Windows 7 hands on - Impressive at every turn

I have been an avid MS supporter for years and years. One week ago I took as I needed a new laptop I took my chance on the new MacBook Pro with OS X 10.5. Looking at these screen shots make my tummy twitch.. I do not think I will ever again go back to the dreadful MS OS...having had Vista from its early Beta days...I have had enough.Good luck enjoy the ride without me and my company

Testing.

Example: Windows 7 can monitor ambient light sensors and automatically adjust your screen's brightness.

... My iPod can do that, as can my Mac. I think my Sony Vaio from like 4 years ago can also do that. Is this really a new feature for Windows?

By way of context: I /really/ resent having had to get Vista on this new Dell laptop. The laptop is fine, but the OS itself is as rude and obnoxious and pushy as is the marketing.

So I'm intrigued by W7.
What shall I do, sideline everything I'm doing and install a pre-beta?
If it wasn't Vista the notion would be ludicrous.
But I'm dealing with Vista ...
... so I'm tempted.

thanks for the great review

I just got the DVD... My friend attended the PDC 08....
Waiting to install it.... Partitioning my HD.....

Okay, so it's Vista with auto-resizing windows, and goodies added to Wordpad and Calculator. Who cares?

There's freeware for notes and cork board.

If Powershell is really that awesome, how about offering it as a standalone program. The location awareness sounds like a no-brainer that should have been included with vista to begin with.

There's nothing here really worth paying money for. How about making it an all-around update for Vista instead, and win some customer loyalty back from the droves leaving for Leopard.

Remember, This is a pre-beta. It's not vista. Nor will it be vista when it comes out. Just keep up with the news and you will see.

I cant wait to get rid of Leopard and install 7 on my mac mini. Also get rid of home basic on my dell for 7.

From your blog " Wireless connections have been simplified, and it's evident as soon as you finish the install. Before I'd even seen my desktop, the Windows 7 installer detected 6 available access points (2 more than Windows XP)

I have experienced the exact thing using Vista.


Are you comparing Windows 7 to Vista or to XP ??

Vista is a train wreck but it has a lot of improvements over XP.

Just to be fair.

Lets just hope that it runs fast.

Full Disclosure: My own Vista experience wasn't all that great. After some errors i couldn't tolerate on my Laptop I switched to Ubuntu.

Now Windows 7 sounds great, but I really think that it might be in Microsoft's best interest to offer a discount on upgrades to 7 from Vista. Why? There are some of us, albeit maybe a small populace by the accounts of those whose systems ran Vista without a hitch, that might not feel too comfortable paying too much for what Vista should have been on the first place.

SP1 might have fixed many issues, SP2 might fix even more, but for some of us Vista still wasn't what was promised to us. Hey, it might be the manufacturer's fault (driver issues, bad promotions, laptops that shouldn't be running Vista but XP in the first place), but it's either a good discount (a reasonable one) or definitive improvements that might entice us to pony up the dough.

So far, so good. Microsoft has my attention. But I remember that I was equally interested in "Longhorn". On the plus side, early tests have shown that 7 actually runs circles around Vista and that's a good sign.

I love Ubuntu and will keep on using it, but there's nothing wrong with some good competition (that plus the fact that at the office i will be more likely find 7 than 8.10).

Just a thing though, language packs. I know that good translations are not cheap but the other OSes offer all languages upon installation... Please Microsoft, include language packs to all editions of this version! Having to buy a PC that's able to run Ultimate and having to buy Ultimate (or the upgrade) just so I can use the language pack I want is somewhat weird, don't you think?

Feel free to white out this comment by ranking it low.

:D

I'm liking the news I'm hearing so far.

#1 The biggest disappointment for me with Vista was and continues to be the lack of driver support. I don't fault MS for a newer OS version but, I do fault them for forcing most OEM's to go strictly with Vista.

#2 The UAC is a royal pain. A great idea poorly implemented.

#3 I also had to give up quite a few programs that only offered newer full price versions w/o an upgrade option for existing users. Since 7 builds on the Vista core, it is comforting to know I won't have to go thru that yet again.

I for one, jumped ship when I realized what Vista was. I have been using variants of Ubuntu for well over 18 months now and haven't really looked back. XP had the right mix of maturity, features, and compatibility for a Windows OS, but I have since learned that, for me anyway, it doesn't compare to a good Linux distro. If you like to tweak, use KDE for your desktop environment. If you like elegance and simplicity, use Gnome. Maybe you like both, depending on what you are doing. Fine, install both. There are others too, like XFCE which has a small footprint and is pretty fast. All on top of an extremely stable Linux kernel. The sky is really the limit here - this from a guy who used to avoid it because Windows was so easy.

All that said, I truly hope Win7 improves or fixes the problems of Vista. Not just things like UAC, but also the extreme hogging of resources, the HUGE install footprint (15 GB of disk space after SP1 with no apps installed), the limitations of use that Vista imposes in the name of "protected" content. I mean, really, most others are moving away from DRM, and Microsoft creates a whole OS that is dedicated to it at its core. Don't believe me, check the specs. Anyhow, those are what caused me to look around at other options once the hardware manufacturers started dropping XP support.

im still using XP now since i have an 'aint broke, dont fix it' attitude. my younger brother has Vista on his new laptop and even though ive tested Vista before, this is the first time ive had extensive use with the OS. i still prefer XP from a functionality standpoint as everything seems more difficult to do in Vista for me but visually, it is an absolutely beautiful OS which has many of the media features i crave. if i can get the functionality of XP and beauty of Vista in Windows 7 (which is what it sounds like), ill be on it from the gates. im looking to build a new high end media/graphic design PC within the next year or two and from the looks of it, this may end up being my OS of choice.

While we're at it. Has anyone else been unable to get Vista SP1 to install even from a Disc of it?

I have had Vista since July a year ago and it always automatically updated and installed everything just fine & still does but no matter how many times I've tried to do it including after several complete reformats back to "Out of the box" state.

Then I ordered the disc and again tried everything.
Installing the disc before letting any other updates download, Re-format again and trying with just certain updates installed but NO additional software.

Ten reformat's and every available update effortlessly & automatically or manually downloaded with and without security & or firewall off or out.

I still cannot get this DAMN service pack 1 to load.

I'm so used to Vista as it came but considering the damn Laptop (Toshshiba Satellite:P205-S6267) with Vista Home Premium, Intel Core Duo Proc. T2350, 2 GB RAM, 120GB Hard Drive) came equipped & immediately upgraded to 2Gigs of ram at the store.

I'm wondering if I'm going to be at least slightly pleased with performance if I ever get SP1 on without spending an entire afternoon with a Microsoft CS rep SLLLOOOOWWWWLLLY talking me through it from some far flung country.

This thing is so slow considering it's capacity and present memory & I just almost bought two 2GB chips to replace my two 1s and I'm thinking. NO This things should be fast with it's broadband connection as is. Hell my six yr old HP workhorse with 512 mb of memory running XP is often as fast. And that's Pre Dual Core.

I've made & canceled several "phone appointments" because I can't understand a word any one of the four reps who called me were saying without asking them to repeat 3 times.

I'm pretty skilled. I'd say a 7.5 out of 10 on the Geek scale at lowest.

HELP....please?
Anyone??

Bless you

JT

Pretty desktop effects... Scripting capabilities... Sticky notes??? About time winblows started catching up with Linux. I wonder how much they'll charge for what can be had for free.