Windows 7

[Flechmen 0]

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!! I bought it this morning!

And... its... meh... to be honest.

I don't really see much of an improvement over XP or Server 2008 (the last two Windows systems I used). It leaves me longing for something more... I think I still prefer Linux.

It broke my bootloader too, so I can't get back to Linux right now. I'm not exactly happy about that.

Oh well. I have it. I paid $30 for it.

 

What do you guys think?

[Kail† 0]

It's shiny tho, rite?

[Cryos† 0]

/me loves windows seven, he has ultimate though.

 

Its definitely the best windows yet, I like linux for hacking and programming, but windows has it beat in pretty much any other area in my opinion :\

[HuskyDog† 0]

It broke your bootloader because the Windows bootloader doesn't boot into Linux. That's why you ALWAYS install Linux last, so you can get grub.

 

I've been using Windows 7 since the Beta months and months ago, and I still love it. The beta was.. well, a beta, so it had its bugs. But it's improved 1000 fold and I have been using it as my main OS on my laptop for a long time now, including the RTM (I now have Professional which I got through my still-active MSAA account a couple weeks ago). Installing it was literally like buying a new laptop. The Vista installation (HP messed it up, dang HP) deteriorated to the point where booting up took 20 minutes, and going on standby took a few minutes on its own. Now it actually runs with no headaches and smoothly.

 

Oh, and the GUI is fancy too. Honestly, if I went back to XP (and I do still have it on one partition on my desktop, and at work), I feel like I've stepped into the stone ages. It's really showing its age as a legacy OS nowadays. And Windows 7 (and Vista) are better in several ways, it's just under the hood so you don't see it as much.

 

Its definitely the best windows yet, I like linux for hacking and programming, but windows has it beat in pretty much any other area in my opinion :\

Actually, if you have Visual Studio, I'd say that Windows has Linux beat in development as well. Linux is great for devel work, and I did use it primarily for that purpose in school. It's a programmer's operating system. However, when I use Visual Studio, I literally feel like I'm cheating when I program. It does so much for you and makes everything so easy to do, it's amazing. That, I believe is the one thing that ensured Microsoft's operating system to become dominant, because it was so dang easy to program for. Also, I have yet to find a live debugger as powerful and as easy to use as Visual Studio's debugger. I've used gdb and ddd, and they work, but not nearly as well as Visual Studio does.

[Flechmen 0]

 

Is that shiny enough?

[Guest Wolfin]

Thing is, 7 is no shinier than KDE... in fact it looks /a lot/ like KDE-based Linux :s ( http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Is-it-Windows-7-or-KDE-4-/0,139023769,339294810,00.htm )

 

I've been using 7 since the beta; still running the RC for when I need Windows; but 7 has nothing on Windows Vista with all service packs installed. And, the upgrade certainly isn't worth $229 for me; considering there isn't anything new. Even the kernel itself is the same as Vista's.

 

When my RC runs out; I'll be happily heading back to Vista; no love lost.

[HuskyDog† 0]

After this, I'm done, because I ain't gonna keep arguing on this thread, but...

 

I've used KDE 4.x and it's been awfully buggy. I eventually moved back to gnome just because it was just simply awfully unstable. When I put Linux as my parent's backup partition, they have KDE 3. 4 may be shiny, but it's just unfinished. Besides KDE has done a lot of copying of Windows.

 

7 surely has a lot on Vista since the service packs. I have it on my desktop, and while it works and I am not going to spend money to put 7 on my desktop, it has a lot more usability and it is very pared down and streamlined. The UI changes are nothing to shake a stick at, but if you go into the backend, they really did do a lot. I don't see how complaining that the kernel is the same really gets you anywhere... the kernel didn't change from 2000 to XP but no one was saying "it's just a 2000 service pack!". Keeping the same kernel is key. The Linux kernels get updated too, but they really haven't changed in 20 years, not as drastically as between XP to Vista, or between Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. It's still the same Linux as it was long ago.

 

But use what works and be happy with it. I just find that the people who propagated the "it's just a Vista service pack" or whatever were horribly uninformed, and then people just took it and ran, no offense. Truth of the matter is, Windows 7 generated a ton of buzz legitimately, and it is a great OS. It is the first time I've been excited over an OS since XP first came out (and then, I was fickle enough to say it was just the UI that hooked me... "ooo shadowed cursors" ). It definitely had that "wow" factor for me.

