"3 weeks on - How's Windows 7?" Topic

So, how was your install/upgrade/new purchase? Is it slightly better, way better, totally new league over Windows Vista?

Is it orth shelling out the dough for an upgrade or better off spending a few hundred bucks more for a totally new laptop with it installed and use the old one as a Linux book?

I'm sticking with Linux

First off – Windows 7 is one of the best operating systems Microsoft has produced. Note the lack of qualifiers on that statement. It is way way better then Vista. But it is not without it's own problems, and I've found some programs that work in Vista that don't work right in W7. I certainly do not recommend just running out and getting a Upgrade for a Vista machine. If you are a standard user, I would wait until you buy a new machine (A recommendation I have for all operating systems, upgrades are never as good as a full install).

Now if you equipment is not too old, and you are planning to totally wipe your old machine, and totally load a new copy of System 7 from scratch, then go ahead.

Your second option is highly reccomended. Get a new sytem, use the old one for Linux. If you currently running vista and are happy with it, I wouldn't blow the cash on 7 yet. Wait for it's first service pack then purchase it. In the meantime, make sure your current peripherals will work with it ( win7).

I was underwhelmed at first with Windows 7. But as I use it I like it more and more.

In the end, there are no new mind blowing features that make you want Windows 7. But I keep bumping into little features that make Windows 7 easier to use than any previous OS. Like when I plugged the digital camera in and it just worked, and copied pictures for me.

I do have two problems.
- There is a famed XP compatibility mode to run old programs. Unfortunately, it requires a hardware feature on your CPU. Of the three PC's I have (all less than a year old (needed for work)), only one is capeable of XP compatibility mode.
- I have a TV tuner card that works fine in Vista or with the installed software, but that will not work with Windows Media Center.

underwhelmed, I flattened it and reinstalled Linux, though I have Win 7 in a VM

I never went with Vista still running XP and unlikely to change anytime soon.

Robert

Why not just lay down Linux on the existing laptop, save your cash and get out of the compulsive upgrade-of-the-month routine? Do you need to do anything Linux won't do? And could you do that with an XP install in a virtual machine under Linux?

I've got a couple of apps that I need for work, and several Windows games that make me keep it around. Otherwise, I'm on Linux whenever I have a choice. The newer distros are excellent, even on laptops, and I can live with the few remaining things that aren't quite up to Windows' level.

Vista on the work laptop is OK. XP was also OK. It's an OS, so I really don't expect it do to more than give me access to apps. Paying full price for a bugfix really annoys me.

- Bob

I've tried linux, almost every flavor of linux, and am always hopeful and quickly disappointed. It's like a huge collection of apps that are all half finished.

Editing video in linux is a disaster.
Gimp is appropriately named.
Blender--wants to do everything but nothing well.
Gaming is teeth pullingly, painful.

An OEM copy of windows is only a 100 dollars and it'll run virtually anything with little or no hassle. Plus, the applications available are fully functional and finished. If linux ever wants to be taken seriously they need to quit tweaking the kernel with hundreds of variations on each release (all nothing more than bundles of the same half-ed software) and put some of that effort into finishing and polishing linux applications.

Microsoft have just announced that those people using Windows 7 will received unsolicited adverts from 2010.

As the owner of the machine you will not be able to stop the adverts that appear on your desktop, and on IE.

Another reason not to upgrade!