I highly recommend it for new machines. 
Posted on 08/22/2010 9:53:41 AM PDT by JoeProBono
Last year at this time, Microsoft was in the final stages of preparing Windows 7 for its worldwide launch. The new OS was finally available to the public—well, at least that segment of the public with a TechNet or MSDN subscription. Those early adopters had to wait a few weeks after the official release to manufacturing date but still got a head start on the general public.
Those demanding and skeptical Windows users have now had a full year to stress-test Windows 7 and decide whether it’s good enough to replace Windows XP.
The verdict? Windows 7 has been a quiet success, maybe even a phenomenon. Last spring, a Microsoft executive told me that the company had sold 100 million Windows 7 licenses. As part of its quarterly earnings call in July, Microsoft announced that that number had risen to 175 million, and the company has projected that a total of 350 million Windows 7 licenses will have been sold by the end of this year. That’s a run rate of roughly 30 million copies per month worldwide, and it represents a lot of Windows 7-powered PCs.
Despite the big numbers, Microsoft has been almost eerily silent about its success. I didn’t hear a lot of bragging in advance of the Windows 7 launch, nor has there been much chest-thumping since.
The competition has been muted as well. When was the last time you saw one of Apple’s infamous “Get a Mac” ads? Hint: the last three ads in Apple’s campaign were released on October 23, 2009, the day after Windows 7 was launched to the public. With titles like Broken Promises and PC News, Apple’s marketing executives were hoping for a Vista-style wave of complaints, but they were as disappointed as Windows 7 upgraders were relieved. And then John Hodgman and Justin Long went off to spend more time with their families.
Meanwhile, Windows 7 keeps selling and XP usage is dropping. That’s certainly true at this site, where Windows 7 visitors now outnumber those using Windows XP and Vista usage has plunged in the past year. Here’s a graphic representation of how Windows 7 usage has increased among visitors to this site since its first beta release back in January 2009.
That's my only complaint. We had a printer that was only about 18-months old that won't work (correctly) with Windows 7 - HP isn't supporting it. It's a color printer, but will only print in B&W with 7.
Other than that, 7 has been terrific - not a single crash.
I highly recommend it for new machines.
Office 7 should be cheaper and unless you are doing a lot of networked sharing of documents, is as full featured as 10.
I love using Windows 7. What a great operating system!
If HP doesn't have drivers for their printer, blame HP, not Microsoft.
My XP machine finally crashed and I’ not adept enough to run Linux, so I held my breath and bought a new Windows-7 Machine. So far it seems to be pretty good, Still getting used to the new format for adjusting things, and the Libraries have me a little confused, but over all it seems like a good OS.
I’m not blaming MS for HPs problems. I’m struggling with the fact that in most “upgrades” you LOSE capabilities and it costs $$ to get back to where you were - to break even ....and for THAT I WILL blame MS.
Last night, Microsoft recommended an upgrade. I turned it on. The machine’s screen went black and locked up. I did a hard reboot into Safe Mode, did a roll-back, and I’m back in business. Ubuntu is looking better all the time....
Like Windows 7, some of the options are more intuitive and user-friendly when you need to ask it for help.
Over all a good experience so far.
Maybe it is just me but I still yearn to hear the distinctive Windows 95 chime. I sort of brings me back to the days when I first entered the Web. Any links to where I can hear that Win 95 chime again.
I installed Office 2010 and decided to give Outlook a try for my Gmail account. I gave it my email address and password and it went out to Gmail, found the settings and set itself up to mirror Gmai. If I make a folder on it to store mail, it creates it on Gmail's server. If I make a folder on Gmail via the Web, it shows up in Outlook. It also has no trouble reading Outlook Express mail.
I’m on the fence with 7.
What I gained in stability I lost in productivity. Everything is in a different place - often for no discernable reason. Keyboard equivalents (which I used heavily so I didn’t have to constantly take my hands off the keyboard to reach for a mouse) have almost universally changed or been eliminated.
Half of what I do is knowing what to do, and the other half is knowing how to do it. Windows 7 pretty much destroyed my knowledge of how to get anything done. After a few weeks of using it, I’m liking it more, but I have to question why everything had to change. Between the couple of XP machines I still have left, Windows 7, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008, half the time I can’t remember where anything is on the menu, because everything’s in a different place.
The shutdown icon and it’s associate options and version-specific permutations is particularly annoying.
That’s what “XP Mode” is for. Works great for me.
Yeah, I just don’t get HP at all. I have to use “XP Mode” to print to my LaserJet from Windows 7. It works fine, but WTH man!
Windows 7?
Heck. I’m already up to Windows 95 and thinking seriously about upping for Windows 98.
I’ve been running XP since then also. No crashes here either and I can run all my old programs. Win7 has a problem with some of the older stuff and I am not about to upgrade yet.
I just switched myself. I actually loved Vista, it was far more stable than XP ever was for me. For some reason, my Vista got very unstable over the last week, couldn’t figure out what was causing it so I did an upgrade and now my same machine works great.
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