Windows 7 Release Candidate: Now What?

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]deltatux[/nom]You should NEVER run a testing operating system to be your primary system since you should be prepared to encounter bugs even if it's an RC release and the fact that it seems stable. I know this from experience as I test a lot of software in the open source community. It may look stable and then suddenly you do something then the program crashes... Then you go WTF?[/citation]
Logically right, as others have stated. But ultimately it's our own choice if we want to gamble on a new system, or a proven, but proven faulty, one.

I've so far only encountered a single severe problem with rc, and it resolved itself. As a comparison, I had to reinstall the 'final release' of vista 5 times over the course of 1½ years due to severe malfunctions that weren't repairable from within windows. So sure, I've only been running rc for 10 days and encountered one severe incident, one cosmetic flaw, and one feature that didn't work as intended. But it's still a much better track record than vista, where I had to unplug all but the system drive in order to even install it.

I'm not going to claim it'll perform flawlessly and be rock stable. I can't know. But it does look promising right now. So I'm quite confident running it as my only os on my computer at home. But obviously I won't run it on any computer at work. I'm not willing to do diagnostics of unforeseen effects from the AD GPO's in a non final product.

 

[anamaniac]

[citation][nom]afrobacon[/nom]Dub7 is easily the most stable version of windows I have used in a long time; I might actually go out any buy this one.[/citation]

Agreed.
I skipped Vista because of issues, though I never did bother with it when most of the issues were dealt with.
However running x64 7 vs x32 XP, the only crashes I get is hardware failure.

 

[rags_20]

Get real. There just isn't enough difference between Windows 7 and Vista.

 

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]eklipz330[/nom]lol the funniest part is windows 7 rc is more stable than windows xp x64. so logically, your statement is correct, but just not in this situation[/citation]

well stop running xp 64 on an ancient computer

 

[Shadow703793]

For those that can run XP x64 correctly(meaning they have the drivers,etc) it's a great OS, but sadly it never got much push in to the consumer market back in the day due to the fact many people were still running a max of only 2GB or so lol. Today most PCs have AT LEAST 4GB, which pushes the need for x64 and thus x64 drivers (which is what mainly killed XP x64). If more manufactures and Microsoft worked on XP x64 drivers,etc then it would have been really great. And indeed, Vista x64/Win 7 x64 IS much stabler than XP x64. I run all three OSes and I'm happy with it.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]rags_20[/nom]Get real. There just isn't enough difference between Windows 7 and Vista.[/citation]
You haven't tried both have you? I mean - the first glance looks similar, but that's about where the similarities stop. win 7 is so much more than just a directx compatible gui on top of a 2003 server base system.


as for xp 64 - it was a good idea killed off by poor implementation, and eventually failed to work as vendors and industries couldn't support it. See one of the earlier windows 7 news for a more indepth explanation (by me) on why xp64 never worked.

 

[buzznut]

Actually I have noticed the load times for the RC are significantly better than the beta. My laptop, although I didn't time it, seemed to take about 3 minutes from power up to login with the beta. It still surprises me how responsive it is now.

I had one glitch that I finally solved. It involved IE being broken after reinstall and the easy transfer. It took quite awhile to figure out that the options for IE could be found in the control panel. However once in there, I found some odd settings for the WHS I'm running the network through. I disabled the home server sttings and suddenly IE8 is working again.

I don't like it though. Have to learn how to do everything all over again. I find the interface as clunky as the new media player.

 

[rgunther]

Yes Win7 is Vista 'fixed' or 're-presented for retail sale' but much Vista certified hardware and software no longer works. It is a freshly re-broken OS and so the cycle begins.

 

[sublifer]

Audio on my Gigabyte 865GMA motherboard didn't install... Its Realtek audio so I would have thought they'd have that... Guess I'll have to dig for a Vista driver that will work with it...

 

[kidamnesiac]

[citation][nom]rgunther[/nom]Yes Win7 is Vista 'fixed' or 're-presented for retail sale' but much Vista certified hardware and software no longer works. It is a freshly re-broken OS and so the cycle begins.[/citation]

Not sure where you get that Vista certified drivers hardware/software no longer work. Maybe you haven't really used it? I've done 4 installs of RC since it went public and I haven't had any issues. And I've thrown a bunch of older hardware (and some older software) at it too. Runs like a champ.

I wish that if people wanted to throw around (mis)information, that they'd at least attempt to back it up with some facts instead of bad attitudes.

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

[citation][nom]croc[/nom]That's the big question ATM.... I expect prices similar to Vista's pricing, in other words rape, rob and pillage time for M$. US prices, ~400USD for professional. 30 to 50% higher in the rest of the OECD.[/citation]


Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

 

[jazlizard]

[citation][nom]JeBuSBrian[/nom]Has it ever been proven that defragging an SSD even accomplishes anything?[/citation]

No, it doesn't infact it wears it out faster. I believe all SSDs have programming built in to them to provide an even distrubution of data across the drive due to the way the drive wears out. I read an article that Win 7 was going to disable the ability to disable a drive if it was detected as a SSD.

 

[jazlizard]

Err that should be to defrag a drive not disable.

