Windows 7

[Andrew]

Lots of talk of windows 7 nowadays, so I figure I'd start a topic for it.

slashdot article about it.

I liked one persons comment about one of the articles:

Microsoft is essentially handing control of the Device Stage screen to the hardware manufacturers, allowing them to embed links to their online services and client software. A printer manufacturer, for example, might include a direct link to buy new ink cartridges for that specific printer from their website, or a link to a PDF of the device’s manual.

Is this going to be some sort of revenue stream for MS? Allow corporations to add links to buy stuff throughout the OS?

Printer ink is a big scam. Should allowing this be part of the OS? Shouldn't a driver be just a driver, and not add crapware to sell more products?

review of windows 7

They got rid of the sidebar and replaced it with widgets on the desktop. widgets for the desktop have been around for at least 5 years (konfabulator).

Hopefully they'll clean vista up. I hope to not see Windows 7 computers being sold that obviously cannot properly run windows 7 as they did with vista (intel 915 chipset).

EDIT:

I remember when vista was being developed MS talked about adding RSS to the OS in certain areas. Did this happen with vista? Or was it just in the sidebar gadget? here and here is my post about vista RSS. Dunno where my source was.

[Andrew]

Microsoft aims Windows 7 for 2009 holiday season

[D2k Sardaukar]

I read a lot of Windows 7 news these last weeks. It's like Microsoft is shooting at us with every little new thing they got, so the tech-news-websites are full with how "wonderful and great" Windows 7 is.

Seeing is believing.

[Andrew]

Yah, I've been seeing on a daily basis new articles about win7. General perception from these sites are that it looks awesome (and from the users). I constantly see/here about people using the released version, even showing they have it running on macs, and netbooks. Vista will soon be a distant memory. Win7 may give XP users a reason to upgrade.

Slashdot and digg have articles all day long about it. And of course today slashdot has a new discussion about it. And the results show that win7 is same speed as vista so far (contrary to what all reviews say).

Time will tell if they can deliver. I hope they can and hope it is the best OS ever. Because that means MacOS and linux will have to get better.

It took a single person 3 days to implement the new MS taskbar in linux (same functionality).

EDIT:

Windows 7 Will Only Have One 'Ready' Sticker, Down From Vista's Four

Gasp! MS making this simple and easy to understand. Now all they need to do is release one version of the OS. Instead of basic, home, business, ultimate etc.

[gryphon]

Now all they need to do is release one version of the OS. Instead of basic, home, business, ultimate etc.

Will that be the home version for a couple of dollars or are you forcing us to buy the full priced version because their should be only one version ;)

Let's hope they follow in Sun's footsteps and offer it for free....

[Andrew]

How many version of MacOS are there? Do they have a bunch of different versions released at once, or just the one?

I really don't know.

MS segments the market to maximize profits, but for consumers it is kind of annoying. Every time they release a new windows version they come up with more versions.

I read somewhere someone posted that they can't rip video from their camcorder because they use Vista Business. The person would have to buy Vista Ultimate in order to do that. Kinda stupid.

HDV is a codec system used for streaming video through firewire - it's the HD channel for ripping vids from my camcorder. Vista Business and Vista Basic do not have the drivers for this feature, and they are not available on windows update.

[gryphon]

How many version of MacOS are there? Do they have a bunch of different versions released at once, or just the one?

Just two versions. The desktop edition and the server edition. You have MacOS (the brand name like Windows is for Microsoft). Currently they are at version 10 (also knows as OSX) and all the "minor" updates have names like Panther (10.3), Tiger(10.4), Leopard(10.5), Snow Leopard(10.6).

You can argue that the iPhone and AppleTV use other versions of the OS. Comparable to Windows Mobile and Media Center.

(It's just a rough comparison so don't pin me down on the example)

I read somewhere someone posted that they can't rip video from their camcorder because they use Vista Business. The person would have to buy Vista Ultimate in order to do that. Kinda stupid.

Maybe that's for the same reason business desktops always have simple display cards. So even if you would bring a copy of C&C3 to your work. Your computers hardware wouldn't be able to play the game. Just a guess though.

(a missing codex is no reason to upgrade to another OS. You can simple get the required Codex. No need to upgrade your Windows version for that unless you are still using 3.11)

My personall favorits have always been RedHat names. Who ever named an OS after a Windows Virus, the Cold War and the alien landings in New Mexico.

[Andrew]

Windows 7 Lets You Uninstall IE8

It only took MS 12 years to allow this.