[Flechmen 0]

Its not an argument, its Windows.

I prefer Gnome to KDE as well, but when I used KDE it seemed quite stable.

The way I have Mint set up, well, the default setup really is kinda like Windows XP with a dark theme. I like Mint because its fast and streamline without being too flashy. 7 seems visually busy. Some people like that kind of thing, there's nothing wrong with that but I like simplicity.

 

I used to run Server 08, and I rather liked it. It's very clean and simple, has the few improvements that Vista had over XP, and doesn't have a lot of the issue of Vista. It was also free (to me).

 

Some people say 7 is "Vista done right". If you ask me, "Vista done right" was Server 08.

 

Huskydog: Ew... IE 8....

[HuskyDog† 0]

Its not an argument' date=' its Windows.

I prefer Gnome to KDE as well, but when I used KDE it seemed quite stable.

The way I have Mint set up, well, the default setup really is kinda like Windows XP with a dark theme. I like Mint because its fast and streamline without being too flashy. 7 seems visually busy. Some people like that kind of thing, there's nothing wrong with that but I like simplicity.

 

I used to run Server 08, and I rather liked it. It's very clean and simple, has the few improvements that Vista had over XP, and doesn't have a lot of the issue of Vista. It was also free (to me).

 

Some people say 7 is "Vista done right". If you ask me, "Vista done right" was Server 08.

 

Huskydog: Ew... IE 8....

[/quote']

That was the last comment like that for me before it became an argument, hence the phrasing.

 

I know, IE 8... it is leaps and bounds ahead of IE 7 so I will stomach it. However, some of your buttons here (like in the quick reply box) don't work in Chrome, my preferred browser. That's the only reason why I resorted to IE.

[Flechmen 0]

I suppose you don't like Firefox then (what everything on this website is tested in and designed for)

[HuskyDog† 0]

I suppose you don't like Firefox then (what everything on this website is tested in and designed for)

I used to. I made the switch from Firefox to Chrome months and months ago. I find it (and IE) to be quite sluggish, now, and I find a lot of value in the tab management and security of Chrome. I rarely, if ever, have compatibility issues, but for the rare case that I do, IE is there.

 

I do use Firefox if I do dev work, though. It is a popular browser, and has to be tested under, after all.

[Cryos† 0]

Hehe, I used to like Firefox a lot. It was definitely my favorite web browser in the plugins and added functionality departments, but for some reason it started taking up massive portions of the CPU, AND the drop down bar stopped working. I reluctantly switched to chrome, and although it took a little getting used to, I like it much better in design, speed and low cpu imprint.

 

Oh and btw :\ with that video on the blog link you posted. You could trick any random person in a mall into thinking any operating system with blue and transparentish windows is a new OS. I dont think they really proved their point very well :\ I honestly thought it looked closer to vista with a cool theme installed than 7...

[Drummer Boy† 0]

The trouble with open source software that anyone can add to it that it snowballs and just keeps getting more and more added to it. So Firefox has become bloatware, pretty much. IE8 and Chrome are better, and Chrome is the best.

I bought Windows 7! I'm happy. But it's not installed, because I'm waiting for my computer parts to arrive in the mail tomorrow. When I get them, I'll assemble the computer and install 7.

[Flechmen 0]

The trouble with open source software that anyone can add to it that it snowballs and just keeps getting more and more added to it. So Firefox has become bloatware, pretty much. IE8 and Chrome are better, and Chrome is the best.

 

Whoa whoa WHOA! Way wrong!

You think only open source stuff gets added to? Look at MS Office and tell me that isn't bloated!

Firefox has its ups and downs, as with any program. By NO MEANS is it worse that IE. Its still way faster, more standards compliant, and WAY more user friendly. Chrome is just made of fail, its fallen short of every expectation I had for it. No customization what so ever, its even stopped working entirely on me for no reason... As in, I go click the icon and nothing happens... The only good thing I can think of about it is that its fast.

I bought Windows 7! I'm happy. But it's not installed, because I'm waiting for my computer parts to arrive in the mail tomorrow. When I get them, I'll assemble the computer and install 7.

