After several months of contemplating on the idea of a school laptop, I finally caved in and made the purchase of an Asus Eee PC 1000. I’ve thrown the Windows 7 beta on there and it is absolutely fabulous to use.

The thing that I like most about the Windows 7 beta is that it actually works. You can use it as an everyday operating system almost flawlessly. All the hardware worked from out of the box, with the exception of the Ethernet port and the webcam. Just download the XP Ethernet driver from the Asus support website (the webcam is still something I’m figuring out). Perhaps I should note that installing Windows 7 on the 8GB SSD is not a good idea – stick just a few applications on there and you’ll find you’ve got no space left.

Battery life is about 5 hours from a full charge.

Considering the size of this netbook, it is remarkably easy to type on – even easier than most full-size laptops I’ve used. If you read the articles on the internet, though, there are complaints about the right shift key position. Now considering that I didn’t think I even used the right shift key, let me tell it really is atrocious as I keep hitting the up key instead – almost every time. Most of the other keys are well placed (although the Function keys are a little to the left). The trackpad is also good.

The microphone is OK. Considering that I’ll rarely be using it, it doesn’t really matter. And because the microphone is below the screen, typing is very loud.

Unfortunately, most other netbooks are smaller and although they are significantly cheaper, I wouldn’t recommend getting one with a screen of less than 10 inches. You might think £280 is a lot for such a small machine but it’s the portability, the battery and the quality you get – this thing looks absolutely stunning, the white version looks like a little Macbook. When I’ve got the funds, I’ll be modding it with a touch screen and a GPS dongle.

I should stress the importance of a Wind Surfer to help boost your Wifi signal. Mine went from 2 bars to 4 bars and all it took was a few minutes of printing, cutting and sticking.

I’ve recently found myself enticed with all the Windows 7 articles demonstrating things to come from the operating system that’s now being dubbed “what Vista could have been”. And already it certainly looks like Microsoft’s attempt at rectifying all the things that Vista fell down on.

All the legacy programs like WordPad and Paint have been updated and are now in fitting with the new look of Windows. Notably, the calculator has received a large upgrade and it boasts features like conversions, a mortgage calculator and a gas mileage calculator. What previously took a few Google searches and a long-winded Excel spreadsheet can now be done with a few clicks.

Everything just seems to integrate better with Windows 7 as well: changing wireless networks just takes two clicks, the sidebar is no more but the gadgets can roam the desktop and things like Aero Shake suggest (nice but potentially annoying) Compiz Fusion-like effects.

Performance seems to be a lot better than Vista too: everything from shorter boot times to longer laptop battery life seems to be the way that Windows 7 is going. As Vista seemed sluggish compared to its predecessors, I’m excited that Microsoft have turned it back around. It can even run with a mere 1GB of RAM although considering memory is dirt-cheap nowadays, there needn’t be a tiff if it were to require more.

The taskbar has also been hugely redesigned and while I’m not too hot on it at the moment, I’m sure it’ll all fall into place in time. Essentially, the new taskbar makes better use of the space and takes the preview window to the next level.

There’s also promise that Windows 7, from day one, will be more stable than Vista SP1. Whilst I’m not so sure myself, as every new operating system faces numerous bugs, I’m fairly confident that Windows 7 will be a strong OS that should see us through for a good few years.

Oh! How could I forget that they’ve redesigned UAC to be insanely less intrusive? You may be able keep it enabled without losing your insanity. Individual applications can be allowed forever and you can also change the ferocity of UAC, presumably inside the depths of the Control Panel.

All in all, Windows 7 has shaped up to be what could be the best operating system the world has seen. I’m interested in what developments other operating systems will see as Windows 7 nears its launch in mid 2009.