NETBOOK MAKERS NOW OFFERING WINDOWS 7 DRIVERS

Notebooks and netbooks running on Windows 7 are now available for purchase. But what if you want to upgrade your existing netbook from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7? Well, it seems PC makers have heard your prayers. A number of manufacturers have started offering Windows 7 drivers for several existing models through their support and download sites.

Asus, for instance, has already started offering Windows 7 drivers and utilities for its netbooks at its support page. Other PC makers who offer Windows 7 driver and application downloads include HP, Acer, Dell and Samsung.

INTEL TO SUSPEND THE SALE OF Z-SERIES ATOM PROCESSORS TO NETBOOK MAKERS

Intel may suspend the sale of Atom Z processors to netbook makers. Does this mean that Intel intends to stop the production of Z-series processors at all? Well, not really. The Z-series processors are used outside the netbook market too and Intel intends to keep it the same way at least for the time being.

The Intel Z-series processors run on the Menlow platform and Intel plans to continue this platform alongside the new Moorestown platform. The reason behind this decision is that Moorestown won’t initially support Windows products. The Windows-based ultra mobile market is growing rapidly and Intel wants to have an offering for this segment. It is, however, possible for the PineTrail platform to replace the Menlow platform as both are close in architecture, power requirements and size. In that case, PineTrail and not Menlow could be the platform used in Windows-based ultra mobile devices. Windows-capable Moorestown processors are also expected to arrive in 2010.

So will Intel do away with the Menlow platform? Well, it is still too early to predict but one can’t rule out the possibility either.

OLPC LOOKS UP TO 4 MORE MAKERS

The extensive authority of the One Laptop per Child proposal continues to spread out its sphere. Not long ago it was indistinct whether the PC formerly conceived as a $100 notebook for kids in developing countries would ever turn out to be a reality after an elongated series of delays. Now the XO notebook looks on the threshold of fetching a hot item, and all the investigate that went into it is leading down opposing paths. Walter Bender, who just dropped the OLPC proposal to start up its open-source software spinoff, is supposedly in "informal discussions" to obtain its Linux operating system on low-cost notebooks made by 4 producers. The nonprofit spinoff, Sugar Laboratories, is holding discussions with Pixel Qi and is exciting in pursuing an association with Intel, Bender told the news agency. No other producers were listed, though he quoted Asus on Sugar Labs' Web site the previous week. It's only the most modern transformation in a long-running chronicle that has witnessed internal strife, resignations, and other disagreement since the project's beginning. Last month OLPC originator Nicholas Negroponte whispered the XO might toggle from Linux to Windows XP, but that transform remains to be witnessed. Stay tuned.