Windows 7 vs Linux: What's the Best OS for Your Netbook?
Posted 07/02/09 at 10:30:00 AM by John Brandon
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Moblin
Moblin is the new netbook operating system developed originally by Intel and now part of the Linux Foundation. The main claim to fame with Moblin is that it is designed to make it easier to access Web 2.0 sites such as Last.fm and Twitter (with built-ion controls right on the taskbar). The OS uses a zone concept where you can place apps in their own zone and then switch quickly between them. During our test period using the build dated June 16, we had a lot of problems getting the distro to work correctly – it crashed when we went to the browser, when we added a Twitter account, etc. Crashes do not freeze the entire system, though, and pop up a dialog box where you can send in the feedback.
Load and Boot
We installed Moblin in 13 minutes, besting the Ubuntu for Netboosk install time by one minutes. (Slax installed in only 10 minutes, however.) the boot time for the OS is 25 seconds, so not quite as fast as Slax but still faster than every other OS. The install process is straightforward enough that you do not need to know anything about Linux to use it and asks only for a username and other info.
Interface and Extra Features
What you sacrifice with Moblin is that it is not equipped as a full distro that includes all the tools you might expect, such as a full word processor. Instead, it is designed to install with a basic set of apps and let you get on with your work. As an early beta, Moblin has a raft of problems, including lack of USB keydrive support (we tried about six of them) and problems playing even basic MP3 files.
The interface is slick and trendy, but requires some learning. The toolbar drops down from the top of the screen, and there are icons for browser, statsus update, zones, applications, and IM. What is refreshing – and unusual – is that Moblin doesn't really look like an OS, and mimics the look and feel of a Web site instead. The extra features for Twitter updates and IM are great, and there are plenty of extra apps such as calculators, schedulers, and a media player, but there are no full word processing apps – and no clear way to add them. (In our tests, the Moblin library for adding apps did not let us install OpenOffice.)
Moblin offers a way to sync your data on the netbook with a service such as Funambol
An unusual feature, you can add your Twitter account and update your status right form the OS toolbar.
We liked the search functions in Moblin, and they worked perfectly, although – if you look closely – you can see that they look almost exactly the same as they do in Ubuntu.
The UI paradigm for holding apps in zones is a common Linux construct, but one that will seem unusual to users who have decided to ditch Windows XP on their netbook.
Moblin had trouble playing even the built-in music files, let alone the uncompressed MP3 we added by sending an e-mail to our own Gmail account (since USB keys did not work).
Moblin found our wireless network just fine, but could not find any network drives.
Software Support
Moblin supported both Flash and PDF without having to install any extra software, which saves time in hunting those tools down and installing them. It's a little surprising, given the fact that the OS does not come with any superfluous software. It meant Moblin was a pick-up-and-go OS that worked without a lot of extra customization, and means you could install it and start using it without extra effort.
Flash support on a Linux netbook is hit or miss, but with Moblin it worked out of the box.
You can open PDF documents as well, using a built-in doc reader that loaded files quickly.
Customization and Personalization
Moblin does not pretend to be a full-featured OS, but that is also what makes it attractive to netbook owners who crave speed and not necessarily extra features. As such, the customization options are quite slim – you can change wallpapers and themes, but there's not the depth of color adjustments and interface tweaks that you will find in Windows or Ubuntu.
You can change themes but not adjust too many colors for the UI.
Like any good Linux distro, there's a way to change default fonts for the OS layer.
RAM Usage
We did not find a utility for testing RAM usage on Moblin, but we can tell you that – as long as you only run one or two apps, the OS is speedy enough. At times, Moblin did seem like it was trying to catch up with our mouse clicks, but we presume that is due to the beta code.
Speed
Moblin either worked extremely fast or had problems with even basic tests. For example, in our MSN test loading the built-in browser, which is essentially a re-designed Firefox, MSN.com loaded in 17 seconds, the slowest of all of our tests. Yet, the 5MB photo loade din just four seconds, and a PDF file appeared in the doc viewer in just two seconds. We couldn't test the document load tiem, since Moblin does not provide a full word processing app and only read our test doc as a TXT file.
Our doc file did not format correctly using this built-in text editor.
MSN loaded in 17 seconds – time enough to visit three site son other netbook OSes.
This photo loaded in four seconds, a hair faster than Ubuntu for Netbooks.
