Windows XP vs. Windows 7

My dad is going to be buying a netbook and he will be using it as such...

however, he wants to get every bit of battery life and power as he can.

He can either get Windows 7 starter edition or windows xp home.

I have heard reports of Windows XP having longer battery life.

And how much less resources does XP take up vs. 7?

 

I dont really know how much better Windows 7 Starter is contra Windows XP Home Edition, but i would recommend your father to get Windows 7, since its newer and more stable.
(Unless its fiilled with bloatware. xD )

 

Win 7 certainly seems to run the battery down faster so the battery will not las as long between recharges compared to XP. Some reports say it's only a few percent, but others by a lot more. Microsoft are supposed to be looking into this but they haven't improved it yet. Maybe they won't.

XP is slightly faster than Win7 on any given machine, but not by much. More importantly, Win7 starter is restricted so make sure that you don't need any features they've removed.

EDIT: When I used the term 'battery life', I was referring to the time it takes to run the battery down in use, which is what I assume you are concerned about.

 

The statement that Win 7 is ruining battery life is nothing more than a myth.
It actually reports an accurate state the battery is in, and most users who reported this probably had defective or old batteries to begin with (XP was the problem because it often reported inaccurate battery state).

Microsoft investigated the issue and came to the conclusion that Win 7 is not responsible in any capacity for the battery issues people reported, but rather that it's because of the batteries themselves.

As for which OS should be picked for the netbook ...
Well, Win 7 is newest piece of software, and resource-wise it's slightly more demanding than XP, but will work in the same capacity on a netbook and you really won't notice any difference.

The only downside I may see with this is that the starter edition of Win 7 would likely be limited in some features compared to Home Premium.

It does come down to then just what kind of features your father needs in an OS to run on a netbook.

 

it doesn't matter what's faster. it matters what gives him the best and fastest usage. the new taskbar + the instant search-n-start startmenu etc are heaps better than xp days. so get him win7.

i just don't like starter, don't like that it disables aero.

 

Windows 7 analyzes and REPORTS battery life more accurately than Windows XP ever did.

 

I personally dislike Win7 Starter myself(too many things removed), but I'd recommend he goes for Windows 7 anyhow since it does have some good improvements over XP under the hood.

 

Here's an entry in the Windows blog detailing the limitations in Windows 7 Starter: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/05/29/let-s-talk-about-windows-7-starter.aspx . Note the 3-application limit has been removed since then, and that DVD playback support probably will be included by the system vendor (it isn't included by default on XP, either, but almost every vendor adds a decoder so DVDs work out of the box). If a feature such as multi-monitor support is essential for your dad (seems unlikely on a netbook, but better to check than find out after the fact), XP is probably a better option for a similar price - or buying an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, if the cost isn't a problem.

I wouldn't worry about OS impact on battery life - in most cases the difference between XP and Windows 7 is pretty mild. Performance-wise, as long as you have 2 GB of RAM, either should suffice. If you have 1 GB, XP may be a wiser choice. As for CPU, XP probably does use less CPU power on average, but even a single-core Atom should suffice for either OS, although a dual-core Atom or AMD Neo like you have is probably preferable for either OS. In short, for most users, Windows 7 will be better, so long as the machine has 1.5 GB of RAM or more.

The battery capacity is probably what he should be looking at. A lot of netbooks come with small 3 or 4 cell batteries at 20-30 WHr. A notebook-grade battery (6 cells, 55 WHr range) on a netbook would make a big difference in battery life, much more so than the choice of OS.

 

With my Mini 5101 and its 6-cell battery I could hit 8.5hrs in XP and roughly 2 hours less in Win7 with Aero on.

However I have Win7 installed, since it is so much more nicer to use.

 

If he wants more battery life, tell him to get a bigger battery. Windows XP is a legacy OS and I wouldn’t recommend it for a modern computer—the UI and hundreds of other enhancements in Windows 7 make it a far more functional OS (though I would not go with the Starter edition).

 

I get more battery life out of Win7 ...

