It really seems like Microsoft got this OS right. It runs fast but still looks great. I don't know how the Mac OS compares but I could see this being a serious competitor.
Funny you should mention this... I've been running it on my desktop in a VMWare instance, and it's running fine. I was going to wipe out my several-year-old Inspiron 6000 laptop and put it on there "permanently".
If Windows 7 comes out before August (don't know if that's likely), I'll be seriously considering getting like a tablet or something along those lines. Right now, I'm sticking with my decision to get a Macbook.. however, I won't be getting one until the summer ends. I've heard rumors about the Macbook also upgrading it's specs to have quad-core.. that's also intriguing me. Haven't tried out Windows 7 beta yet though... I'll try it out pretty soon, once I get my other desktop working.
Same here. I'm more peeved off that some of the minor problems from XP STILL hasn't been fixed in Vista such as folders constantly changing their folder views. Bah, that's my biggest problem with Vista right now. That and Vista still not fully compatible with 120 dpi (icons would change their size between 90 and 120 randomly). Anyone know if Windows 7 fixed those two problems? I might have to upgrade if they did.
Windows 7 RC won't expire until June 2010, and starting at March 2010 it'll shut down every 2 hours. However, by then Windows 7 would've been out for months. RC is better than beta in terms of putting it on your primary computer. Rumor has it that Microsoft is pushing out 7 before the Christmas season, in order to ship out PCs with 7 preinstalled. Windows 7 Ultimate will most likely be the Christmas present I buy for myself
I've been running the Windows 7 Beta since it was released and it is so much faster and nicer than XP, even on my 4 year old laptop. Need to get around to installing the RC soon, I'm sure it will be even better. I'd recommend Windows 7 in its current form to anyone, even as a permanent OS.
That's why I put it in quotes... I'm going to run it on my laptop until the final release, but use it as the main OS on that system as opposed to running it in a VMWare instance like I'm doing now on my Vista desktop.
Water cooler talk around the office says that Windows 7 has the ability to basically encapsulate a program and run it similar to a VM with older drivers. I have not played with Windows 7 at all, but this sounds interesting.
I've done the upgrade bit, which basically backs up the old Windows and changes its folder to Windows.old. After that I just delete the Windows.old folder and its almost like a fresh install.
I had a previous install of XP on my machine and I just told it not to keep my old stuff and it did the same thing - kept my folder structure and created the .old windows folder.
BTW, I just finished the install on my Dell Inspiron 6000 (which I bought in May of 2005). It found everything fine and upgraded/installed the latest video and network drivers. The only 2 issues I've seen so far are the left-right and up-down scroll portions of the touchpad don't function (I love that functionality) and I had to manually download audio drivers for it to work - I just used XP drivers from Dell's site and it seems to work fine. I haven't installed any apps on here yet and don't plan on doing anything major on it - I was just shocked the thing actually found most everything on a 4 year old laptop. It seems to run faster than my XP was running with 2 gigs of RAM, but I haven't installed any AV or firewall software yet. Visually, if haven't used Windows 7 and you've used Vista - this is pretty much the same.
ahh thanks for reminding me not to install it. i had the beta on my 6000 and i missed the trackpad scrolling so i went back to xp. guess i won't be putting 7 on here since dell wont ever make that trackpad driver.
For the trackpad scrolling you just need to download the touchpad drivers from dell. probably the synaptics drivers or alps depending on how old your laptop is. Works after i installed it on my laptop.
I'm downloading it as we speak. Need to do a clean install anyways. Might as well try out 7. EDIT: Damn, I'm going to have to find a torrent. My comp hates me, I can't download anything anymore....it always stops/freezes. Torrents are the only way.
*EDIT* : D'oh. Now I see why it didn't work. When you install it, the app that controls the scrolling is considered incompatible with Windows 7. The message says it has "known issues" with Windows 7, anyway. I kept stopping it from running as a result. But this time I let it run and it now allows me to scroll within windows using the touchpad. I'm not sure what the incompatibilities may be... but oh well. Thanks Biggie.
