Microsoft is being pilloried over its plan to hobble the power of netbooks with a crippled version of its new operating system called Windows 7 Starter Edition. With the release of Windows 7 still months away and a competitor like Google’s Android looming, Microsoft may be just testing the market to gauge its reaction. If so, the answer it is receiving spells trouble.

The fact is that consumers will not accept paying for an operating system that deliberately stunts the power of their hardware and only allows three applications to run simultaneously. Not in this day and age when they now have plenty of alternatives to choose from.

Aside from the various Linux distributions and the Linux-based Android, Microsoft is likely to encounter considerable resistance from users of Windows XP.

Claims from Microsoft that Windows XP users would be satisfied to “upgrade” to Windows 7 Starter, with its 3 applications limit, because it’s “easier” and “more reliable” are beyond nonsense. They insult the intelligence of Microsoft’s customers.

It stretches the sensibilities beyond their limits to think that Microsoft could even try to convince any of its users that going from full-powered XP to a severely stunted version of Windows 7 is an upgrade.

If this is the class of marketing plans developed inside Microsoft, they’re in more trouble than I thought they were.