Hewlett-Packhard has moved to ease fears that all netbooks could soon be shipped with the dumbed down “Starter Edition” of Windows 7 that we talked about a week ago.

HP is saying that its netbooks — and hopefully the other brands follow — will offer three versions of Microsoft’s upcoming OS. Those are the two primary editions — Professional and Home Premium editions — along with the dreaded Starter Edition designed for netbooks.

The Starter Edition seems almost redundant given that many have already tried the full beta version on their netbooks to great effect, something they couldn’t accomplish with the much maligned Vista OS.

According to Kyle Thornton, category manager for business notebook PCs at HP, they have also been testing the beta version of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition — this option aimed at gamers and hardcore PC users — on netbooks, so its possible HP may offer four versions with upcoming netbooks, which would be great.

Source: Computer World