 

It was a short lived happiness for me. I'm not liking it at all. Now, it seems its making my hard drive fail...

It will just stop and hang for a long time, even the clock will freeze.

Linux, never did that. Not once.

[HuskyDog† 0]

I dunno, open source software can oftentimes be awesome. I love Linux, but it is very easy for feature creep to get into open source software just because of the nature of it. Firefox used to be the lean, mean version of the Mozilla browser, but it's become just as bloated. The Eclipse Java development IDE is also great, it's got lots of features and can do a lot, but it's so bloated and slow that it's absurd. You could cite a lot of other examples as well, but you do see this often in open sourced software, because it ends up trying to be everything for everyone, because everyone can develop for it. Though it's not a rule, it's just a trend that tends to occur.

 

It's true that Office is pretty large, though I think it's an unfair comparison since it is business-class software first and foremost and if you are in a business, you'll see very good use of it's more "obscure" features. If you want to talk about bloated software that's closed source, well, look at any of the stuff that OEMs like HP ship with their Windows installations. It is "bloatware" in the truest sense of the word.

 

Flechmen, what kind of drive do you have? If everything is hanging like that, it sounds more like a hardware failure than Windows' fault. Unproperly seated RAM or a defective motherboard can cause BSODs and hangs, and faulty drives will be, well, faulty.

[Flechmen 0]

Office is business class software that everyone is expected to have. I find it kinda sad. Of course, even more sad is how easy it is to crack Office 2007, but I won't go into that.

And,yeah, one of the reasons I have a Lenovo computer is they don't load up a whole lot of bloatware. My laptop origonally came with full versions of some DVD authoring software and Lenovo's utilities. Other than that there was an Office demo and the installer for Norton. Not installed, just had the link to do so on the desktop.

 

As for my hardware issue, no. Linux runs perfectly from the same drive. It never hangs or lags or anything like that. So, the only answer is that Windows is somehow messing up or Windows is affected by a physical error that Linux ignores.

[yrfoxtaur† 0]

oh, flechmen. one thing:

it's actually quite easy to boot Linux using the windows bootloader...

Just download and run EasyBCD [ http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 ]

and do the following:

1. If EasyBCD asks for a boot drive just select your windows partion
   
2. Choose Add/remove Entries
   
3. At "Add an Entry" select "Linux"
   
4. Change 'Type' to "Linux"
   
5. Put whatever name you want in the Name box
   
6. At 'Drive' select your Linux partition
   
7. Click "Add Entry"
   
8. Click "Save"
   
9. Restart, you're done ^.^
   

[Drummer Boy† 0]

Linux? Linux is the worst out there. It has major compatibility problems, and it's not as stable as Windows 7 at all. Totally overrated. I'm glad I switched back from Linux to Windows recently. The difference is like night and day between freeware and commercial software.

 

I've used Windows 7, and it's great. I know someone who's been running the beta 7 for months, never had a single problem or crash, no bugs ever, and this was the beta version. Microsoft tends to do it right, and so does Google. Chrome is the fastest browser out there, and it doesn't have random unnecessary stuff on it.

 

Office deserves to be business class, especially compared to the other options out there. Open Office is a mess, just like Firefox. Both are slow and bloated. Oddly enough, Firefox stopped working on my computer entirely too. I could still run it in Linux, albeit slow and with lots of failures here and there, but in Windows it would crash every time.

 

It was a short lived happiness for me. I'm not liking it at all. Now, it seems its making my hard drive fail...

It will just stop and hang for a long time, even the clock will freeze.

Linux, never did that. Not once.

Sounds like a bottleneck or something like that. I'm guessing your machine isn't built in a way that makes it work well with 7 or Vista. Perhaps it's because Linux is less advanced that Windows 7.

[HuskyDog† 0]

Office is business class software that everyone is expected to have. I find it kinda sad. Of course' date=' even more sad is how easy it is to crack Office 2007, but I won't go into that.

And,yeah, one of the reasons I have a Lenovo computer is they don't load up a whole lot of bloatware. My laptop origonally came with full versions of some DVD authoring software and Lenovo's utilities. Other than that there was an Office demo and the [i']installer[/i] for Norton. Not installed, just had the link to do so on the desktop.