I'm also glad to hear MS movie maker and other crap will be uninstallable. Did anyone actually use movie maker? I would delete the directory, and it would reappear with all the files on next reboot.

Rumour says that win7 will be released by the end of the year. Ms needs to release it as fast as possible to stop Mac (high end/price/shiny) and linux (netbooks) from gaining market share. Sadly most Canadian retailers seem to sell mostly XP netbooks. Difficult to find linux netbooks on sale.

[gryphon]

You did read the full article that also mentions the file are not actually deleted from your computer. So you are installing 6GB of Windows, and only allow 2GB of it to work.... I think you can call that progress after 12 years.

You know there is a reason you don't find many Linux loaded Netbooks in stores.. .. ;)

[Andrew]

You know there is a reason you don't find many Linux loaded Netbooks in stores.. .. ;)

Not profitable. Manufacturers can't load lots of spyware/crapware which they get paid to put on. I doubt norton antivirus trial is on the linux netbooks which manufacturers get paid to put on the windows version. Also windows has a monopoly ;)

I doubt we'll ever see cheap netbooks, they'll just keep making them more powerful, maintaining the price. If there was a $200 netbook, how much of that would be MS OS price? $10? MS would need to have some other product to keep revenue up (office).

Anyway it looks like I have successfully skipped Vista. :)

(unless my current computer suddenly dies!)

[gryphon]

Anyway it looks like I have successfully skipped Vista. :)

(unless my current computer suddenly dies!)

So did I. And my previous laptop did explode. :P :)

[Andrew]

Windows 7's "XP Mode" Won't Run on Some CPUs

Looks like this might be the new and improved "vista capable" problem (or not).

Why You Don't Want Windows 7s XP Mode

It's not for gamers

Are there games that run on XP but don't run well on Vista, and you don't expect them to run well on Windows 7? Don't expect XP Mode to help. It's not designed to run games, and so won't be a viable solution for you.

Damn, I was hoping for a way to get all my 1993-2002 games to run well on win7 using XP mode.

Although winxp mode is only going to be shipped on Enterprise, professional, and ultimate, so no consumers will even see it.

[gryphon]

Although my experience with Windows7 is limit at the moment the way I understand it's a virtual machine using MS HyperV that you connect to via an RDP connection (basically). RDP has never been usefull for anything besides what Citrix managed to do with it...

I'm prepairing for Solaris11 (if ever). Not really that excited about 7 right now.

[Andrew]

Windows 7 coming Oct. 22

Thank God!

Now I know the earliest when I can buy a new computer, or recommend anyone to buy one. Screw Vista, that nightmare is over (why would control panel crash on every vista computer I used?).

Ubuntu 9.10 is released 9 days after that (oct 31). Should be lots of comparisons.

Dunno when apples newest OS is out.

Hopefully brick and mortar stores have good sales on vista machines a week before win7 is released. They did this with winxp stuff trying to get rid of inventory. I got a good deal back when vista was released on my winxp machine. 2.5 years ago, core2duo+20" flatscreen for $1000. core2duo was new (all cheap computers were selling centrino or pentium dual core or some crap), intel vid card was less than 6 months old, flatscreens were still expensive etc.

I hope to see some good reviews of win7. I wonder if MS will make a deal with intel and screw customers over again. "Windows 7 now comes preinstalled on pentium II machines! Intel inside."

[gryphon]

Windows 7 coming Oct. 22

Screw Vista, that nightmare is over

You should be supprised about how much of Vista is in 7.

(why would control panel crash on every vista computer I used?)

To be honest, that comes to one conclusion. What are the odds of different computers having exactly the same problem. Or their being just one problem using multiple computers..... deduction... ;)

Dunno when apples newest OS is out.

I hope they are going to announce Snow Leopard (I am not expecting a lot of new stuff in it for the end user) in 5 days including iPhone OS3 (that should really be about time) and a new iPhone.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Vista isn't a nightmare, I'm a happy user.

Are there any (good) reasons for Vista users to get Win7?

[Tatar Khan]

Any good reasons for me to switch from Win XP to Windows 7?

[SAND]

Vista is good in its own ways, I like Vista. Buh XP is unbeatable

[Andrew]

wikipedia link: Windows 7

Good place to read up on, and has links for new features etc. According to that min required is 1gb ram. So looks like it is worse than XP, which anytime I'm running XP it only uses 250-350mb ram on its own at startup (same for linux). So what exactly does win7 need 1gb ram for? Or do they mean it only needs 300mb ram, and the rest is for apps? 1gb is min needed to get stuff done? Of course you see some pro MS people touting win7 works fine on 5 year old laptops with only 512 mb ram. Time will tell. At least MS is getting their marketing correct this time.

