The netbook is a relatively new phenomenon, but only in its popularity. The first 'netbooks' actually got their start in Europe in the late 20th century. In Japan they became popular, but not as popular as mobile Internet. In the US, it seems that it has only become widespread in the last three years.
Some saw it coming; if you were in the industry, you would have known for years as they kept popping up at computer shows and in the computer media. They are actually not a bad idea at all. If you travel a great deal for work, and most of that work is e-mail and web-portal related, owning one will really lighten up your carry-on. It can browse the web and is just like a smaller notebook PC.
(Even Apple is releasing one, which means you know there is money in producing them.) There are limitations, though, such as smaller amount of storage, no CD/DVD drive on most, and they can usually only run a few applications at a time due to their limited power. If you only need that e-mail access and some web work, though, this will satisfy you very well indeed.
Microsoft has released Windows 7 Starter for the purpose of netbooks. It is a significantly scaled down version of the Windows 7 operating system (OS). Much of the system is decent and the security is actually rather good, but is missing some very important features.
First and foremost missing from Windows 7 Starter is the ability to stream media through Remote Media Streaming. If you have a home PC and you want to link to it and play your various playlists from there, you cannot stream that data - you must download it to the local drive. So, it really comes as no surprise that Windows Media Player is also not there. Two huge hits already. It will even loose one of the nicer Windows 7 improvements - Aero is not in Starter. This means that you will have no Aero Glass, so only basic themes will be available, and no Aero Peek, so no Taskbar previews. And, you won't be able to change the Desktop background, the window colors, or the sound schemes anyway - that's gone. No multi-monitor support, no DVD playback, no Domain support, and no Windows XP Mode (of course, XP Mode requires a processor designed for it and plenty of memory - things a netbook might not possess).
Microsoft did remove the earlier three application limit, though, so you can now run as many applications as the hardware on the netbook will handle. This is not enough to make Starter a comparable OS to the other Windows 7 releases, though.
With all of those limitations, it will be hard to find a use for the Windows 7 Starter edition. It may be great for some field representative who only uses a couple of applications and does not need the other bells and whistles of a fully-functional OS. However, most of us would not want to buy a system that limited for our own use; we want something which can do everything. In that case, consider purchasing a netbook with Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Ultimate. According to Microsoft, even they do not feel that the Starter version of Windows 7 is the only netbook OS they produce. They recommend that you get the standard version of the OS if you want all of that functionality.
If you are looking for a netbook, make sure you get exactly what you need, and you will likely need more than what Windows 7 Starter has available. Get the full version of Windows 7 and you will be much more satisfied.
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