Posted on 10/23/2009 12:42:52 PM PDT by Mr Fuji
Yes, Windows 7 didn't even hit the market until Thursday. But that hasn't stopped a fog of myths from enveloping the newest version of the much loved--and much hated--PC operating system from Microsoft.
[Slide Show: The Best of What's New in Windows 7.]
The software giant hoped that wide exposure to Windows 7 would help smooth its entry. Microsoft let millions of consumers and professionals download test versions of the operating system. And by a wide margin, testers have found the new system to be the best yet from Microsoft. Version 7 is leaner, more useful, and prettier than past editions--a worthy effort to update the Windows world.
Still, the fictions are legion. Much of it is innocent confusion that accompanies any major software release. Some of it arises from Microsoft apologists trying to bury the botched release of Windows Vista, sniping Apple fans who want the Mac to continue gaining market share, or diehard techies who revere free Linux software.
[Why some analysts argue that Linux is better than Windows or the Mac.]
With so much misinformation swirling, we've sorted through seven points that are confusing consumers:
1. It's only a minor update to Vista. Overstated, but there is some truth. With Win7, Microsoft had the luxury of going back to basics. Vista was a massive effort to update the core of Windows. The edition following Vista didn't have to be as ambitious. Programmers could focus on the edges of Vista, reducing its hardware-hog tendencies and annoying security nags. But Microsoft went further, adding consumer-friendly functions to paint Windows 7 as an upgrade. HomeGroups greatly simplify home networking, libraries organize jumbled collections of files, and multifinger power makes touch screens more powerful.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
One for the TECH PING list.
I’ve got Vista on my home computer (purchased in August 2007) and I’ve had zero problems with it.
same here..
That’s a fair article.
I’ve run W7 on my home machine for about a month via a Technet subscription offering(RTM version, the same that came out yesterday). I ran the RC before that.
Today I updated one of my work desktops(the main one) and all is peachy. Quite happy with it.
Vista was a disaster.
I’m installing my programs on my Dell Inspiron B130 laptop after an upgrade to Windows 7 from XP Pro. So far things have been smooth other than a few updates to my CD/DVD ROM drive that I needed to dig around Dell’s website to find.
7 is slick. It loads a little faster than XP and that’s saying something: I run a 1.3MB Celeron processor with 1G DDR RAM. I never used Vista so I really can’t compare the two but so far things are very good.
The sticky notes are great. Menus seem a bit more intuitive, less confusing and I’m looking forward to exploring the Libraries function...after I’m not fuzzed by the flu.
I'm going back to watching cartoons. At least when Bullwinkle says, "Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" it doesn't cost money when it still doesn't work.
I swear, Windows users are like abused spouses. Microsoft keeps giving them a black eye but the users just keep coming back to them.
The article was anything but convincing.
Even the linked [Slide Show: The Best of What’s New in Windows 7] didn’t have much other than fancier graphics, translucent borders, etc. Yippie. Just what I’ve been salivating for — near-invisible borders. [/s]
OMG, thank your lucky stars you didn't try to run Vista on that! You would have pulled out a gun and shot it! XP and W7 seem to me to run equivalently on similar hardware, something that Vista could never do.
Same here
I'm a happy camper, except for Vista being such a resource hog. I have 4 gigs of RAM, and when I run it as a virtual machine under Snow Leopard, I have horrible performance on any other large-memory task running on the Mac side. (Chip simulations, or complex & large Photoshop files.)
So,
And Apple users (or whatever you use) are what, Knitebane?
Funny, but I’ve yet to have a problem with Windows (running XP on my work laptop and Vista at home) - this goes back to the days when I was in College too (early versions of Windows).
Don't worry. God has a special plan in place for those less fortunate.
LOL
Come here, let me dot your eye for you....
Let me guess, you drive a Ford too?
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I love that BSOD ,, the TSOD with Vista just didn't seem right.. To be fair I haven't had a TSOD in a while but despite all the fixes Vista still won't let me modify files and things due to security bugs (yes, all my settings are "correct").
Backward compatible for x32 peripherals?
Vista is Fxxx’d. I am running Virtual Machine so I don’t have to buy a new laser printer and I prefer classic features of XP.
I don't currently own an Apple. The closest thing I have to it is an ancient Sun IPX. It has the same Motorola 68030 chip that a lot of early Macs (and a lot of Cisco routers) had, but it has Solaris 2.51 on it. And it's retired and in the attic.
