Windows 7

[R00k]

I've been running the RC for about a month now, and I have to say that I'm pretty happy with it. As one of the people who skipped Vista altogether, I have to say that 7 is a very nice improvement over the last release.

Pros:
-Integrated, customizable libraries built into the file system that allow native support for tagging (and supports industry-standard tags that already exist), and display/sorting functions that utilize it well. This is my favorite feature of the OS, and I love it.
-WMPlayer using these native libraries to build its own.
-The "Peek" feature that lets you see other windows before switching to them, and to glance at the desktop without having to minimize all your windows.
-Pinning on the taskbar. This isn't immensely useful yet, but once other vendors/apps start coding for it, I believe this is going to be really handy.
-Improved User Account Control. I believe they have finally done this right. No one is an administrator except the "Administrator" account. Other users have permissions to launch processes under administrative credentials, but they need to verify that they intended to. Some will see this as a pain in the ass and disable it, but it is probably the best security feature that MS has produced in a while for personal computing. If people leave it enabled, I think it will greatly reduce virus & spyware infections on Windows machines.
-I also dig the slideshow wallpaper themes.

Cons:
-IE 8 is (as expected) a sluggish, bloated memory hog. I tried to give it a chance, and have used it exclusively ever since I installed the OS. Last night I finally installed Firefox to be done with it. Just out of curiosity, I opened crooksandliars.com in each browser -- FF was using around 56 megs of RAM, and IE was using around 90. The fact that IE was loading each tab in a separate process would be a good thing if it weren't for the ridiculous memory footprint.


I know quite a few people here have been running it for a while -- what are your thoughts on it? Love it? Hate it? Think it's better than Vista but still prefer XP?
I personally won't be going back to XP after running 7. I'm sold on it.

[bitWISE]

I'm still happy with vista so I'll be running it until I get the rtm build. I have two machines to backup and reformat which will not be fun. My car pc runs win7 but I don't do anything windowsy on it.

[seremtan]

i was put off by all the negative buzz around vista, but everything i've heard about win7 so far has been positive, so i'll be getting it at some point when the final release comes out in october. the xp compatibility mode is what completed the sale for me, plus it'll be nice to play Q3 with DX11

[Massive Quasars]

Gentlemen, I have a well developed Windows 7 thread you can discuss this in.

[scared?]

the rtm is even better...i'm just saying...

[Transient]

Linux > Windows

[Deathshroud]

The performance of IE has little to do with the OS. That said, the memory use of IE should really not matter when most machines sold are equipped with 2+ GB of memory. However, the responsiveness of IE and number of available, useful features has much more to do with the quality of the software. Bloated is a loaded term in this context as you don't cite specifically how IE is using this memory. Too bad it really has nothing to do with the OS itself.

[Fender]

I hate vista because these two features make everyday use difficult:
cd/dvd ejection rarely works (works fine w/ ubuntu)
sleep/hibernate rarely works (works fine w/ ubuntu)

I'm hoping there's a vista class action lawsuit so I can get 7 for free/reduced cost.

[scared?]

it is free...

[R00k]

I'm still happy with vista so I'll be running it until I get the rtm build. I have two machines to backup and reformat which will not be fun. My car pc runs win7 but I don't do anything windowsy on it.

I'm surprised to find somebody who's happy with Vista - especially here.

What does your car PC do, out of curiosity?

[R00k]

The performance of IE has little to do with the OS. That said, the memory use of IE should really not matter when most machines sold are equipped with 2+ GB of memory. However, the responsiveness of IE and number of available, useful features has much more to do with the quality of the software. Bloated is a loaded term in this context as you don't cite specifically how IE is using this memory. Too bad it really has nothing to do with the OS itself.

I included IE just because it ships with Windows. And even if most machines have 2gigs of memory, I don't believe that means using 90 megs just to open a single web page is acceptable, when other software uses not much more than half that.

At any rate, including it as a positive/negative in a review of the OS itself may be questionable, but I really haven't found much else to complain about so far.

[R00k]

I hate vista because these two features make everyday use difficult:
cd/dvd ejection rarely works (works fine w/ ubuntu)
sleep/hibernate rarely works (works fine w/ ubuntu)

I'm hoping there's a vista class action lawsuit so I can get 7 for free/reduced cost.

I can see hibernate causing problems, but why ejection?

At any rate, my PC hibernates after half an hour, and I haven't had any problems with it up to this point. I haven't tried to eject a CD/DVD from within the OS yet.

[phantasmagoria]

what's wrong with pressing the button on your drive?

[Doombrain]

same old shit, different windows OS.

[Deathshroud]

The performance of IE has little to do with the OS. That said, the memory use of IE should really not matter when most machines sold are equipped with 2+ GB of memory. However, the responsiveness of IE and number of available, useful features has much more to do with the quality of the software. Bloated is a loaded term in this context as you don't cite specifically how IE is using this memory. Too bad it really has nothing to do with the OS itself.

I included IE just because it ships with Windows. And even if most machines have 2gigs of memory, I don't believe that means using 90 megs just to open a single web page is acceptable, when other software uses not much more than half that.