 

[solymnar]

[citation][nom]jsloan[/nom]w7 appears to be more stable than vista ever was...it certainly runs faster and ties up less resources...[/citation]

Hrm... so far (granted I didn't install it until sp1 was out) I have yet to have a vista system crash. Not mine, not my wife's none of our friends. While I'd certainly agree that Win7 seems like a more refined step and improvement, I don't personally know anyone who's had stability issues with vista. /shrug

 

[ossie]

Really funny, those m$ fankiddies drooling all over, at every "news" over vi$hta $p2+... aka $even.
xpire64 is the last windblows that remotely resembles an WS OS - lately, the driver support from 3rd parties is getting quite good.

@rags_20 by "so much more than just a directx compatible gui on top of a 2003 server base system" you supposedly tried to mean xp64...

 

[Kill@dor]

Go get em MS ^_^

 

[HVDynamo]

[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom].Also, I really hope MS is going to do something about defrag, to support better SSD defragmentation support, as well as keep the OS from spreading files arround the HD, but keep files and folders as clusters on the HD (together, and not spread out).[/citation]

You don't want to Defragment an SSD, not only does it not make any difference in performance, it reduces the life of your SSD. The only reason Defragmenting works for hard drives is because the head has to physically move to a new location for each fragment of a file which takes time, but in an SSD all you have to wait for is the new address of the fragment which takes just as long to get whether the fragments are at opposite ends of the drive or right next to each other.

I have downloaded the Win7 RC, haven't installed it yet, I want to get a new drive so I don't have to mess with my current installation (which I just re-did 2 months ago). Also then if Win7 does die, I can just plug in my old drive and off I go.

 

[jerreece]

I went to the Microsoft site a couple nights ago and downloaded the Windows 7 RC, and have it burned to a DVD. Just awaiting my new Hard Drive I just ordered through NewEgg. Then I'm going to install it and give it a try. I'm pretty blown away by Microsoft right now, considering the community generally seems to really like Windows 7 (that's a 1st for a new OS for sure).

 

[jaragon13]

Uhh, what? I can get a full retail version of Vista Ult. for under 300, and "system builders" ( basically with no support and no cool box) I can get it for 180.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]ossie[/nom]Really funny, those m$ fankiddies drooling all over, at every "news" over vi$hta $p2+... aka $even[/citation]
I can't blame you Mac tards for getting confused there, I mean, you have to pay $200 for every Service Pack named after a different cat.

 

[marraco]

As this turned into a discussion on SSD defragging, I would like to see real benchmarks about it.

In SSD, data is stored in blocks, and the blocks should be read entirely at once, even if them contains mostly files unrelated to the file needed to read.

Probably defragging it would fill entirely blocks with a single file, increasing greatly the read speed.

here people are writting about SSD defragging without reality check.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]eklipz330[/nom]lol the funniest part is windows 7 rc is more stable than windows xp x64. so logically, your statement is correct, but just not in this situation[/citation]Strange, my WinXP x64 install is rock solid. So I guess if I installed the Win7 RC I could go from not crashing, to not crashing. Amazazing!

 

[papasmurf]

What's sad is that this will mark the release of the third 64 bit windows operating system (not counting the itanium version of xp) and we still don't have 64 bit flash. Adobe is dead to me.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]papasmurf[/nom]What's sad is that this will mark the release of the third 64 bit windows operating system (not counting the itanium version of xp) and we still don't have 64 bit flash. Adobe is dead to me.[/citation]
Really?

I've been using 64-bit flash for Linux for over a year. Is this a rare occurrence were Linux get support long before Windows, or did you just get your facts wrong?

 

[spunks]

I Just did a new sytem build with Windows 7 RC as its primary OS for a friend. The only problem I had was while Installing it because it didnt report enough information. I thought the system had hanged several times and made some hardware changes and bios changes because all I got from it was a backgound and a mouse cursor (no status bar or anthing else). When My frined went out to a buddies house to get a windows OEM XP cd ( the only legal license key he had on a defunct computer he had it he attic) I let it hang. Wouldnt you know, 20 minutes later it asked for a few entries, which I gave. It then seem to hang again for 10- 15 minutes, then proceeded to install somewhat normally (at least, like it did on my aspire one netbook). He has so far used it as pretty much as I would expect a normal "non computer" guy to use it and the only problems so far he has encountered was either his stupidity ( uh, plug the speakers into the right port) or resolved with a simple google search (like, use windows live mail because there is no outlook express). The motivation for recommending he use it instead of xp or vista was that he was going to purchase an OS for the new (read cheap) build and I recommended he try it and if he didnt like it to stay with XP (instead of sinking money into vista off the bat). He has since used it for gaming (primarly World of Warcraft) and his every day computer uses and has no issues. The only thing I can say that I have had personal experienced with (as opposed to briefly seeing) is is seems better at browsing the web and a better boot time than XP did on my netbook. i really dont see a huge change form my wifes laptop (usablitity wise) which runs vista. As far as I am concerned, this is really the first service pack for vista ( the real one being just a bunch of accumualted security updates), but its enough to make me consider purchasing it for my xp desktop (but it its over $100 bucks forget about it because it still has the potential to be problmatic with older hardware/software and doesnt enhance what I do other than give me a prettier desktop or give me a faster web page load at he end of the day).


spunks