Android / Windows 7 Dual Boot Netbook Disappoints 133
Barence writes "PC Pro has got its hands on Acer's Aspire One D250 with both Windows 7 and Google Android installed. Anyone who's played with an Android phone had better get ready for a let-down: Android is far from ready for netbooks. The review laments the lack of a proper Marketplace, the poor implementation of both the inbuilt browser and Firefox, and the general pointlessness of it all in its current incarnation as a quick-boot alternative. Yes, it will get better, but at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7."
People rarely try twice (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only that, but it will give Android a bad reputation. And given that people usually stick with what they know and rarely (if ever) check alternatives, it might be a long time before they try Android again.
Heck, Apple switched to a Unix core for their OS almost a decade ago and I still talk with people who think Mac OS 9 when they hear about Macs.
Re:People rarely try twice (Score:4, Interesting)
Not only that, but it will give Android a bad reputation
Why? The masses aren't likely to even hear about this netbook should it be a commercial failure (which is most likely), and the techies know better than to expect a smartphone OS to work for netbooks. So if anything, this will give Acer bad reputation.
Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:People rarely try twice (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had a hard enough time getting her to use an iPod touch and now she loves it, but believe it or not she is doing INCREDIBLE with Windows 7 with little to no help from me, right off the bat. She actually said it was intuitive, and she is not a computer person in the least.
Android needs to get their act in gear quickly, especially if they are going after main-stream, non-geek people, as these people won't be coming back anytime soon, no matter how much their geek husbands beg.
The burning question is... (Score:3, Interesting)
but at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7
From the reviewer's POV Win 7 Starter Edition looks pretty damn good.
The burning question, though, is why anyone would opt against booting into Windows 7 in the first place. Cold booting does admittedly take about three times as long as Android...but waking from hibernation takes a mere 20 seconds, just five seconds longer than the quick OS.
Windows 7 might feel a touch more sluggish than XP Home...but its refinement and ease of use come as ample reward, and importantly it suffers none of the aggravating limitations of its Google-powered rival.
As it stands, novelty merely serves as a brief distraction from the D250's competent, but unremarkable charms. We still hope future updates will reinstate the marketplace and make more of Android's obvious potential, but there are much better netbooks available for less.
The Verdict:
Google's Android OS provides a disappointing distraction from an otherwise average netbook
Re:Editorializing (Score:3, Interesting)
Nice editorializing - "Even Windows 7?" Cheap shot - you can do better than that, Slashdot
I don't think the editors of Slashdot can do any better.
Just the other day they made it sound like Windows 7 was uninstalling google toolbar and iTunes but it turned out that Windows 7 reinstalled it after the update. The person who made that comment in the story said it was the best Windows upgrade he had ever gone through.
If you had just read the title and/or summary it would seem like Microsoft was purposefully uninstalling competitors software when it wasn't even remotely the case.
Re:People rarely try twice (Score:4, Interesting)
People tend to talk. Stuff usually lasts your generation + some of the next.
Look at diesel engines. GM so farked up their implementation that everyone thinks they're slow, smokey, smell and can't start it the winter. Meanwhile Europe has 50+% diesel adoption.
I STILL get people (and young people that don't even remember the 70s) that tell me diesels can't start in the winter. I ask them how they like my 1998 TDI that is sitting out in the parking lot and they're floored. I tell them that my previous car was a 1986 diesel. Anemic as shit with no turbo but I was getting 50 MPG before Toyota even thought of a hybrid. Not to mention I can run it on any heavy oil from JP-1 to the shit that comes out of your deep fryer.
Anyone that has tried Linux in the past and found it too difficult has passed that knowledge on to their friends. "Linux doesn't do X" even though X was solved 3 years ago. Android has given a good name to Linux such that they don't know that it is. If Android screws up then someone big (as big as Google) is going to have to come up with another name for it.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)