Friday, January 09, 2009

Windows 7 Beta



Holy Crap, Windows 7 is coming out? I'm still using WinXP, does that mean I'll never have to use Vista? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Honestly, as much as I've heard about Vista, I'd rather not ever use it, so it's definitely fine by me, assuming Windows 7 is an improvement. Still, I'll probably hold out with Windows XP as long as I possibly can. The day the games I play "require" a new operating system, is the day I'll switch, and not a day before.

The thing is, I love Windows XP. It was the first time I switched to a new operating system, and found everything working, and happy. I can find stuff where it's *supposed* to be, and it's even pretty quick doing stuff. The only time it's ever crashed on me is when I've done something crazy, and probably deserved some pain. Heck, it's even treated me better than Mac-OSX did when it first came out. Anyone who will tell you that Mac's don't crash, is full of it.

Okay, so I guess I'd better see what Windows 7 (what, no clever catch-phrase?) is all about. Click the link above if you want to join me, and I'll meet you there.

2 comments:

The Moody Minstrel said...

I do know people who like Vista, and I myself don't think it's that bad (though I'm not exactly a power user of it. My only computer running Vista is my dedicated studio machine). I think the biggest gripes I heard were when it first came out, because people were having all kinds of driver issues (read "just like when Windows 95 first came out...and again with Windows 2000). I just assumed that was par for the course and waited a full year to let Vista "settle in" before getting a new machine. I've also heard complaints about all the security overkill, i.e. "Are you sure you want to do that?" type noise, but my heavily updated XP now does more or less the same thing. I've also heard one person rant that Vista (ironically) has more security holes in it than a screen door when connected to the internet, but I haven't seen much elsewhere to back that up. To be honest, I think the main source of the complaints is simply "It's set up very differently from 95/98/Me/2000/XP".

On the other hand, I've heard plenty of people praise Vista for its media capabilities. One of my American friends here in Japan (who was a computer science major in college and is very good with Windows-based networks) says he can do more with Vista's onboard video software than he could with all the third-party apps he was using with XP. He also gives me frequent plugs for Vista's media station option. I don't really know what it's all about, but it sounds pretty funky. He said that Vista had an annoying learning curve at first, but once he got over that he realized he liked it better than XP.

I guess people tend to be allergic to learning curves. Bottom line.

I guess we'll wait and see whether "7" really is an improvement or just more marketing hype.

Oh, and I know it's possible to crash Mac OSX. It isn't easy, but it's possible. (I still like it, though, if only because it's a fun alternative to my usual Windows workstations...just like Ubuntu.)

Don Snabulus said...

Vista has some good ideas, but it is only "part way there."

Visual Studio 2005 .NET does not work correctly "out of the box." You need to set the shortcut to "Run as Administrator" and then make sure you open projects only from there.

My daughter's Spirited Away would not play because "the video card did not prevent rerecording." Apparently, the MPAA paid more for the OS than I did. The DVD comes up fine in XP.

You usually get one or two challenge screen every time you run an admin program (like control panel functions) even if you are logged in as an admin.

I think Win 7 is designed to address these concerns, but I am also happy with XP.

Mac OS X was squirrely...10.5 is definitely better but Windows has many more software developer options and power user options, so here I stay (for now).