 

As for my hardware issue, no. Linux runs perfectly from the same drive. It never hangs or lags or anything like that. So, the only answer is that Windows is somehow messing up or Windows is affected by a physical error that Linux ignores.

 

My experience and knowledge tells me that 99 times out of 100 it's a driver issue if it's software. Windows by its lonesome can't even use the drive, and so any issues it would have would be agnostic if it's not specific to the model. Since most people haven't reported your issue (though Googling can help, there may be some out there that have), it may be a corrupted or improperly installed or bad driver in general.

 

But yes, it is sad that most people are expected to have Office, even though it costs so much. For those that don't already and just need home software for writing papers, like students, I just recommend OpenOffice.org.

 

My HP laptop was the worst when it came to bloatware. HP is notorious. I got the demo for Norton as well (which I promptly uninstalled and installed ESET, which rocks). But, there was so much other stuff on there that nearly crippled the thing, even after I cleaned out as much as I could. I know it's not just Vista because I have it on my desktop and it runs much much cleaner than it ever did on my HP laptop. Also, HP opts to do recovery partitions/disks too, so you can't just install a clean version of Windows sans everything. You end up getting all the bloatware with it. *shakes fist at HP* I really like the idea of the Microsoft Store for this reason... same hardware, but clean versions of Windows sans bloatware.

 

This is also one of the reasons I love Windows 7 so much. I formatted the laptop and installed 7 on it, and it sped up the operation of the thing tenfold. It seriously extended the life of it and so for that I am very happy.

[Flechmen 0]

I'm not gonna argue it. Especially the software compatibility debate. Mainly because its the exact opposite for me. All my stuff runs under Linux, nothing runs under windows without digging for a funky port of it or paying for something.

 

Back on topic though. I'm disliking Windows 7. I see no improvement in speed (even a step back from Linux) and Server 2008 was just as if not more stable. A Windows computer going months without a bluescreen? I had one last night and I haven't even been running it for two weeks! I think my $30 could have been better spent on something like fuel.

XP ran just as fast and wasn't as flashy. I might go back to Server 08 for games and such, it outperformed both and was a good, solid system. Not to mention, I got it for free.

And, really, I don't even need Windows. The only time I use it is for the occasional game.

All the software I use on a daily basis are native Linux apps that either aren't available for Windows or cost money. So, the software comparability argument is the other way around for me. And, if more people used Linux, there wouldn't be an issue at all except for Windows users complaining that nothing works on their computers.

Really the only thing Windows has over Linux is a marketing department.

 

oh, flechmen. one thing:

it's actually quite easy to boot Linux using the windows bootloader...

Just download and run EasyBCD [ http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 ]

 

Yeah, I have a program called OSL200 that I payed for a long long time ago when I dual booted Windows 2k and 98.

[Flechmen 0]

I've had it, I'm done with it.

I was so displeased with Windows 7 (second bluescreen in... not even two weeks) that I did a fresh install of Server 2008. Gah!

Its 4 in the morning now, so I'll wait to install Mint over Windows.

[HuskyDog† 0]

That is also a solution. Hey, if it works for you, the more power to you. I wish I could get Linux running fully with my laptop like I was able to on my old laptop. But alas, sound refuses to work, and getting the touchscreen and wacom drivers to work was a pain and I never did get it fully working. Plus it doesn't seem to handle video playback well without running the CPU incredibly high.

 

On my old Dell laptop, I was able to get Linux running on there near perfect (with a little bit of tweaking to get standby to work properly). I actually ran it as my sole OS on there for about a year before it went kaput.

[Drummer Boy† 0]

Bluescreen is usually a hardware problem, not a software problem.

[Flechmen 0]

Bluescreen is usually a hardware problem, not a software problem.

 

When NOTHING else, including prior versions of Windows, has that issue, it's something to do with the software.

 

Server 2008 is a nice system though, I liked it when I ran it before. Just takes a little tweaking.

[Drummer Boy† 0]

Bluescreen is usually a hardware problem' date=' not a software problem.

[/quote']

 

When NOTHING else, including prior versions of Windows, has that issue, it's something to do with the software.

 

 

When nothing else has a bluescreen, your computer probably wasn't intended for 7. I can guarantee that 7 doesn't randomly have bluescreens on its own all the time, after being around it a while.