Currently I'm running a mix of Ubuntu, CentOS, RedHat, FreeBSD and OpenBSD, depending on what the machine needs to do.
I banished Windows from my network a long time ago. I've not missed it.
Funny, but most people that say they've never had problems with Windows just don't KNOW that they have problems with Windows.
That's why the vast majority of spam on the Internet comes from infected Windows machines.
That must be the Redmond-approved spelling of "fixed".
Cheers!
Man, I've been using windows since it's early days too. Sorry, but the only way I can see your statement to be valid would be if you turned it on and watched the screensaver, and possibly played solitaire, and that's it.
I've had more crashes, BSOD's, lockups and all sorts of other annoying crap dealing with windows than I care to recount.
And yes, I have Vista that came with a laptop, and it sucks. I've also been running W7RC, it's okay, sure as heck runs better than vista, but I run it in a virtualbox on Linux so I can run iTunes and sync the iPhone. That's all I use winders for anymore. I've been running Linux for years now, and I love it, I don't miss windows at all.
7. Mac users should abandon Apple. The Mac is still the standard for a computer that "just works." Apple has more control over the end product because it also assembles and sells the hardware. The Mac system is also more secure, if for no other reason than that a smaller market share makes a smaller target for criminals. Windows has to run on any batch of hardware that a maker or user throws together. That's one reason Windows requires more tinkering. But Windows also comes from a culture that is more influenced by techies who like tinkering and think everyone else does. Macs cost more. But they also benefit from the aura of success that surrounds the iPhone and iPod. Windows 7 may cut into the momentum behind the Mac, but it alone is unlikely to reverse Apple's gains.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Vista, has been a mixed bag. It’s much more stable for me than ME and XP ever were. I have had a few BSODs, but for the most part, it does what I need it to do, and I don’t have to restart/reboot as I had to do all the time with my XP laptop.
Out of the box, it was difficult to work with, but then so was IE 8. The only real time I’ve had to deal with BSODs is when I had a harddrive problem, and that had nothing to do with Vista.
I get why people didn’t like it, and preferred other systems, but I’d rather have a system I can customise to my needs rather than pay double the cost for the equivalent apple system.
Apple is going to miss Vista.
NOT TRUE.
Windows is not guaranteed by Microsoft to run on anything that doesn't match their requirements.
Granted, their requirements are wide enough to accommodate a lot of nice hardware and a lot of crap hardware. But as a "user", go ahead and "throw together any batch of hardware" and then try to get support from Microsoft when Windows won't run on it.
Microsoft pushes that support back onto the user, or the manufacturer of the components or system.
Microsoft is responsible for what Windows -IS-, and how it runs on the hardware Microsoft supports. How Windows runs on anything else is a crapshoot.
So the real MYTH here is that "Windows has to run on any...". BS.
Smug and self-important because they are SOOOO much smarter than we plebian Windows users.
Sort of like the mindset LIEberals have.
We'll you are certainly entitled to your opinion, no matter how ignorant or misguided it might be.
It's not smug or self-important to point out that Windows is a seething cauldron of malware and that if you don't like spam and you don't like viruses and you don't like bots you may want to look at something else.
The Windows 7 update is like going from hitting yourself in the head with a 10 pound hammer to hitting yourself in the head with an 9 pound hammer.
As I sit here and watch all these people go, "Oh! That feels MUCH better," I can't help but point out that what you really need to do is STOP WITH THE HAMMER.
Sort of like the mindset LIEberals have
I'll point out that William H. Gates III is a proud donater to the UN Population Fund (which supports forced abortions in China) and gave generously ($10,000) to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Buying Microsoft software lines the pockets of dozens of high-end socialists like William H. Gates II and his son.
I can understand the need to use Microsoft operating systems because a) certain applications require it or b) your company put it on the laptop they gave you but failing that most people can use something else, and should.
Microsoft has been claiming for 10 years that they finally understand that security is important to users. Since the number of owned Windows machines spewing out spam hasn't decreased in 10 years but has actually increased it's pretty obvious that they don't.
Hmmmm. Don’t know what to tell you. I use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and various 2nd party programs for my work. The only problems I’ve had have come from web based viruses that have infected my computer from time to time.
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