Windows 7

[crookedtune]

Today's my first day on it at work, (I use Vista at home). Moved up from XP --- complete reinstall of everything, took a good part of my day.

So far, so good. It's fast. Everything runs. No frozen apps or weirdnesses. Actually, I like it a lot at the moment.

Any pointers, war-stories, cautions, reviews?

[emmline]

Please do, continue to review.
This summer the kid will be selecting his college laptop. Everyone else is on Mac. It's my inclination. But, "his" computer has been the old Gateway desktop down the hall, for quite some time, so he may not go with the majority preference. I'm interested to know opinions on the latest, out-of-numerical-sequence, Microsoft effort.

[Daniel_Bingamon]

The big question is, Is it really any better or just a bunch of advertising hype to bring Microsoft back.

Do you believe in Life after Vista?

[Dale]

The beta has been out for awhile and used by a lot of people and I've been struck by how the reviews have been quite positive and pretty much universally. The most negative review I've heard to date was from a colleague who said that it's "basically Vista stripped of all of it's annoying features."

I'm not looking forward to the change because you have to do a clean install to go to XP to Win 7 and that's a huge hassle. And, I can't imagine that Win 7 has anything that makes it worth the hassle. So, I'll probably just wait until the next computer(s) or until I have a big problem with one of the XP machines.

[Daniel_Bingamon]

Clean install, that's irritating! I think I'll wait and see what happens first.

[crookedtune]

Clean install, that's irritating! I think I'll wait and see what happens first.

Yeah, major pain. So far, I'm feeling like there's not enough new stuff in it to merit an upgrade, unless you have a really squirrelly Windows system, (which is fairly likely, if you use Windows). But if you do have problems with older Windows systems, or if you're buying new, I think it's head-and-shoulders above its ancestors.

It's very much faster than XP or Vista, and so far, I haven't been able to break it. I like it a lot, and I think it finally puts Microsoft's OS on par with Apple or Linux, but I have no plans to upgrade my home system (Vista) until the pain becomes unbearable.

[BillChin]

At the local coffee shop, I spoke to a guy who makes in home service calls for one of the major computer companies. He has been running the Windows 7 Beta since it came out some time ago.

The bottom line is a big thumbs up on Win 7. Anyone with Vista would do well to upgrade. He sees so many "hardware" problems that are really Vista problems. Those running XP might consider waiting for the natural time to upgrade to a new machine, instead of upgrading the OS.

Even if upgrading from Vista, backing up, and doing a clean install is his recommendation.

[Walden]

Do you believe in Life after Vista?

I only believe in life before Vista.

[Pammy]

I only believe in life before Vista.

Me too. I run my business computer on Windows 95 which is not connected to the internet and thats the way it is staying until either it or me dies.

My main computer is on XP which I rarely do upgrades on as everything changes, and if it aint broke, don't fix it. Yes I do have a security programme and do scans but that makes the whole thing so darn slow it's painful.

What is the security situation with the new fangle dangle windows 7?

Bring back the abacus I say

[peeplj]

I'm running it, have been running the 64-bit version since it became available to Technet subscribers--a couple of months or so.

It seems fast, solid, stable. I like what they've done with the interface and the GUI (with one minor exception--you can't adjust the horizontal spacing between the icons in the task bar).

Boot speed is up and memory utilization is down from Vista.

Overall, I've been very pleased. While I'm still a big Linux fan, I think Windows 7 is probably the best version of Windows I've seen yet...also by far the smoothest install that I've ever had. I think Windows 7 makes a lot of sense as a home desktop or a laptop system, possibly not so much so for a work desktop, but a lot of that depends on the nature of the business.

Still, it's Windows, which means that while it may be more secure than what's come before, it's still by no means secure. You need, at minimum, a hardware firewall in addition to the software firewall included in the OS, and a good antivirus package.

So far, overall, I'm very pleased.

--James

[BigDavy]

Normaly when I install a new version of windows, I set up a dual boot system. That is what I did with the Windows 7 beta. This time I tried installing over my 64 bit vista installation and it refused to install - drove me nuts .

I checked the windows 7 forums and they said to run the windows 7 compiatability checker and to uninstall all the programs/drivers it indicated would be problematical.

After doing this the upgrade ran without fault.

David

[burnsbyrne]

I bought my new Dell in July with assurance of a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it was released. I am expecting my copy to be delivered any day now. I'm looking forward to getting rid of Vista. It seems like they made it confusing on purpose. Plus some of my old CoolEdit software will not install on Vista. I am keeping my fingers crossed that maybe it will work with W7.

[FJohnSharp]

A tech writer at Slate.com said it was better than Mac's newest OS (whatever number that is).

No longer do I fear having to get a new computer.

[fearfaoin]

I just realized something
(and I may not be the first):
Windows Vista was New Coke.

[Tyler]

I'm running it, have been running the 64-bit version since it became available to Technet subscribers--a couple of months or so.

It seems fast, solid, stable. I like what they've done with the interface and the GUI (with one minor exception--you can't adjust the horizontal spacing between the icons in the task bar).

Boot speed is up and memory utilization is down from Vista.

Overall, I've been very pleased. While I'm still a big Linux fan, I think Windows 7 is probably the best version of Windows I've seen yet...also by far the smoothest install that I've ever had. I think Windows 7 makes a lot of sense as a home desktop or a laptop system, possibly not so much so for a work desktop, but a lot of that depends on the nature of the business.

Still, it's Windows, which means that while it may be more secure than what's come before, it's still by no means secure. You need, at minimum, a hardware firewall in addition to the software firewall included in the OS, and a good antivirus package.

So far, overall, I'm very pleased.

--James

Our QA department at my new job is testing a couple of units with W7 64 bit for implementation after the first service pack comes out.
I had a chance to fiddle with it for a while and I was quite pleased.
My main development unit is a brand new (well, new two or three months ago) Vista 64 bit workstation, and I'm still not impressed with it, performance wise (running all the eye candy and animations). Slow, memory intensive and blasé compared to my Fedora workstation (running KDE with the eye-candy at full tilt).
Running one of our W7 test boxes at work I noticed a marked increase in speed compared to Vista. I also liked the eye candy in 7 better than Vista. I did notice some distinct similarities between the new 7 desktop and some KDE features... (what, microsoft copy an idea, that's umpossible!!! ).
Versus Vista, I'll take 7 anytime. My 64 bit XP with 8Gig RAM machine in full Fisher-Price mode still feels faster, but its not as good looking as 7.



Mah Linux box/boxes still run circles around anything Micro$oft makes, though....