Windows 7

PowerHouseDan

FINE! :P

Dartz

Took it's fair time, and I've only had it running for ten minutes, but so far she seems to be running like a champ. Nvidia drivers work ok.... WEI score of 5.0 for gaming graphics for an 8600GT 256Mb. I haven't tried all my programs, or mucked around with things, but it looks good and runs good. I mean, it runs a hell of a lot faster than Fista. Have to run up a few games on it and see how they behave.

One thing really annoys me though, it overwrote Grub with it's own bootloader, and orphaned my Ubuntu install. I have to figure out how to get that back, without reinstalling the lot of it. That's a pain in the whole considering Ubuntu is my primary OS.... it's not a very nice thing for a piece of beta software to do on the machine it's being tested on.

ethernet

Dartz wrote: »

Took it's fair time, and I've only had it running for ten minutes, but so far she seems to be running like a champ. Nvidia drivers work ok.... WEI score of 5.0 for gaming graphics for an 8600GT 256Mb. I haven't tried all my programs, or mucked around with things, but it looks good and runs good. I mean, it runs a hell of a lot faster than Fista. Have to run up a few games on it and see how they behave.

One thing really annoys me though, it overwrote Grub with it's own bootloader, and orphaned my Ubuntu install. I have to figure out how to get that back, without reinstalling the lot of it. That's a pain in the whole considering Ubuntu is my primary OS.... it's not a very nice thing for a piece of beta software to do on the machine it's being tested on.

Here's a rough idea of how it goes. Boot off live CD, chroot into your /boot partition to give you a terminal as if it's actually on your installed system as opposed to the live CD. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst as root (with sudo) to add an entry for Windows, ensuring to append chainloader+1 after the partition, save, and run grub-install /dev/sbX, where X is your hard drive, quite likely a (/dev/sda).

311

This all sounds interesting ,started loosing interest in windows when they called it vista.
I can think back to when DOS 6 was brand new ,didn't last long though when windows 95 came out.
Looking forward to it ,thought microsoft were slowing down.:)

JohnK

I've only got around to freeing up a laptop (Sony FE21M) for Windows 7 today so I haven't done anything fancy with it but so far I'm liking it.

Definitely feels faster than Vista which is on my main laptop and that has a slightly better spec so pretty pleased with that. It found almost all my hardware with no problems including the nvidia drivers from Microsoft Update but it is reporting problems with a "Mass Storage Controller" and "USB Device" but I'm not sure what they are as nothing seems to be missing. Could be the card reader but I don't have any Sony memory sticks to test it with.

One thing I did notice straight off was accessing a network printer, under Vista it takes about 15~20 seconds to open up the print dialog and everything freezes but under this it opens up immediately as if the printer was connected directly to the machine. Vista was driving me nuts with that so this is a godsend for me!

Suppose the main test will be when I start throwing on the likes of office and a few games but so far its getting the thumbs up.

Dartz

ethernet wrote: »

Good advice.

Yeah, I read about that, and setting the boot parameters. Truth be told, I took the opportunity to finally upgrade to 8.10, now that there're half decent Nvidia drivers out there for it, and I had a DvD for it.

Windows 7 is doing itself fine too, btw. But still, a beta shouldnt erase the bootloader already on the drive, it's inconvenient for the tester.

Overheal

More importantly i need to figure out how to force my drivers to install on windows 7. I know from laptopdrivers2go.com that its possible.. gyar.

ethernet

Dartz wrote: »

... Windows 7 is doing itself fine too, btw. But still, a beta shouldnt erase the bootloader already on the drive, it's inconvenient for the tester.

Unfortunately all version of Windows overwrite whatever is on the MBR -- it's not just limited to the beta. Newer versions will, however, detect older versions of Windows and generate a suitable choice of OSes upon boot.

Daithi McGee

Very long thread I have not read so very sorry if this question has been asked.

If I use the trial/beta version do I get a cheap license when it is retailed? Or some sort of cheaper version?

JohnK

I've heard nothing to suggest that and I'd be very surprised if they gave any sort of discount to be honest.

Daithi McGee

JohnK wrote: »

I've heard nothing to suggest that and I'd be very surprised if they gave any sort of discount to be honest.

Thanks John. Kind of thought there might be some incentive to trial it.

JohnK

Well there is that warm fuzzy feeling you get by helping a multi-billion dollar corporation get a little bit richer

Overheal

Still there was a lot of controversy that Vista should have never been launched. And there has been a lot of scandal. Discount Upgrade packs seem inevitable.

AlmightyCushion

JohnK wrote: »

Well there is that warm fuzzy feeling you get by helping a multi-billion dollar corporation get a little bit richer

Yeah, it really makes you feel like you're making a difference. Apparently, anyone who buys a vista machine from june/july will get a free upgrade (similar to what happened prior to the vista launch). There will more than likely be an upgrade version as well.

Unregistered.

JohnK wrote: »

Well there is that warm fuzzy feeling you get by helping a multi-billion dollar corporation get a little bit richer

Eh hang on a sec, you get to help ensure that the next OS doesn't suck. Rather have them get rich from s decent OS than the likes of Vista... again.