 

In my experience on my last laptop, battery difference between XP Pro and Vista Home Premium was negligible.

I highly recommend your dad to get Windows 7. Starter Edition isn't great, but odds are he won't need that many of the extra features on his netbook anyway. Even the Home Premium version runs great on the netbooks I've tested it on, so Starter will have no trouble.

Basically, for netbook use, there's no reason to get XP over 7.

 

Go with Windows 7 but not starter as it's too crippled to be of much use and as long as you got enough memory 7 will be heaps better plus it don't slow down like xp does.i could never use xp as my main os again as 7 has alot of stuff i like.

 

Do they still offer Windows 7 Home basic as an option? If so I would go with that OS over XP. As others have said Win7 offers many nice improvements, and handy features.

 

There isn't anything available in Windows 7 by default that you can't add and use in Windows XP if you so choose. Windows XP is not unstable as some would have you believe. IMO, statements like that reflect more on the operator of said OS, than the OS itself.

 

I find I get better battery life with Windows XP.
Win7 got ~3hours
WinXP gets ~4hours

 

The minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP Home Edition are:

* Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
* At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
* At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk

for w7
*1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
*1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
*16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
*DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

all seems to forget 10x disk space req
I'd go for XP

 

On my 1201N netbook I found that I get 4 hours and 40 minutes of battery life on XP in power saving mode. When in the same power saving mode in 7 I got around 4 hours and 15 minutes of battery life. I found this rather confusing since I recall reading reports 7 was supposed to improve battery life. Part of my battery break-in procedure requires me to run a battery from full charge all the way down to 1% 3 to 5 times. I also found that XP was under-estimating battery life while 7 was over-estimating it most of the time. XP was most likely to give wildly inaccurate estimates depending on what you were doing. That's just my experience, not my opinion. As you can see in my sig I run both XP and 7. With such close battery life figures it's likely things unrelated to the OS (like flash) are responsible for the difference.

 

Windows 7 is much better with networking if he is using the wireless. Typically on a 15 Mbit Cable connection I only get 7+ Mbits DL with the XP machines but the full 15 Mbit's from Vista or Win 7 machines. This is with a G connection............

 

To use a Basketball metaphor, it's a slam dunk for Windows 7. I hated Vista, love W7.

 

Windows 7 also takes away some functionality. As to the power, it's more likely the newer hardware is using less power.

Sounds to me that you had something setup incorrectly on those Windows XP machines -- whether that was MTU, Receive Window, or something else was going on there. I understand you said a G connection, but whether it's G or straight Ethernet, WinXP can easily handle more than 7 Mbps. I have a 10 year old Gateway with WinXP on it and it does multiple Mega-Byte transfers. So, maybe it was your hardware that was struggling?

 

Windows 7

Windows XP is old...get over it.

 

Windows XP will always be in my heart.. I LOVEDDD it! But, I just had to let it go.

 

Nope they are setup properly. I've tried it all and to no avail. Why it cuts the bandwidth exactly in 1/2 I don't know but it does. Now if I Ethernet it I get full bandwidth, strange but true. BTW I still have 2 XP machines on the network here and the exact same issues with both, at one time I had 4 machines. None have any trouble with resources and I had one I upgraded to Vista and it went from 1/2 to the full speed from my WAN.

Vista and Win7 just have better wireless networking. I have seen it myself on a few occasions.

 

Yeah, basically.

 

Let me add, I get WAYYY better Battery Life in Win7 now. I don't know what happened but I spiked up an extra 1.3 hours!

 

Win7 probably finished with it's indexing Windows 7 has numerous power management improvements over XP.

 

I love W7 even while I was still trying it out during its beta days. But I'm sticking to XP until I buy a new computer.

I'm not a fan of how W7 Starter edition takes away some features and functionality though...

Still, I'd say go W7. It's easier to use, actually, despite being stuck with XP for several years now.

 

Yep, same here. I gained another 30 minutes.

 

Is the extra 1.3 hours clock time or a gauge reading?