Assuming you are happy with using XP or vista, and don't plan on purchasing a new computer (use current one), I don't see any reason to spend $ to pay for a new OS for your current computer.

As with most people, you'll end up getting it when you buy a new computer. win7 is supposed to run faster than vista (don't they say that for every release?), if it turns out to be true, people with slow vista machines (intel 915/945) might be worth getting win7 boxed purchase. Although at retail price, you'd be better off getting a new computer. Winxp pro is still selling for $150 online, which is quite expensive for an 8 year old OS.

You should be supprised about how much of Vista is in 7.

To be honest, that comes to one conclusion. What are the odds of different computers having exactly the same problem. Or their being just one problem using multiple computers..... deduction... ;)

I hope they are going to announce Snow Leopard (I am not expecting a lot of new stuff in it for the end user) in 5 days including iPhone OS3 (that should really be about time) and a new iPhone.

Yes, everyone was saying win7 is vista SP2 (although they actually just released vista SP2 I think). It will be using the same kernel, but hopefully they worked the bugs out of it and hardware manufacturers can produce good drivers.

As for control panel crashing, yes it could be me causing it, but all I was doing was quickly opening control panel, add/remove (whatever it is called in vista), to see what crapware was installed. Then I'd go and uninstall a bunch of crapware and I'd be multitasking and eventually it would crash. And vista was always slow to me, especially for multitasking. Opening windows explorer would be slow (shouldn't it open instantly upon giving winkey+e command? It opened slower than XP did)

As for iphone (not related actually), Rogers just started selling HTC Dream (google phone) in Canada. I looked up prices, and without contract it is around $450 for phone, and 500mb data plan only would end up costing $45 before taxes each month... So cell phones (specifically smart phones) are too expensive for me. I'll stick with my old one and pay <$15 a month for "pay as you go" (no contract). Meanwhile my friends all have contracts and are spending $50-80 a month. But they get a free phone upgrade every two years! woohoo...

Spending $700 per year for a phone is a bit expensive (iphone in canada works out to be $2,176 over 3 year contract)

[Andrew]

Betanews tests Friday afternoon confirm most of what we've suspected: XP SP3 is the fastest Windows platform...most of the time.

Surprise! Programs run faster on winxp than vista and win7.

Maybe that is why more people use XP than vista.

Good question will be whether XP or win7 run better on netbooks and other low (old) powered computers. Of course all new computers will come with win7, so no one will know or care, unless they plan on putting a pirated winxp or spending $150 on winxp retail, which at that point if you're desperate might as well install linux if you think win7 is slow.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Hmm, according to this website (which I trust more) they are on average all pretty much the same (xp, vista and win7):

http://tweakers.net/reviews/1236/1/preview-prestaties-windows-7-vs-punt-xp-en-vista-pagina-1.html

it's in dutch, but the charts are clear.

also keep in mind that xp is way longer on the market than vista or win7.

[gryphon]

I wonder how many people are gonna try to install Windows XP on the new netbooks / laptops if the installer fails to recognise the HD controller and ask for an additional driver diskette on, indeed. A diskette.

[Andrew]

I wonder how many people are gonna try to install Windows XP on the new netbooks / laptops if the installer fails to recognise the HD controller and ask for an additional driver diskette on, indeed. A diskette.

Good point. I can't count the number of times I've seen winxp asking for drivers (or a program/installer is missing files) and constantly nagging.

Actually how do people put winxp on netbooks with no cd-rom (or external cd-rom?)? I don't think MS supports usb installs. Putting what's on cd they just bought onto usb, much like linux distros can easily do now.

[veK]

Any good reasons for me to switch from Win XP to Windows 7?

That's the perfect question. I didn't see any reason to switch from XP to Vista and right now I can't see any reason to switch to 7 in the future. I have build my personal perfect XP with nLite a while ago (and didn't even manage to build the exact version again even with loading my settings) and never had any problems with it. I've also installed this build on several other pcs, laptops and virtual machines and as long as there is not one VERY good reason why I should use any other windows version I won't switch  :)

[gryphon]

My 2 favorite Vista features for the end-user at the moment are the support for network connections (VPN's for the home user for one) and process isolation (where a Windows waithing for commands / inputs isn't displayed as a locked windows fading on your desktop with each inch it moves).

Two little things. Only very well done in Vista.