Windows 7 vs Vista and XP

Seems like Win7 is gonna be much faster OS

for the full background re this picture see the link below but yeh just a series of real life tests with a 1 for coming fastest and a 3 for slowest



http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236

lol
the Eula specifically disallows speed tests

No benchmarks allowed. As in previous beta releases of Microsoft operating systems, the license agreement includes a prohibition on speed tests:

I know a few anti-Windows types who have tried out the beta and have been really impressed.

Hrm.... might have to get the beta iso and run up a VM

Just installed the beta, it's certainly more polished, I quite like it. I'll install stuff on it and test it, and if everything still works, might give vista the flick.

whoops, forgot to say, currently driving me nuts is I can't find the window properties, it was hard enough to find in vista, not sure if it even exists in 7.

I like to decrease the ugly window boarder size. Maybe I'll find it in the registry.

found it, it's actually in the same place that it's in vista... it's just that that happens to be a weird place to put it imo.

Things like that were shifted around purely to work better in restricted profiles.

And lol, running a beta OS as your primary machine? Lulz.

weeelll... I've read in a few places that this beta looks more like a release candidate and then there are those that reckon vista's final release was more like a beta...

Anyway, I like new shiny things...

It's pretty cool... that IE8 will be standard...

Thats all I care about

Does this mean Vista is going to be what Windows ME was to XP?

I.E "Oh boy we really fukd up with that last version lets get it right this time or we are out of here".

I think so.

LOL VISTA = ME!!!!1111!11111

Heh

Are you a complete idiot or do you just interpret my posts how ever you feel so you can make childish outbursts like the above?

Here I'll spell it out for you.

What I am saying is Vista like ME has pissed off both consumers and manufactures in various ways, most notably with the Vista ready / capable debacle and severely hurt the companies reputation across the board.

It seem to take a massive failure like this to prompt MS to get their A into G and produce a decent product. Basically I think MS is a company that does its best work when its under pressure to produce results.

They say that Windows 7 will be the first OS ever to have lower requirements than its predecessor.

But I think the fact that Windows XP EOL has been extended yet again to June 2010 says it all really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7435278.stm

The big difference is ME actually WAS a steaming turd. I for one have actually used it. For a day. Vista is FAR removed. The problems Vista had were poor work by 3rd party vendors on getting drivers out (ATI and Nvidia step forward) and the fact that a fair few changes for the better were implemented. Glaring user security and usability issues were fixed, and had to be forced on the consumer, much like the migration from System 9 to OSX was forced.

The sole reason XP's EOL has been extended is because of the booming netbook market, which NO ONE predicted, including Apple.

Comparing Vista to ME just makes you look like another one of the million other stark raving anti-Vista loons who have little to no basis for their commetns.

Exactly, its a completely ridiculous comparison to make. I used Vista for years, long before it was released until recently, and it (even very relatively) was nothing even remotely like ME.

I don't know what world you live in Rips but in the one I live, Vista was the fastest selling, highest revenue earning operating system ever. By a huge margin.

I've watched shitloads of MSDN videos from the guys that built Aero, showing off insanely cool shit like throwing your windows backward in 3D space, bouncing off walls etc. one very small example of features removed because hardware and users wouldnt cope.

Same with WinFS, same with refactoring all their system files into XML because there are so many programs out there that wouldnt work they couldnt do it.

I'm using OSX now because it fits what I do (like the php and linux stuff for Biggie) far better, I pay a little more for the privilege (I have a Mac Pro etc.)

Their move to intel, to 64 bit, to cocoa etc. was ll reasonably well managed but jesus you wouldnt know it by the stink the dev community kicked up. Now multiply that by 2000, 20x market share, a conservative guess at 100x the development houses.

What a fucken nightmare to deal with.

Apple and OSX have the luxury of 1 hardware platform and far less developers who drag their feet when an upgrade is done.

Furthermore, if you want to see examples of pile-of-steaming-shit gui operating systems, pick up any linux distro

Oh really?

http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm

You all seem to think I am saying Vista is technically floored in a similar manner to ME but I never actually made that point. I know what ME was like, I've reluctantly sold machinces with the OS pre installed.

What I am saying is that the various issues that have clouded Vista's release have been nothing short of a nightmare for Microsoft at a time when Google is dominating the race for web based advertising revenue and that means its crucial they get the next release right.

And I'm not really anti Vista either, I'm just making an objective observation. I'll install it on my new machine...Asus Rampage motherboard with Quad Core CPU and 4Gb of Ram etc.

However, while Vista might be running nicely on the latest hardware now they surely screwed up the inital release. Have you read the leaked e-mails between the HP execs and MS? Pretty funny stuff and nothing short of a PR nightmare for MS.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/496/1049496/microsoft-s-downgrade-of-vista-capable-specs-ticked-off-hp

Its been well reported that Vista take up has not met expectations and your plain wrong if you think the only reason XP has had to be extended is for low end notebook market. Even the article I posted before said that was just one of the reasons.