Conclusion
We're big fans of Moblin, it just needs work before it is ready to take up disk space as our netbook OS of choice. Ubuntu for Netbooks has the leg up here, but we do prefer the Moblin look and feel, quick access to Twitter, and the fact that it runs reasonably fast (with occasional stall-outs).
OK Max Pc
Submitted by lien_meat on Tue, 07/28/2009 - 7:02pm
I myself favor linux on netbooks, but really, even I felt this was biased!
Xp works really freaking well on a netbook. I can't speak for 7, but I can for XP and Ubuntu on netbooks.
Here's how I see it:
For someone who wants an internet appliance with an occasional small bit of work (word processing, spreadsheeting, etc...) ubuntu is probably a good choice, just based on it's relative lightness and straightforward UI.For someone who wants to run DX 9 compatable games or something else MS only...then you just have to go with XP.
or, why not just have both, since you might as well?
My friend paul just went to Europe, and bought a netbook to keep in touch. Since I'm the only guy he knows that has any working linux knowlege, he asked if I could help him dual boot ubuntu on his netbook which already had xp on it. Of course I helped him. It seemed to work pretty well when I got done. We didn't benchmark it, and I don't know if he ever even uses ubuntu on it, but my point is, why not have both?### I'm an idiot, and I approve this message ###
I planned on getting one
Submitted by AntiHero on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 11:10am
I planned on getting one just to have and my plan was to put Ubuntu on it. Why have windows? it's not as lightweight. I will use a linux distro because even though i really, really like windows 7 (and i do) i will not use Microsoft Office, i'll use Open Office. The monitor is too small for Adobe Flash or Photoshop, in turn leaving me with just basic functions (and maybe some Warcraft III haha)
I don't like Microsoft, I associate with it.
Submitted by rls_1128 on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 7:05am
Normally I do not comment on the internet . . . but every once in a while I'm compelled to. Usually it is because I have read something so crazy or just plain false it bears correction. Like when a tech writer of Maximum PC doesn't understand the most basic underpinnings of Vista. Now before I write one more word, I am in no means sticking up for Vista. It is a turd, just like pre SP2 XP (anyone remember the complaints people had in '03?). The authore wrote "a memory hog like Vista." That is a MYTH. It comes from when users look at Task Manager and see half of their memory being used. Their knee jerk reaction is "since I don't have any apps open, Vista is using all of memory! Vista Sucks!" Again, False Thinking! Tech writers should know that Vista uses free memory to cache or "preload" data it will likely use in the future . . . . resulting in a faster experience in many cases. Check out the task manager yourself. Mine says: cached - 943, kernel - 250. Half of my memory is being utilized, but only 250 k is being used for the kernel. Vista is using the memory for superfetch. The thinking behind this is - you paid for the memory, so use it to make things load faster.
Submitted by lien_meat on Tue, 07/28/2009 - 6:45pm
On my definately "vista capable" inspiron 1525, that is NOT the case. Vista does run poorly on this laptop, and is the sole reason why I dual boot win7 rc and ubuntu. They both perform TONS better than vista does on my laptop, and yes, some of that reason is indeed memory consumption. If I open everything I need to get work done in Vista, I do run out of ram fairly quickly, and then the OS starts putting things into the pagefile, which results in very slow response times due to it accessing the misserably slow hard drive. This isn't the case with windows 7 or ubuntu or xp for that matter. Yes, in my experience, windows vista IS a ram hog.
### I'm an idiot, and I approve this message ###
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 7:16am
I hve to go with Win 7, or XP, strictly for software compatibility. Maybe Linux will give better performance, and if you dont do anything on your netbook that you cant do in Linux, it may be best. For me, and many people, Windows is still king.
___________________________________
Game-Central.org
Submitted by internetReklam on Wed, 07/15/2009 - 7:06am
Submitted by Catalog on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 3:32pm
There are plenty of twitter gadgets available for Windows Vista and 7, which put twittering right on the desktop. How much more built in do you need it to be?
disappointing
Submitted by wk on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 12:34pm
u can consider me a loyal reader to MPC magazine and website for a long time but i can't disagree with many comments below.
lately i had noticed that many reviews and articles are not up to previous high quality material.
i don't know the reasons, may be staff changes, magazine policy ... etc but all i hope that MPC will return to their excellent quality.
