Windows 7 builds

[Ferno]

okay. I know at least a few of you have a windows 7 build running. What one are you running and what do you like/dislike about it?


I grabbed the 7057 build. aside from the minor desktop ini bug, it seems pretty solid. their new media player is pretty clunky, but the 32bit software support is quite good.

It's silly how quick things start up on this thing. it's almost like flicking on a switch and it's ready to rip.

and before anyone says it, yes it looks like a hybrid between ubuntu and mac.

[d3jake]

I had whichever build came out when the public BETA first opened. Personally I tried to keep an objective mind about it due to my distaste for vista.

[opinion]
Personally there were no \"features\" it had that I had any use for. The taskbar was pretty looking, but I still run the 98-2k-esque \"Appearance\" setting, so that does nothing for me. Something that bothered me was that although it had the neat feature of letting you put programs on the taskbar much like XP's quick launch, it is insanely stupid to not slide all of those to the far left (or wherever the user chooses).

And they shuffled the Control Panel AGAIN....

I will admit that the default window style looks cool, I simply don't like it, (as mentioned above). However the \"improved\" file explorer that rolled out with vista should be dragged out into a street and shot. Microsoft has a tendency of taking something that is tried and true and changing it for no discernible reason that I can see.

I'm trying to think of positive things, but I don't think I used it very long to have any... It seemed that some programs opened quickly... uhh... the wallpapers that came with it are pretty! If I recall correctly the user's documents directory wasn't in some really long path. And I think download speeds were a bit faster on it than XP.
[/opinion]

[BUBBALOU]

i downloaded mine from tech.net the day it was released and have 6 separate keys

overall it's ok

Now to say it looks like ubuntu is a joke

Vista was a attempt to be like OS X 10.4 - MAC is attempt to be windows with hand holding, it's a vicious circle

Now just think 3 years from now it might actually be a viable option for consumers unlike Vista is now

[Capm]

Even on my older system, I think windows 7 actually runs faster than XP, once you turn all the visual junk off.

My only complaint is that it scrambled my sata raptor drive, though I was able to fix that.

[Admiral LSD]

I'm running the 7000 public beta build on my Athlon x2. It does seem faster and smoother than XP on the same machine. As I mentioned in the other thread, I originally had troubles with fullscreen OpenGL and antivirus programs bluescreening all the time but they've both been fixed (the former was fixed in the most recent Catalyst driver update and the latter in a hotfix issued by MS).

I wouldn't say it looks like Ubuntu, that would be insulting to Win7, but the Mac influence on the Dock, sorry, taskbar, is painfully obvious to anyone who's ever actually used OS X. Beyond the taskbar though, it's mostly just Vista given a fresh coat of paint. I like it, but the fact it isn't as far removed from Vista as some people are hoping for is bound to polarise them against it.

[Capm]

Yea, it looks alot like vista, but in actually using it, its far, far less annoying than vista.

[JMEaT]

Using the public beta (7000) on my MacBook using Bootcamp (2GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM). It's so much faster than Vista, however I've had some minor problems, as is expected with Betas. Office 07 SP1 won't install and some issues getting Adobe Reader installed.

I do like the flashy loading screen.

[Insurrectionist]

Windows 7 is Windows Vista, just better. And this is a good thing.

Yeah, I know. It's heresy. Everyone hates Vista, and who would ever want the next version to be little more than a sequel—and, potentially, a bad one at that. When I railed against Microsoft for not doing a complete overhaul, I brewed up a complete analogy about how Windows is like the Star Trek movies. It went something like this:

Think of all the versions of Windows like the Star Trek movies, generally good, but with occasional missteps like Star Trek III or, in the case of windows, Windows Me. For the most part we look forward to each new movie or OS update, but over time, even the good movies (and releases) aren't that good. Finally the series needs a reboot: a new cast, a fresh director, and a new story line. And that's what Windows needs, a reboot. Not another refresh, or The Even Nuttier Professor 4?, but a full restart.

[ReadyMan]

any word on when it'll hit the street?

Also, I remember rumblings that there wouldnt be an upgrade option for winxp...does that still hold true?

[Admiral LSD]

Using the public beta (7000) on my MacBook using Bootcamp (2GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM).

Are you running the 32 bit version or the 64? I've been wanting to run the 7 beta on my MacBook for shits and giggles but I'm not sure if installing the 64 bit (which supports EFI) will bork my OS X.

any word on when it'll hit the street?

Current word is it'll be RTM'd toward the end of the year with street availability not until early next year. Same thing they did with the Vista launch.

Also, I remember rumblings that there wouldnt be an upgrade option for winxp...does that still hold true?

They plan on offering cheap upgrades to people who bought machines with Vista much like they offered cheap upgrades to Vista to people who bought machines with XP. I doubt they'll be offering such easy upgrades to XP customers. However, if you bought a new machine with XP in the last year or so then chances are you actually paid for Vista as well and your vendor was just exploiting the downgrade provision in the Vista licence to supply it with XP (MS haven't allowed new machines to be shipped with XP in quite some time, the exception being netbooks) and therefore may technically qualify for the cheap upgrade.

[fliptw]

do macbooks have e-sata ports?

I have win7 installed on a external enclosure using e-sata, I can't tell the difference from my internal drives.

[Top Wop]

Generally you dont want to upgrade and OS to begin with since theres always the potential for something to go wrong. Do it right and make a clean install.

[Krom]

do macbooks have e-sata ports?

I have win7 installed on a external enclosure using e-sata, I can't tell the difference from my internal drives.

That's because eSATA isn't any different from internal SATA other than the shape of the plug.

[Foil]

Generally you dont want to upgrade and OS to begin with since theres always the potential for something to go wrong. Do it right and make a clean install.

Vista upgrades do give you the option to do a clean install. It just verifies the current install is valid for upgrading, then dumps everything on the partition into a ".old" folder (which I just delete).

It should be the same with Win7 upgrades.

[Admiral LSD]

You've always been able to clean install Windows upgrades you just had to supply your previous versions install media to satisfy the upgrade compliance check. Made for interesting times if you bought Windows 95 or 98 on 20-odd floppies

do macbooks have e-sata ports?

No eSATA (there's just no room in the 13" chassis/logic board for it) and no Firewire drive enclosures so I can't use that either. I've recently come into posession of a copy of the 32 bit version (whichg doesn't, afaik, support EFI) so I may try that instead (machine's only a 945GM chipset so it doesn't really gain an awful lot from 64 bit over 32 anyway). I was just wondering if there was any special 'trick' needed to getting the x64 version playing nice with the Mac EFI.

[Ferno]

wow.. zero to derailed in four posts.. that's gotta be a record.

okay. I know at least a few of you have a windows 7 build running. What one are you running and what do you like/dislike about it?