Good news for netbookers with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announcing on the eve of CES 2009 that Windows 7 will be available as a public beta on Friday.

Windows 7 is something many with underpowered computers, especially netbooks, have been waiting for a long time. Its predecessor, Windows Vista, has been a much disliked, unpopular operating system that has proven nearly impossible to run efficiently on netbooks, leading to slow boot times and sluggish performance.

Windows 7 has been optimized with netbooks and similar in mind, with extra effort put into performance and user-friendliness, two things the often confusing Vista lacked. Ballmer acknowledged the problems with Vista, but stated confidently that Windows 7 will be the “best version of Windows ever”.

From Friday, the beta will be a free download at Microsoft’s official website.