Dartz

You get a Free OS for 9 months. A little buggy, but it works.

Or, you could download a Linux distro.
You get a free OS. A little buggy, but it works.

Overheal

7.5 months really.

Epic Tissue

Just downloaded and installed as my 3rd OS. Works perfect straight from installing:)

watty

Some interesting comments here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/08/windows_7_beta_one_review/comments/

Even if Windows 7 works perfectly it is a fail as it offers nothing of value over Win2K or XP and needs more expensive faster HW to do the same thing. It should be a free upgrade to everyone forced or stuck with Vista.

Hence even MS admit that low end Netbooks will be running XP. Because if MS didn't licence it cheap for next 5 years, the OEMs will use Linux.

On lower end MID/Netbook, Intel seems to have shot itself in the feet creating the market as now there are even ARM SoC versions. If Intel ever manages to compete with ARM in low power consumption (1/10th to 1/100th of Atom) and integration (a netbook in almost one chip module inc RAM and Flash) the low cost will drop their profits 90%.

MS are still designing for 4 years ago when Moore's Law really did hold for the ordinary PC. Now the driving force is Lighter, Cheaper, longer battery life, More features, not more CPU power. You can do the Core of an ARM in 100,000 transistors. The state of the Art x86 is 2,000,000,000 transistors. No wonder a whole system fits on an ARM SoC and takes so little power.

JohnK

watty wrote: »

Even if Windows 7 works perfectly it is a fail as it offers nothing of value over Win2K or XP and needs more expensive faster HW to do the same thing.

I wouldn't fully agree with that as its running fine on my old laptop that used to run XP (I wouldnt even attempt Vista) so I think they've succeeded in part by cutting the hardware requirements.

But they are correct about switching from XP - why bother with Windows 7 when XP is still working fine? There really is no compelling reason I can think of so I still cant see the public at large being excited at the prospect of changing, it'll be more of an "meh" response when they see it pop up on the Dell site.

Dartz

But for those stuck with Vista.... it's better than Vista. And a damn sight easier to find than XP.

But I do have a Win2k install disk floating around. And 2 activation keys. It was nice, real nice. Until something decided it only wanted to work with XP, then another thing, then another threw up warnings about it being an outdated OS.

It's annoying, but it happens often enough to make using it on a day-to-day basis pointless. There's nothing I'd use it for, that I can't do with Linux.

Overheal

I hate win2k. so many reasons. but then that could have easilly been hardware-rage.

KamiKazi

Going to download this tonight / tomorrow, hoping to get a chance to install it saturday.

Will let you guy know how it is

sceptre

watty wrote: »

If Intel ever manages to compete with ARM in low power consumption (1/10th to 1/100th of Atom) and integration (a netbook in almost one chip module inc RAM and Flash) the low cost will drop their profits 90%.

Latest figures showed their profits dropped by 90% for the final quarter of 2008 anyway, they cited the rise of the netbook as part of the reason.

Totally agree with your post though, especially the bit where it's not all about the speed any more.

leninbenjamin

sceptre wrote: »

Latest figures showed their profits dropped by 90% for the final quarter of 2008 anyway, they cited the rise of the netbook as part of the reason.

forgive the ignorance, but that be Intel you're talking about or MS? I thought Intel weren't doing too bad from it what with the Atom and all...

zod

this is quite impressive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVFeNHOagQ

AlmightyCushion

It's intel he's talking about. Profits dropped from over 2 billion to about 240 million.

watty

leninbenjamin wrote: »

forgive the ignorance, but that be Intel you're talking about or MS? I thought Intel weren't doing too bad from it what with the Atom and all...

High desktops are great for Intel, esp. if more powerful than AMD. Then they can have a massive profit margin.

There are Chinese sort of x86, VIA and AMD cheap solutions apart from Intel for netbooks, apart even from Power PC, MIPS or ARM. Intel only make an ordinary profit on Atoms.

Think Fiat Panda and Ferrari. Which makes more money per sale, never mind what the margin might be. (Actually the margin on small popular cars is low too).

Netbooks are hurting Intel and MS.

Vista is pretty much only shipping pre-installed. Upgrade sales are terrible. MS has to practically give away Windows CE/Mobile to try and get share (they have always lost money on that) and now have to practically give away XP to stop the low end Netbooks / MID having Linux.

They have never made money on XBox/XBox360.

MS made 1400 redundant this week in Devices/Entertainment and another 4600 are to be laid off (total 91,000 staff).

Windows 7 (NT 6.2) is really Vista (6.0) but they are calling it Windows 7 to try and suggest it's a new OS.

Mark Shuttleworth praised Win7 this Week. (It does at least seem to work, though no added value over XP). XP is a great threat to his Netbook market (Ubuntu Linux) and XP is practically cheaper for OEM than "free" Linux/Ubuntu.

So he hopes Win7 succeeds and kills XP.

Johnny Bitte

Hi all,
Downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 and thinking of upgrading the Vista on my laptop with this.
Any one expeiance any serious problems with the Beta and anyone know how long it last for?

JohnK

The beta expires on August 1st, 2009