I don't really recommend Win7 as much as the original thought was that we'd have to wait for Win7 launch to get the ION-powered netbooks … but apparently as of this week with the announcement of the HP Mini 311 with ION and WinXP that has all changed! I just recommend getting a graphics-chip powered system and avoiding teh worst OS of the modern era (Vista).
So what is your netbook? Post a link!
The HP mini 311 will be using ION LE - which is a weaker version, and apparently no HD streaming.
That kind of defeats the purpose of it in terms of being a gaming netbook - though it's naturally better than the current alternatives.
I strongly recommend waiting for a proper ION netbook, or even better, a dual core solution that will inevitably come before long.
For those of you considering a netbook for gaming, that is.
About OS - my experience with Windows 7 has been mostly positive - but I will almost certainly go with Windows XP. The select few games putting DX10 to good use are all extremely demanding, so you won't really be enjoying them on a netbook except in EXTREMELY few cases. Also, I suspect most of us want a netbook for nostalgia gaming - but I could be wrong.
I don't care what anyone claims, I can personally guarantee that Windows XP will outperform Windows 7 for games on such modest hardware. Not by that much, but AT LEAST 10% - and you want those 10% for your netbook if you want to play any modern games, believe me.
As nice as Windows 7 looks, much of it is pointless bloatware for a netbook. Maybe they'll release a "light" netbook version? If so, then maybe it'd be better but I doubt it.
Only if you intend to go with 4GB ram - where you'll need a 64-bit OS to take advantage of them - and even then there's XP 64-bit (though it's not supported well).
That's how I see it, anyway.