MPC is my home page
Submitted by guoruiwu1994 on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 8:00am
How come the Software Compatibility about Ubuntu Notebooks Remix is about Windows 7?
Submitted by imperium999 on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 8:42am
I left a comment which basically said the exact same thing, but it is now gone...
RTS 3D Games? Check!
Submitted by bart3385 on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:50am
"No one is going to play World of Warcraft on one of these thin machines"
I've been playing Zero Hour on my Asus N10J Netbook for some months now. Set to the highest video details in the game, it runs smoothly. No lag whatsoever. Even when battling 3 brutal-team opponents simultenously. It's like playing the game on a regular fulltime core2 duo machine. (I tried 4 brutal-team opponents too, still no lag, but my chances to win against 4 is rather slim.)
Atom 1.6ghz, 2gb ram, nvidia 256mb discrete, wifi-n, vista home premium 32-bit.
No problem.
I just love this tiny machine.
Submitted by computer_freak_8 on Wed, 08/19/2009 - 5:18am
The ASUS N10J is not a netbook - it is an ultraportable, which explains why it has more power.
Submitted by ilfipian on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 6:19am
There should have been a security category as well. Windows obligates you to a fairly high level of defensive computing. There are plenty of free applications to do the job but it adds a fair bit of overhead when you're comparing speed and performance.
It's in this area I feel that a non-standard OS picks up some points. And it's one of the main reasons I removed XP from my Acer and went with Ubuntu.
Also, I'm not a fan of the Netbook remix interface. The OS tweaks are useful, but the interface isn't.
Ubuntu isn't all glory. There are problems with recogntion and hotswapping of SD cards and some minor video problems. Windows device drivers are more robust and battery efficient.
So there are some important features in the various OSes that were ignored.
Submitted by jbrandonbb on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 4:54am
A security category would have been a good addition, just not enough tiem to cover everything. I agree with your comments about Ubuntu versus Windows.
Submitted by theresapartyinm... on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 5:56am
I have an HP mini note 2133 netbook. It came with Windows Vista and I have become so frusterated with it in the past year that I finally am looking for something new. That something new will be Windows seven. This article is clearly Linux-centric. Although i am a big fan of Linux i firmly believe that any of the operating systems reviewed would work in a netbook. The only OS that i dont believe is good enough for a netbook is vista because on a netbook it takes about 5 minutes to boot evne with a 7200 rpm drive an 2Gb of ram. windows seven is much faster and does not hog nearly as many resources as vista. Almost any type of linux works well on a netbook because linux uses minimal resources. I just believe that you are comparing these OSes based on your love for Linux and not which one is actually best for the user.
WUT
Submitted by dankers on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 5:42am
We advise you to skip Windows 7, even though it is newer than Windows 7
I just wanna say that my
Submitted by Denis63 on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 5:11am
I just wanna say that my Acer AspireOne AOA-150 runs Windows 7 like a champ. and to get over the slow boot time, i just make it hibernate all the time. i "boot" in under 30 seconds, thank you very much. It's also snappy and responsive, which is more than i can say about my Windows 7 Virtual Machine on my core2 gaming rig at home. -Denis
So....once again XP wins...if you read between the lines :/
Submitted by ghot on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 3:53am
Surprise surprise. :/
Now don't get agry Will....but twitter....so what? It's just another place for kids to run their mouths. What's next, youtube functionality? I can only assume this review of netbook OS's is biased because of max PC's extreme exposure to OS's in general. Most people don't go through 15 OS's a day, so tend to be less "bored" with the one OS that does it all....XP. I'm also getting sick and tired of you dissing XP's search....I can find any file on my comp in 1-3 seconds. Maybe you just have too much crap on your comp...eh?
I'll just put this review down to a bad day...(no coffee) at Maximum PC. I'm still a fan of your mag and website...I try to take the biased reviews with the accurate ones.
Do you realize that you haven't reviewed an AMD motherboard since January? Did the manufacturers stop making them? Do you realize that the AMD phenom II X4 was for sale on Newegg.com three months before you mentioned it on the back cover of the mag.....and STILL had to toss in i7 crap in the whole paragraph where you deigned to even mention the 955. Whats going on at Max PC lately? Where's the beef?
