You can install windows with USB if you want
Microsoft even has an article on its blog titled “Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7 - Even on a Netbook”.
Microsoft also has a handy GUI software tool for converting a USB drive into a bootable drive with a Windows 7 ISO file.
I haven’t priced netbooks since I bought mine two years ago, IIRC for about $350. Are they really down to $200 now?
As far as the OS is concerned, not only is my netbook running a version of XP, but so is my desktop. With all the horror stories I was hearing about Vista, I had decided not to bother upgrading the desktop, and then when 7 came out they apparently decided that the only way to “upgrade” from XP to 7 was to reformat and install 7 on a clean drive, and I haven’t yet gotten that dissatisfied with the way XP runs to do that.
I bought one about a year ago for $270, including shipping and no tax. It was an EE machine, but I don’t remember the model or CPU; 1GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, Win7, 1024x600 display, mem card reader, 3USB ports, sound, cam, mic, the usual glorious extra stuff. I could have done without some of the bells & whistles if it had been cheaper, as all I wanted was an ultra-portable unit, but bigger than an Iphone. Haven’t priced them since then, but the price trend is downwards.
IIRC, there were cheaper units with XP then, but I decided to spring for the extra $50 and get Win7.
Many modern netbooks come with Window 7 Starter…a much more limited OS than most XP versions, IMHO.
After upgrading RAM, the first thing I did on my netbook was to create a system image backup on an external drive. The gui tool mentioned upthread to create a bootable Windows installation usb worked flawlessly with an iso created from a Windows 7 Pro disc on another machine. I probably could have used the Upgrade Anytime option to go from Starter to Pro without hassle, but I wanted a fresh Windows installation sans vendor crapware.
Installing Ubuntu using a bootable USB created with UNetbootin was painless. Everything including the graphics card driver, webcam, speakers, microphone, and touchpad worked perfectly out of the box.
I’ve got a netbook by EEE that is several years old now. It’s able to boot off of either an SD card or a USB thumbdrive. You could keep several different versions of Linux on different thumbdrives, if you wanted to.
I checked last night: I can make my Acer Aspire One boot from a USB CD/DVD drive by messing with the bios settings. In fact I had it boot a Linux live CD, while it normally runs XP.
Um, the whole point of running a netbook is to run obsolete hardware as a tradeoff for portability.
That is, if I use the common definition of obsolete. If I use the absolute definition, then your statement fails, as a computer is not obsolete as long as I can do everything I want with it.
While there are a few things that Windows 7 can do that Windows XP cannot, it’s mostly either cosmetic or would only matter on a faster computer. Windows XP keeps getting support extended because it does what it needs to do.
BTW, I’ve yet to see a program that does not support XP. I believe Microsoft’s new IE9 will be the first, and even it’s lack of support is planned obsolescence, not necessity.
That’s not why I have one. I use it when a standard laptop is overkill for simple tasks and physically too big to carry (in a backpack and/or on a motorcycle). I’d like it to be as up-to-date as practical within a low price range.