Windows 7

[Drezoryx]

Win7 is way better than Vista. been using win7 since beta, upgraded to Final 2 months back. (student use $30) - only hitch is video performance not upto xp standard (across the board, but who watches more than one HD movie at a time so its not an unforgivable sin) and program compatibility but the latter is forgivable since newer programs must meet tougher programming standards therefore more stable and secure and the computer in general inspires more confidence.

 

[Halla74]

The rule used to be to wait until service pack 1 until upgrading to the next windows OS. I'm transitioning to Linux from XP myself and probably won't ever use Windows again.

Check out MINT Linux.

It is the most plug and play variant I've worked with.
The kernel is not optimized for high bit rate audio/video production but unless you were going to use the PC as a digital audio workstation that is not an issue.

I believe it is the 10th most used OS in the world.

 

[raz]

Maybe I should download it and try it. I bought my Dell Vostro laptop with Vista Home. It was too bloated for my taste, so I reverted back to XP Pro. That runs fine for now. I'm just wondering what the reasons are to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP. Maybe I'll research later.

 

[Spamtar]

I hear that it will only work one computer per software except if you pay extra and get the family pack. Is this true. Absent legalities of only being licensed with one computer are they now able to only have it work with one computer? If so the impact appears enormous (i.e. what video games which will only work with one specific console).

 

[Alwar]

If you want to update then they will know, which is pretty much a requirement if you use the internet. Games not so much.

 

[millerm277]

I've been using it for 6+ months now, it's pretty much rock solid (more reliable than any other Windows OS on this machine), works great, I love the new taskbar.....yeah, I don't really have much to complain about.

I hear that it will only work one computer per software except if you pay extra and get the family pack. Is this true. Absent legalities of only being licensed with one computer are they now able to only have it work with one computer? If so the impact appears enormous (i.e. what video games which will only work with one specific console).

To my knowledge, nothing new in Genuine Advantage/Activation makes them actually able to do this, and as usual, it's already broken anyway, but I can't disclose that here.

 

[Lethal Sage]

It runs fine for me. I had to wait a day to install it because I was downloading a movie.

 

[nanook]

just done installing, updating, and doing basic tweaks like disabling unnecessary services with pserv. after doing so, windows 7 premium has still thrice as much services (instances of svchost) running than my winXP installation.

my wlan usb stick was recognized and supported right away. just had to type the security key and gateway IP... and here i am.

... now the hard part will be finding official drivers for my hardware...

have to say, this was the easiest_to_crack windows ever - hope it stays that way. getting windows to run was easy in the past, but getting "windows update" was always a struggle for me.

 

[Drezoryx]

^ windows update is the easiest way to get all the drivers

 

[nanook]

this is my windows7 with most services disabled. no themes, no printer spooler, no crap, but with 3 services that are related to my wlan. there are still 29 services running inside of those 9 instances of *host.exe. they are apparently all required... afaik.

all the software that i have running constantly:

and all running services:

as you can see, the memory usage is rather friendly. the system was running for many hours, when i took the screenshot.

obviously, a system with standart configuration will use more ...

 

[Giggly]

I like it so far, except I haven't figured out how to get my wireless printer to work yet.

 

[entropie]

just plug it in hahaha

 

[Giggly]

just plug it in hahaha

I have to now. Booo.

 

[Udog]

I've been having problems with Vista, so I decided to upgrade from Vista 32bit to Win7 64 bit.

So far, I'm loving it. I got a bit overzealous initially when I failed to make sure all my hardware has 64 bit drivers (damn you PCI wireless access card!), but I was able to find a way to work around it.

So far, so good. I haven't received any blue screens like I was getting under 32bit Vista, and I really like the interface updates. The new taskbar is quite well thought out, and I love being able to easily split screen 2 windows horizontally and vertically.

Oh, and as lame as it sounds, putting the Post It notes some place where they are easily run across was a great idea. I love em.

 

[Athenian200]

I've been having problems with Vista, so I decided to upgrade from Vista 32bit to Win7 64 bit.

So far, I'm loving it. I got a bit overzealous initially when I failed to make sure all my hardware has 64 bit drivers (damn you PCI wireless access card!), but I was able to find a way to work around it.

So far, so good. I haven't received any blue screens like I was getting under 32bit Vista, and I really like the interface updates. The new taskbar is quite well thought out, and I love being able to easily split screen 2 windows horizontally and vertically.

Oh, and as lame as it sounds, putting the Post It notes some place where they are easily run across was a great idea. I love em.

+1

I love it too! I upgraded from 32-bit Vista myself. I wasn't getting blue screens, but it was taking about 20 seconds to open applications. I was used to sluggishness on a quad-core processor with 4GB of ram.

You should really try out the new Calculator's Unit Conversion and Date Calculation if you haven't already. It's awesome. I used to have to find online converters or write Excel templates with obscure commands for that kind of stuff.

 

[Udog]

+1

I love it too! I upgraded from 32-bit Vista myself. I wasn't getting blue screens, but it was taking about 20 seconds to open applications. I was used to sluggishness on a quad-core processor with 4GB of ram.

You should really try out the new Calculator's Unit Conversion and Date Calculation if you haven't already. It's awesome. I used to have to find online converters or write Excel templates with obscure commands for that kind of stuff.

That's actually really cool! Thanks for sharing that. I've been making alot of food conversions for my diet, and it gets old having to go online to do it. (Even if I can just type "23 grams to ounces" in Google's search bar and have it convert it.)

Windows 7 does seem quite a bit more responsive, so far. I'm looking forward to see what developers come up with for it. I was really impressed when I saw a download status bar in the taskbar when I was downloading a file in IE8, and it makes me think there may be more surprises down the line.

Sadly, I got 2 blue screens shortly after making my post about no more blue screens, though. Joy. Time to start the fun and excitement of troubleshooting. I'm 75% sure it's my motherboard. Fun.