Do you realize that at least 50% of the time, that the "coming next issue info is not accurate"?
It would really be nice for a change if Max PC stopped trying to steer its readers down some preset path and just got back to plain old reporting.
Maybe one day I'll recieve an issue that details all the bad-side of cloud computing as well. Like no privacy, like, the user has absolutley no control over what is done with their data thats stored online. Like the encryption offered by the online storage providers is THEIR encryption and that a 14 year old can crack a password in about 13 seconds with the proper equipment.....ya know....like the equipment that the online storage providers have.
I don't want to sound like a complainer, but since 2003, when i started my subscription....the meat % in the monthly issues has dropped to about 30% of what it used to be. Charge $2 an issue and stay away from the dark side...
No wonder Gordon .....rants :)
Yes I do realize that you, Will, did not pen the article....but you ARE the EIC!
Take an OS, and edit out all the efficiency, and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
I have to agree with you
Submitted by gatorXXX on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:33am
I have to agree with you ghot. I remember the days of MPC listing all the positives and negatives of all hardware and software alike. They seemed to more unbiased at that day and age. Sure, they added thier two cents about a product and I listened to them wholeheartedly! It just seems now, like you said, they seem to be steering people in a pre-determined path. Just about everything I read about AMD anymore is negative. But just remember, without AMD, Intel would have the monopoly and you would have to sell your 1st born to purchase a core i7. Not to mention the advancements in technology due to AMD.
Don't get me wrong either, I still love MPC and will continue to read to my hearts content. but in this article, win XP is still the victor. It does what it is supposed to do with nary of problems. It's not perfect, but what OS is? As my netbook goes, I will continue to use XP till I feel comfortable installing Windows 7. I pre-ordered 2. One for my main PC to upgrade Vista, and one to upgrade XP on this netbook. We will see how that pans out.
Guys, when Intel made
Submitted by willsmith on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 10:11am
Guys, when Intel made inferior CPUs and AMD was kicking ass, we talked about AMD a lot, and reviewed a lot of AMD boards. With the Phenom II effectively competing with Intel's last-gen CPU architecture, we are going to talk about Phenom II that much. We don't have time or bandwidth to review products that only work with a second (or third, depending on the benchmarks you believe) place architecture.
When AMD is competitive on the CPU front again, we'll cover more products. Until then, we've gotta give the people what they want.
While I definitely understand your point about the anti-competitive nature of AMD and Intel's relationship, our job is to tell people what the best hardware is. I'd be doing a disservice to my readers who expect that info if I started recommending inferior hardware in order to push some hidden anti-Intel agenda.
Submitted by coerciblegerm on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 5:12am
That's an interesting attitude to have, Will. Readers are asking you to more extensively cover their options for CPUs... and you brush us off because Intel's architecture has the performance edge at the moment. That didn't stop you guys from covering Intel back when the tables were turned and AMD was the clear leader. But, nonetheless, I suppose the same logic about inferior architecture holds true with your coverage of netbooks, right?
You guys don't have time to review AMD products? I have an idea; stop wasting time with fluffy articles about Barack Obama USB Drives (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/barack_obama_usb_drive_promises_8gb_you_can_believe) and moderating the discussion when (gasp) the discussion turns sour. Is that article an example of your dedication to telling people about the best hardware? I doubt it.
And did you really bring up bandwidth? As a long time reader of your magazine, allow me to personally apologize for wasting your precious bandwidth, as well as all the trees I've wasted on the print edition of your magazine. You can rest assured that I won't be taking up your bandwidth, nor will I be burdening you with any more of my hard earned cash. Thanks for letting us know how you really feel about your readers.
Submitted by comptech08 on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 1:04pm
Will, I dont think they want an anti-intel agenda, they just want AMD covered too.
Submitted by gatorXXX on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 2:53am
Exactly! I know and I will divulde to the Intel users without shame that Intel CPU's are better to a certain degree. Yeah, intel CPU's slaughter AMD in benchmarks but I'll put it this way: Corvette and camaro race in the quarter mile. Corvette beats camaro hands down but camaro still finishes. They both get the job done. They both finish exceptionally fast. Just the corvette did it faster. All at the expense of the wallet cause the covette cost nearly twice as much as a camaro.
I just want to know what MB, ram, soundcard, cpu cooling, etc., is better for my AMD rig as I am not a fanboi, just COST conscience.