At any rate, including it as a positive/negative in a review of the OS itself may be questionable, but I really haven't found much else to complain about so far.

I can see why you would think 90 megs to be unacceptable when only 1 website is open. But you aren't taking into account how the memory is being used. If it improves the usability and responsiveness of the software then I see no problem with the memory use. My point being, size doesn't matter blah, blah, blah...

[Captain]

same old shit, different windows OS.

[Fender]

what's wrong with pressing the button on your drive?

the media doesn't eject
note: this is a notebook w/ a slot DVD drive

[R00k]

@ Deathshroud

That's a matter of personal preference. I quite often have a lot of tabs open on my PC, so you can imagine that even with 2 gigs, 90 megs per tab (theoretically) could consume system resources pretty quickly. IE alone has nearly maxed out the memory usage on my PC more than once. I don't buy the "size doesn't matter" mantra - especially when it comes to browsers.
Just because new machines have 2 gigs of memory in them doesn't mean one should start writing applications to use half of that, in order to improve responsiveness/usability of that one single application. When people pay the price of a new PC, they expect to be able to do more than one thing on it at a time.

At any rate, it does not improve responsiveness on my PC. And we're starting to get a little OT with the philosophical stuff. (yea, I know I started it......)

[R00k]

what's wrong with pressing the button on your drive?

the media doesn't eject
note: this is a notebook w/ a slot DVD drive

So the physical eject button works or doesn't work depending on which OS is loaded? That is odd.

Does it work with the HDD wiped clean of any OS?

[Fender]

It works during boot, always in non-Vista and most of the time in Vista. Unfortunately, when it doesn't work in Vista, only a reboot will fix it.

[Deathshroud]

@ Deathshroud

That's a matter of personal preference. I quite often have a lot of tabs open on my PC, so you can imagine that even with 2 gigs, 90 megs per tab (theoretically) could consume system resources pretty quickly. IE alone has nearly maxed out the memory usage on my PC more than once. I don't buy the "size doesn't matter" mantra - especially when it comes to browsers.
Just because new machines have 2 gigs of memory in them doesn't mean one should start writing applications to use half of that, in order to improve responsiveness/usability of that one single application. When people pay the price of a new PC, they expect to be able to do more than one thing on it at a time.

At any rate, it does not improve responsiveness on my PC. And we're starting to get a little OT with the philosophical stuff. (yea, I know I started it......)

If it does use 90 megs per tab then, yes that is way too much, lol. I don't mind getting a little OT, at least when its interesting.

[bitWISE]

I'm still happy with vista so I'll be running it until I get the rtm build. I have two machines to backup and reformat which will not be fun. My car pc runs win7 but I don't do anything windowsy on it.

I'm surprised to find somebody who's happy with Vista - especially here.

What does your car PC do, out of curiosity?

Disable UAC = No more trouble in Vista. The thing I love the most about it is that it put a lot of pressure on device manufacturers to start releasing 64-bit drivers and 64-bit software is coming around too. I also feel like Vista is a lot more stable and responsive than XP and shit like rolling back to a previous restore point actually works. Better UI. IIS7 rapes IIS6 in every way. Awesome new Performance Monitor. Etc. Been running it both at home and work since it came out.

Right now it sits in my basement... But when I finish it off it will run music, navigation, video, games, web, and whatever else on a touchscreen lcd. Just need to find some fabric and a piece of particle board.

[Deathshroud]

I'm surprised to find somebody who's happy with Vista - especially here.

What does your car PC do, out of curiosity?

Disable UAC = No more trouble in Vista. The thing I love the most about it is that it put a lot of pressure on device manufacturers to start releasing 64-bit drivers and 64-bit software is coming around too. I also feel like Vista is a lot more stable and responsive than XP and shit like rolling back to a previous restore point actually works. Better UI. IIS7 rapes IIS6 in every way. Awesome new Performance Monitor. Etc. Been running it both at home and work since it came out.

Right now it sits in my basement... But when I finish it off it will run music, navigation, video, games, web, and whatever else on a touchscreen lcd. Just need to find some fabric and a piece of particle board.

I'm going to have to agree with Bitwise here. At launch, Vista was an unstable piece of shit. Two service packs later it is doing MUCH better, and can hold its own against XP performance-wise.

[MKJ]

they should get rid of IE8 asap and continue their work on IE7.
since, yknow.. IE7 can actually function on the web like other major browsers and doesnt fuck everything up

[Whiskey 7]

I'm still happy with vista so I'll be running it until I get the rtm build. I have two machines to backup and reformat which will not be fun. My car pc runs win7 but I don't do anything windowsy on it.

I'm surprised to find somebody who's happy with Vista - especially here.

I am reasonably happy with vista. I've encountered what I'd call minor bugs (and yes perhaps I shouldn't have)

btw I downloaded both the 32 and 64 bit W7 but didn't go so far as to install on my (only) PC

From what I've heard I'll be updating sorry should read upgrading to W7 when we see it 4 sale