When MSFT becomes afraid, it can accomplish stuff. "Wow, these netbooks are popular, and they can't run our latest operating system!" caused them to change pretty quickly.
The Windows Experience score has a lot to do with 3D Graphics. A significant difference between Windows 7 and Vista is that 7 only accepts WDDM drivers while Vista takes XDDM and WDDM drivers. This means all older video cards are not directly supported. All 3D rendering is done by the CPU instead of the GPU. The OS will only allow you to run the graphical Aero interface if you have a WDDM driver to make use of the GPU. Otherwise it uses an interface that is similar to XP but a little more modern and simple.
The result is a blazing fast system. Watching DVD's, flash, DivX is all fine. I'm one of the unlucky one's with a Thinkpad X40. The only thing I can't do is run Aero or Direct X stuff. It's annoying at times but I can live with it.
What matters - web browsing, video and music is an awesome experience. You don't need modern hardware for that or a high Windows Experience score. Just a well made OS.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 33.9 ms ] threadThe result is a blazing fast system. Watching DVD's, flash, DivX is all fine. I'm one of the unlucky one's with a Thinkpad X40. The only thing I can't do is run Aero or Direct X stuff. It's annoying at times but I can live with it.
What matters - web browsing, video and music is an awesome experience. You don't need modern hardware for that or a high Windows Experience score. Just a well made OS.