Regardless Vistas system requirements have obviously become a key issue effecting its popularity with both home and business customers.

It seems to me that Microsoft are being careful not to repeat this mistake with Windows 7 (at this stage anyway) actually having lower system requirements than Vista.

My hope is that MS will have learned a few things from Vista and because of that we will end up with a nicer, more hassel free product in Windows 7.

That was a really interesting story.

And then, have a think about _why_ corporates choose XP.

Im liking it. Much faster than my Vista box and everything seems to be running fine on it.

Runs well as a boot camp partition on my mac. Accepts vista drivers. Find it pretty stable and runs a bit faster than Vista. The new network and sharing centre is better than vista's one. So far so good!

Installed it in a VM today. Pretty quick setup and install. Will have a further play with it when I get time.

you geeks got any idea when it may leave beta and be properly released?

I need a new puter this year and thus plan to wait for windows 7

At the start of 08 they said 3 years. With Vista not being what they thought it would be they made the timeline early 2010 but right now its pretty close to being finished so reports says around Q3.

Yeah what RA said... MS still saying early 2010 but analysts predicting ~November 2009.

The manufacturers will be gagging for it so they can shift some extra units on the back of it.

cheers - don't think I want to wait til nov... might have to bite the vista bullet

You will be fine with Vista. I really dont get what the massive fuzzzz is all about!

Buy a new computer without an OS, install whatever you have now and get an OEM copy of win7 when it comes out.

Impressed++ with Win7, now that I've tried it on real (albeit 3 year old) hardware. WAY snappy and very polished for a beta version. There was even a Win7 version of the fingerprint software available that it detected and directed me to with the same Problem Solver as Vista.

What specs, kris? I'm pondering dual booting on my laptop but it's just an AMD Sempron(??) 2800 with 1128GB RAM.

Intel Centrino Duo T2400 @ 1.83ghz, 1.5GB

MB, clearly. Heh.

http://xkcd.com/528/

heh

I haven't really used 7 much at all yet, been too busy to set it up completely, especially media centre which I use a lot. BUT

I'm really liking a few small things they have done to the interface, I wonder if MS really made it, as their UI has always been kinda poorly executed, but this time it seems a lot more polished and well thought out.

Pointed out in chat today was that you can grab one window and shake it and that minimises all other windows out of the way.

I also discovered today by accident that you can grab a window, drag it to the top of the screen and when the mouse hits the edge of the screen, the window will full screen. You can change it back to window mode by grabbing the title bar and dragging it away.

These are the sort cool little things that make people heap praise on OSX, but MS have done really well here. It's kinda nice to be able to say that.

Some of the fundamentals of the way windows UI works to me have always been a bit clunky, but I'm not sure if that's down to personal preference or knowing another way that actually is more consistent/graceful/intuitive. But yeah, I'm liking the improvements.

Shit. Now I remember what I forgot to do today... put the ISO on a USB key to bring home and play with it when I have time. Maybe I'll leave it until the weekend.

I really like it, as many have already said on the net, it seems to be what Vista should have been.
UAC's less annoying, very fast, very simple and intuitive. My only complaint so far (and I have submitted this to MS) is there is no option for the 'classic' start menu. It seems MS is going to force that newer, crapper start menu on everybody, with no option to switch off.

Otherwise, seems excellent.

What? Are you fucking mad? The new start menu is LIGHT YEARS ahead. Forget about clicking anything. Simply hit the windows key and start typing what you want.

Smiley: do that maximise trick, but to the left or right, it automagically sizes the window to half of the screen, so you can have two windows side by side.

holding the mouse in the bottom right corner makes all windows ghosted outlines, so you can see your desktop gadgets. pointless unless you use lots of gadgets, but makes more sense than the stupid sidebar.

very handy!

Especially as I can't find a way to see folder views down the side pane anymore (was clunky anyway).

So I guess if you want to arrange files say from insidea folder to a folder in the parent directory, navigate to where you want, move to the side, with that window still in focus hit cntrl+n then move the second window to the other side and us the breadcrumb to go back a level.

Nice and swift (although it doesn't sound like it when you type it).

I set up a few things last night but started to get really annoyed that I couldn't move stuff because it was apparently in use. Hmmm...

I believe the new start menu is probably made in such a way that it streamlines workflow, but I'm a creature of habit, and am used to the original one. It'd just be nice to have the option for those like me.

Interesting what you said though, about typing, when the rest of the UI is moving away from the keyboard and towards using the mouse more. More interesting again when you consider that touchscreen interfaces will be more commonplace in the near future.

While you raise a good point, I've found that just using the mouse by itself, the new menu is less streamlined than the old one.

On another note, Win7 is so streamlined and with everything just working, as it should- even in the beta, its a little unnerving using it, being a PC tinkerer (as many on here are), I'm used to doing a windows install, and then spending the same amount of time again setting up windows the way I like it... in Win7, its all done. I installed the beta, downloaded updates, and well, thats it really. No need to go editing registry keys and muchking around with the guts of it, just to set it up in a way that I like to use it. Maybe thats what its like to use a mac, I dunno. But it is very well done.

