Visual Studio 2008 I need on XP Home. It might be cool to try Windows 7, but I actually need to get things done with my netbook.

Regardless, read up on this Toms Hardware article if you do decide to get a netbook with windows 7.

The main issue, as with most new OS, is driver related. You can be sure however that Windows 7 will be doing more for you in the way of Security that XP does, so it will be slower by default on the same hardware compared to XP.

Regarding iTunes, I run it "happily" on this same XP netbook with a library of about 4500 songs. Unfortunately the Windows version of iTunes is not the best performer on any hardware (compared to the Mac version). The 2GB of RAM I have is probably more important then anything else for decent performance.