These past days I've been watching a lot of videos and reading in blogs about how supposedly good the new OS from Microsoft is going to be and I'm wondering if any of you guys have tried the beta or planning to install the Release Candidate (already available for free)...

I'm still on XP, I never really cared about Vista (I have a bad feeling about it), even when I bought a new computer a couple of months ago. Everything works fine, so I don't touch it... But... It's a pain in the ass having 4 GB of RAM and that XP only recognizes 3, the fact that I can't use DirectX 10 when my card is perfectly suited for it or damn, how nice Vista and specially W7 look compared to XP, 64 bits vs. my 32 and a big etc.

I'm seriously considering upgrading W7 when it's finally released and get rid of XP once and for all... But I know there are some tech geeks in the Gazette so...what do you think? Are you still in XP and don't plan to change ever? You already have the beta? Weren't the good ol CGA days less complicated when your main concern was just finding gas for the chainsaw in "Maniac Mansion"?

Sigh...

I run both Vista and XP in my house. I've never had a problem with Vista. All but two of my machines are on Vista (the other two are on XP and Ubuntu). Then again, I am a technology whore and I do upgrade my hardware and software in all my machines on an alarmingly regular basis. I can say though that being a Vista user takes patience. I was an adopter from day 1 and I couldn't use my printer or my wireless desktop set for a month because there were no Vista drivers. Grrrr. :)

I'm involved in the beta through the company I work for, and Windows 7 has been fantastic so far. I would dare say that it was the OS that Vista was supposed to be. It's like an evolved version of XP, stable and sensible. I think what really killed Vista was the fact that it was pushed out before it was really ready. If you read up on Windows 7 and remember all the information surrounding Vista pre-release, you'll see striking similarities in what is being offered. But most of that disappeared before Vista dropped because they were still working out all the kinks.

I think the only thing that's going to displease people about Windows 7 is its hardware requirements. IIRC, it needs a moderately robust system.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

It depends on the game, I've found. Some of my old games work, some don't. For example, I can get Dungeon Keeper to run more or less fine, but 7th Guest runs like hot ass on a stick. It looks like it depends on the engine built to run the game more than anything else and how that is able to interact with current OS technology. If you are concerned with retainin the ability to play those older games, I would highly suggest building yourself a gaming-only PC. You can get a cheap bare bones deal at Fry's and then just load XP on it. In fact, load XP, get all the updates available, then create yourself a system image using Ghost or Acronis, and set that puppy aside in a safe place. Then just load up your old games and bang away! And if anything gets hairy, you just wipe, reload your system image, and start again.

I myself gave up on trying to salvage my relationship with old games a long time ago when one of my most cherished PC games became virtually unplayable on XP. :(  I have a copy of 98SE but I'm not sure I really want to bother building a system just for that. Oh well. Perhaps one day I'll take the time to poke through the code and see if I can hand-covert it.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Kelly

How Do You Live Your Dash?

Check out the Kids' blogs:
The CaleBlog and the Zoe Blog

My roommate's coworker was selected to host a launch party, but since they're all developers/programmers, they already have super special (and apparently expensive) access to Windows 7, so the coworker is giving me his copy of Win7 that he's getting for hosting the party. :D But I'm not canceling my preorder. Can never have too many copies of Windows floating around.

Most of the machines in my house are now running some form of Win7 already, and I have to say, it's been delightful. I never had a real problem with Vista on any of my computers, but it was clear there were some shortcomings, and Win7 pulls a lot of that together. Of course, Microsoft/Windows detractors will find something wrong with it, but that's to be expected. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Kelly

How Do You Live Your Dash?

Check out the Kids' blogs:
The CaleBlog and the Zoe Blog

When I buy OEM, I almost exclusively purchase from Fry's, though I have purchased OEM from NewEgg in the past. With Win7 I'll probably buy all OEM copies in addition to the one boxed copy our coworker is giving me. I prefer to deal with OEM even though the difference in boxed vs OEM licensing can be a headache sometimes. I just like the lower price and less packaging. I don't need fancy if the end result is the same. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Newegg is charging $180 for Ultimate OEM right now. Pretty good price.

amanda - have you been running 32 bit or 64 bit?

Jordan .

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Jordan .

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I don't use it, but I'm pretty sure it works fine... I'm using older software than that without any issues, I guess any 2008 software works perfectly.

By the way, I've had some problems with IE8... I had it in XP and it worked fine (I've always used IE), but in Windows 7 sometimes it was slow, it crashed, etc. I don't know if it was my fault or Windows, but I decided to move to Firefox once and for all, a browser I also completely recommend.

I'm thinking of going 64 bit since neither of you had any major issues then. Seems like more and more desktops and laptops are going 64 bit anyway over the last couple of years.

Gordon - Not sure if the issue is Windows 7 with IE, but I know our IE 8 would crash regularly on XP on our home puter. I tracked it down to a Flash issue but never could get it figured out, so we just dumped IE altogether and moved back to Firefox. And after getting hit at work with some malware, I've stopped using IE almost exclusively except to test during development.

Jordan .

I'm not sure if you still can download the RC or any other early version from Microsoft's site, but that's what I would recommend... Download it, install it for example in a laptop and check any software issues. What I did was buy an external hard drive, put all the stuff I wanted to save there and make a clean install of the RC, always having in mind to return to XP in case I had problems or wasn't satisfied...

And it's better to check for yourself the issues instead of reading about them... According to some message boards and sites, Irfanview, the program I use to see images didn't work at all in Windows 7. Well, I tried it and it works perfectly and I didn't have to tweak anything...

That's how i usually install an OS - fresh install. I learned years ago to have two drives in the machine - one for the OS and the other for my stuff. So it makes rebuilding and upgrading the OS a lot easier. :)

Jordan .

Jordan .

My friend has it installed, and without sounding like a twat, i can't really see it's benefits. I am one of the people in the minority that seems to have no problem with Vista. I even have a neighbour, Ben, who has a proper old PC with windows 3.1 on it so he can play old-school games on. And whenever i go round, it kinda makes me miss it.

I just sincerely don't give a fuck about the OS as long as i can get stuff done on it, and i especially don't want to spend ridiculous money just so i can close a window from the toolbar with one click rather than two.