Still think Vista users should get a free upgrade though.

Users should be moved away from the mouse.

We are the OOS generation

Anyone who spends hours tweaking Windows to within an inch of it's life deserve everything they get.

I just fail to see how you lose at the Start menu. Such a fucking VAST improvment.

Who said anything about hours?
Maybe you need to buy a new computer that installs windows faster Mr Kris

I have 2 small reg files that I open on a new windows install:
One flips the windows key and ctrl key around so my apple keyboard works like it does at work, on a mac.
The other changes partition alignment to work like it does in XP. Until I kill off XP entirely I need to do that in case one day I lose a partition (already happened twice, thankfully a recovery program got the data back).

Also, something I appreciate about windows now is the keyboard shortcuts are making more sense: ctrl+w closes a window for example. ctrl+n opens a new window.

Hey so just downloaded the beta, thought I'd give this a crack, looks pretty cool.

So if I want to keep Vista has primary OS and just test this thing, how do I do that? Obviously install it on another drive yeah, but do I need something to set up a dual-boot or whatever?

Boot options should be set up by windows, but if you run into problems, download EasyBCD and install that. It allows your to tinker with boot options and even add entries for Linux and OSX.

Just set up a second partition for Windows 7, then install it to that. You will then have the option of selecting the OS you want to run on boot up. Windows 7 will be the default, but you can change that by right clicking on "computer" -> properties -> advanced system settings -> settings (under startup and recovery section) -> then select default OS ...hope that makes sense.

WHy not VM it? .

Cause I have nfi what that is?

And don't bother with it either if you want a proper experience. VM is good to build something in and have quick look around but if you want to have a proper play just do a dual boot.

I've done this on my PC.

Create a new partition (20 gigs) in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Disk Management.

Burn the win7 image to a DVD and jot down the product key.

Put DVD in drive, reboot computer. Once its in the Win7 setup, install Win7 to the 20 gig partition you created. Do all the other usual windows setup crap.

It automatically creates a bootloader to allow you to switch between either OS, but I think I remember mine defaulting to Win7 over vista, which you might want to tinker round with. Other than that you should be good to go.

Thanks Shaunie.. got it all up and working now.

Man this really is fast and nifty! Everything seems a lot smoother. I love the new taskbar, the new 'show desktop' bit with preview down the bottom. And heaps easier to adjust the screen resolution now too; and has markers for the aspect ratio which is tres sweet.

Gunna explore some more..

I have two annoying issues both processes taking up too much cpu time.

One is some audio service which is fine when nvidia drivers are installed but then I don't get sound through HDMI. But if I install realtek driveers I get everything working properly except the service chews 50% cpu and I can't get into control panels. Found a work around but it's less than ideal.

Now suddenly dllhost.exe has started to be a prick. *sigh*

Looking forward to the final release cos I'll upgrade some of my hardware at the same time.

Does anyone else have a problem with Windows 7 and Firefox 3.0 not being able to save bookmarks?

Whenever I create bookmarks now and little tab things that go under the 'back' button, and quick search things, firefox doesn't remember as soon as I close :/ Any ideas why?

Maybe you are out of harddrive space?

to spite you?

oh thanks guys

No idea why it's doing that to you, I guess just try un-installing and reinstalling, and um, I dunno how windows privileges works but run the installer as admin (right click the installer and select run as administrator) to see if that helps.

Then, go back to your vista installation and load FEBE addon of the firefox add on pages and backup your whole profile (it backs up passwords, addons, cookies everything else) to a file on the desktop.

Then go back to Windows 7 and... work it out I have to go to the gym.

But point is that you can mirror your old firefox installation completely so you don't have to start again.

If it is that problem, you'd just need to ensure that the user you use to run firefox (the one you log into with) has write permission to /program files/firefox + subdirectories.

Woop looks like I might actually get my wish of skipping Vista entirely and going straight to Windows 7.



Strange how their rushing this release through when considering how well Vista's doing.

You only need to look at the kernel processes and the memory footprint for the kernal to realise that Vista and W7 is not major new OS release like when they went from 2000 to XP.

Also running W7 for the last month I have to say its very very solid even in its beta state, people are crying out for somethnig diff to Vista so can see why they are pushing hard for this to get out there.

typical slashdot comment really, uniformed and full of anti-ms nerd rage.

M$ amirite!!!

Whoohoo another awesome thing (that I already enjoyed on the mac for years). You can rename a file even if it's in use by say, media player. Haven't tested this further but hopefully windows will stop trying to hold on to files making them impossible to move or rename without sometimes even resorting to a restart.

One of the most retarded things about previous versions was a file could be in use so you couldn't move it... and what was using it? Windows trying to generate a thumbnail for it.

Buuuugger, my new security camera software from Logitech.... Doesnt work in W7