Thought Out has released the MagStay Uni, a version of the company’s MagStay accessory compatible with the latest “unibody” MacBooks and MacBook Pros (but not the MacBook Air). An update to Though Out’s older MagStay Pro–we covered that version last year–the MagStay Uni is a plastic collar that fits around your laptop’s MagSafe jack, using the adjacent Ethernet port for support, and makes it more difficult for your power cable to detach. A small opening in the collar lets you view the charging light on the MagSafe connector.

The idea behind the MagStay is that Apple’s MagSafe connector, designed to prevent damage to your laptop by allowing the power cable to easily disconnect under strain, makes it too easy to accidentally disconnect. The MagStay avoids such accidental disconnections in situations where it’s safe to circumvent the MagSafe’s protection

Microsoft made headlines recently when The Wall Street Journal reported that the company planned to equip netbooks with the Starter edition of Windows 7, a semi-crippled version that only lets users run up to three applications at a time.

This is puzzling, considering that Microsoft really needs Windows 7 to be on the netbook. Netbooks are the one segment of the PC market that’s actually growing, even in the current economy. For now, Microsoft is offering Windows XP on netbooks because Vista simply won’t run on a netbook’s limited hardware, but it’s going to need to move them to Windows 7 once that operating system hits the market.

(It’s worth noting that while Microsoft claims any version of Windows 7 will run on current netbooks, Intel is not making such claims. In fact, Anand Chandrasekher, Intel’s head of Ultra Mobility, recently said that Intel will be releasing new Atom processors in the second half of 2009 that will support Windows 7 Starter and Basic editions.)

Which brings up the question: Is there anything wrong with running a full version of Windows 7 on a netbook? To test this out, I decided to install the Windows 7 Ultimate beta (because of frequent updates, I worked with builds 7000 to 7077) on a Dell Mini 9 netbook. How well would it run?

What Windows 7 needs

Microsoft states that Windows 7 requires a 1-GHz processor, 1GB of main memory and support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface). The company recommends that you have at least 16GB of available disk space for the installation; Windows 7 actually takes up about 5GB.

The Dell Mini 9 is powered by an Intel Atom N270 processor running at 1.6 GHz. The test machine had 1GB of RAM and an 8GB SSD. The 8.9-in. display is powered by the processor’s built-in 945GSE graphics. The default resolution, which is typical for a netbook, is 1024 by 600. The Mini 9 also has three USB ports, an Ethernet port, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and an SD card reader.

What it doesn’t have, as is the case with almost all netbooks, is an optical drive for the installation disk. To get around this, I used a Sony DRX-710UL external DVD drive.

Smooth installation, slow performance

The installation, from start to finish, took about an hour and there wasn’t a single glitch. Once in place, Windows 7 was slow to boot up. Because of a netbook’s lowered graphics capacity, you can forget about running the Aero interface, but even Windows 7’s low-end non-Aero desktop took a while to load on the Mini 9.

To provide a comparison, I also loaded Windows 7 on an HP EliteBook 2530p, a 3-lb. ultralight notebook that comes with a 1.86-GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM. I tested both machines using Microsoft’s Windows Experience Index, the performance benchmark that’s included in both Vista and Windows 7. On a scale running from 1.0 to 7.9, the Dell Mini 9 came in at a 2.0, while the EliteBook showed a 3.1 result. (In contrast, a high-end system with DX10 graphics is expected to score somewhere around 6.0 or higher.)

Performance wasn’t the only problem I came across. For example, I was unable to perform two network-related tasks at once. For example, if I copied a file from a network server or watched a YouTube video, life was fine. But if I tried to do both things at once, I ended up with a frozen syste

Canonical on Thursday released a Linux distribution optimized for netbooks with features to improve battery life and rapidly access programs.

The Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Netbook Remix is designed to run basic Web and office applications typically used on netbooks. Netbooks are lightweight laptops characterized by limited computing resources and small screen sizes.

The OS boots faster than other Ubuntu distributions and has better power-management features to boost battery life, Canonical said. It also centralizes applications and bookmarks under one interface to rapidly access programs and Web sites. Numerous design changes have resulted in a better visual experience, the company said.

It comes with the Firefox Web browser, the OpenOffice office suite and multimedia tools. Minimum hardware requirements for the OS are 4GB of storage, 384MB of RAM and an Intel Atom processor. The install file can be downloaded from Canonical’s Web site.

The Remix edition works on netbooks including the Acer Aspire One, Asus Eee PC 1000 and Dell Mini 9. It can be downloaded directly to a USB stick, from which it can be used to boot a netbook. Typically, netbooks do not include CD or DVD drives, so USB sticks are used as an alternative to launch an OS.

In an early review, Scott Gilbertson of Webmonkey wrote that configuring Netbook Remix to work on an Asus EeePC 1000H took a while, but its interface was impressive.

“The result is a powerful but simple interface that’s far snappier than competing options like Windows XP,” Gilbertson wrote.

Netbook makers typically recommend not changing the preloaded Linux OS because of hardware issues. For example, switching to another Linux distribution could render a Wi-Fi card unusable because drivers are unavailable. However, one blogger was impressed with the range of drivers provided in Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Testing a beta version of the OS on an Acer Aspire One 110 a day before its official launch, blogger Neil Ashley wrote the OS booted quickly off a USB stick. It also effectively loaded a Bluetooth software stack and drivers for a network printer from Samsung.

The OS was a welcome change from Linpus Lite Linux, which typically comes preloaded on the Acer Aspire One. “The amount of hassle getting those [drivers] … working on Linpus Lite is not believable,” Ashley wrote. Linpus Lite has been criticized in the past for its unfriendly interface and lack of drivers for external hardware.

Canonical on Thursday also released Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition and Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition. Ubuntu 9.04 is referred to as “Jaunty Jackalope” in the Linux community