Submitted by almax on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 1:54am
extended coverage of AMD won't change benchmarks
what part of MAXIMUM don't brandname fanboys understand?
Submitted by gatorXXX on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 2:57am
I bet you, only 10% of readers on here care soley about benchmarks. If you do, great!! nothing wrong with that. but I for one, don't really care as it doesn't matter what the numbers are, as long as it gets the job done.
Submitted by pcfxer on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 9:26am
"
extended coverage of AMD won't change benchmarks
what part of MAXIMUM don't brandname fanboys understand?"
Bingo, I will buy AMD because I'm a poor student, but I read MaximumPC because it is about MAXIMUM technology and ridiculous fantasies of machines that I'll never touch until ten years from now ;). That said, I remember some articles recently about file servers with Windows? That is minimum. Solaris is MAXIMUM.
Submitted by xs0u1x on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 3:19am
MeTo will be all over this one....
\m/ fight the good fight brother.
Submitted by guitronics on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 10:47pm
OK: So which OS won? I didn't see any "Ratings" expressed in numbers.
It looks to me that each OS has problems....
Just different types. Right?
I love my country. I fear it's Government.
Submitted by almax on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 6:49am
The fact that LINUX vs. Win/Mac comparisons have to involve several Linux distributions, clearly explains why there is no comparison.
Can we get a rewrite on this
Submitted by n0ctis on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:40pm
Can we get a rewrite on this article from someone who knows what they're talking about?
BTW, was Win 7 the default
Submitted by Pentium 0 on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:34pm
BTW, was Win 7 the default Ultimate edition? That seems unfair.
You can install Basic or Starter edition by deleting a certain file
http://windows7center.com/news/how-to-install-any-version-or-sku-of-windows-7/
Submitted by n0ctis on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:37pm
That was my first thought. Comparing an OEM XP tailored to a netbook against the friggin Ultimate edition of Windows 7 is ridiculous.
Submitted by Pentium 0 on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:18pm
Believe it or not everyone, There is more to life than updating your twitter status every friggin' second.
Submitted by n0ctis on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:38pm
RT @Pentium_0 Believe it or not everyone, There is more to life than updating your twitter status every friggin' second.
Submitted by MeTo on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:09pm
I chose Ubuntu for Netbooks Remix try it you will like it. And it's free.
Internet box Linux,Dual boot/Vista,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig DDR2 ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI HD 4650 1 gig Video.
Submitted by mesiah on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:01pm
Well, it was a good article. The only thing I would like to say is, who the hell cares wether you can upate twitter from within the OS? I think large companies like microsoft realise that sites like twitter are just a fad and aren't going to spend serious time incorporating them into their OS so that 5 years from now people can point and laugh at the twitter support. While I am sure social networking is here to stay, I just dont see sites like twitter being our default form of communication with the world, and if I am wrong.... god help us all.
Submitted by pcfxer on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 7:48pm
I vote for PC-BSD! Oh wait, MaximumPC only knows what mainstream media mention, fail.
Submitted by mesiah on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 7:40pm
Hang on, let me get some popcorn! Any article with the words Windows vs. and Linux in the title is gauranteed to have some entertaining comments...........
alright I'm back, now make with the entertainment!
Submitted by dethdeks on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 2:04am
i agree with just about every comment post on here except a few (staff posts), and i myself have been reading maxpc.com for some time now about a year n a half or so n i also have noticed how much its gone down hill since i started reading it. i remeber when it was updated everyday with acuall windows, and linux and the odd mac news ( i say odd cause it was like 1 mac post to every 100-1000 windows/linux posts) and now iv noticed linux is getting almost same treatment as mac is getting less n less posts n its going directly to windows. dont get me wrong im in no way shape or form a windows fanboy but seriously maxpc come on you cant tell me that theres so little new in linux that you are going to pretty much wipe them off your site. iv also been threw 2 site remodels and each one seams to get worse. first one being from the good ole plain site to the ugly orange site then to this now rediculasly ugly site skin that looks like it only has 1 purpose n thats to draw in more revenue from ad's, are you telling me that your content has gone down hill so much in the last year and a half that your mags arnt selling as good to the point where you gotta draw in as much revenue from ugly ad's on your site to the point that you pretty much make your whole site ad's good job MaxPC
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