Reasons to skip Microsoft’s Windows 7 Beta download

[RealBlackStuff]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=11410&tag=nl.e540

[mgo]

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=11410&tag=nl.e540

Sure, I can see the author's points, but I made the decision to dedicate a T60 spare hard drive to a Windows 7 "experiment", and that is what is running as I write this post.

Trying out different things is part of the computer fun for me. By the way, Windows 7 runs just great on this machine. It is faster booting, Sleep and Hibernate is very fast (finally!) and cold boot takes less than a minute without those irritating delays while services continue to load. Copy and Paste within Windows Explorer is now faster than a rocket, too.

My main complaint is a visual one: I hate the "Flaming Balls of Death" at boot up. Using MSCONFIG gets rid of that animation at boot up, but I can't ditch that animation coming out of Hibernate. (:(

I swear Microsoft has a whole division dedicated to just annoying users with awful animations and graphics!

[CRAZYBUBBA]

There's something to be said for the sheer excitement of using a new operating system. Of course, I'll be keeping my original hard drive in a very safe place.

[Temetka]

This guy bugs the heck out of me.

1. Of course XP drivers won't function properly. They were designed for XP not Windows 7.

2. If you have to repeatedly mention how hardcore of a Mac user you are, you aren't really that hard core.

3. He freely admits that Vista was driving him up the wall, but wants to try Win 7 on his laptop. Hello McFly! You can't be posting hate about an OS and then wishing it well at the same time.

As a 'Mac Guy' myself I hate when people call themselves that. I work on and use multiple platforms on a daily basis. This makes me a computer user. I have had other titles such as SysOp, Net Admin, and so on. However I have never once dissed a beta OS I don't even have the balls to try myself.

This guy became a credible source how?

[puma]

so basically he didnt know [censored] about computers and resorted to using a mac and now is a mac man. and I need to take advice from this (removed) why?


mod edit: offensive word removed.

[Marin85]

so basically he didnt know *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** about computers and resorted to using a mac and now is a mac man. and I need to take advice from this (removed) why?

I admit the article is bad, but calling a man a (removed) just because of some stupid things he may have said (at least you have to agree that is the way the author sees things) is a bit over the top, don´t ya think?


mod edit: offensive words removed.

[puma]

you are right maybe i was a little too harsh, but you have to get sick of these mac fanboys. because he was frusterated by Vista and went fisher price to accomodate his skill set, everyone does too? to go as far as to tell people not to try something?

[Marin85]

I just try to not pay attention to such things. Just ignore it if you don´t like it (that means if you are not a MacBoy ). There are so many articles of that kind floating in the web that one could get headache if always paying attention to everything said there...

[Temetka]

you are right maybe i was a little too harsh, but you have to get sick of these mac fanboys. because he was frusterated by Vista and went fisher price to accomodate his skill set, everyone does too? to go as far as to tell people not to try something?

I hate to say this but your response sounds like a typical windows zealot as well. The best way to counter fanboy-ism (for any platform) is to respond with with educated answers and solutions to user problems. Simply calling OS X fisher price is more insulting to you than it is to Apple.

Just a thought.

[puma]

Well whatever man, I am not writing articles telling people not even to bother with downloading Apple's new software based on my nil experience with Apple products am I? (Even though i have an extensive background with Apple computers, call me an educated windows zealot if you like)

[asiafish]

you are right maybe i was a little too harsh, but you have to get sick of these mac fanboys. because he was frusterated by Vista and went fisher price to accomodate his skill set, everyone does too? to go as far as to tell people not to try something?

I get sick of people who equate Mac with Fisher Price and think that only Windows or Linux are real operating systems. I use both Vista (business 64) and OS X on a daily basis and am equally comfortable in either system. There are aspects of each that I really like, and aspects of each that annoy the hell out of me. I've been a Windows user since 1986, a Mac user since 1993, and if forced to use only one, I would be equally productive on either.

All that said, I prefer the Mac. Its not about being easier, or prettier. The reason is that OS X and the applications I use are more stable and more convenient than Windows Vista or XP. If Windows 7 is enough of an improvement to make it more stable and convenient than OS X, then I will use 7 as my primary OS.

What is more convenient about OS X? The big one for me is fast and reliable sleep mode. Apple has had sleep mode (suspend to RAM) working well since at least the System 7 days when I bought my first one. Every Mac I've ever owned (6 or 7, not sure), including desktops, has always entered sleep mode in a matter of seconds, and more importantly, wakes fully in a matter of seconds AND WITHOUT ERROR.

Standbye (suspend to RAM) in Windows never worked well for me, and while Hibernate (suspend to disk) is reliable, it is slow on machines that have a lot of RAM. Both Apple in Leopard and Microsoft in Vista moved to what MS calls Hybrid Sleep, which wakes quickly like Standbye, but also has a disk save it can resort to like Hibernate. Unfortunately, I've still had reliability issues on resume in Vista, both 32 and 64 bit versions, as both factory and clean installs, on Macs using Boot Camp and on ThinkPads. In short, on a Windows system, I just don't ever rely on suspend to RAM and thus am saddled with the slower Hibernate and resume times of suspend to disk. On Macs, I never wait more than a second or three for resume, never have errors when I do, and its been that way for the last 16 years.

As far as skill set, there is nothing Fisher Price about OS X. Ever heard of BSD? Well, OS X is BSD, complete with a terminal, command line, all of those powerful *nix programs and even X11. Yes, OS X has a simple GUI that is easy to use, but so does Windows Vista. If anything, OS X probably has more "geek cred" than Vista does, but both are powerful systems that a user can customize as much or as little as desired.

[puma]

it is fisher price.. ever hear the music in the background of those mac commercials? its baby music for gods sake.. terminal?? what percentage of mac users know what the hell terminal or BSD is?
No errors? well when you have an OS installed on hardware solely designed for it's purpose.. well you know tends to have less issues where as linux and Windows are installed on a wide array of machines by a world of different vendors.. apple well its JUST apple and you are pretty much stuck with whatever they say. I love how mac use is sometimes associated with open source and that whole arena when really there couldnt be a bigger enemy to open source.. apple is like the anti-open source.. but wait everyone is supposed to hate microsoft .. why?
think different? yea ok.. maybe 10 years ago... again no disrespect but there is a reason for the fisher price association.. its cause people want something no hassle thats gonna work.. no one is buying mac for terminal or BSD heritage.

[Marin85]

Guys, per forum rules no OS discussions whatsoever The Big Brother is watching us and we certainly don´t want this thread locked

[jdhurst]

That - and people need to use the OS that fits them best. Leave it at that. ... JDH

[puma]

I agree.
Peace!

[puma]

Yea well when you RUN the business world you can't just say all you guys out there who invested all this money f u we're starting over...

i have had a t21, t42, t60, t61.. few before that too.. all slept like babies, this one i have now has not been shut down for 2.5 weeks and the last restart was from an update. Sorry your having so many sleep issues.

[asiafish]

I have no sleep issues because I use OS X. I have no sleep issues on Vista because I just don't use suspend to ram and use suspend to disk instead. It is slower, but it works.

As far as catering to businesses and their old software, that isn't my problem and I am not to compromise my user experience to accommodate someone else's troubles. The lack of backward compatibility is an Apple disadvantage for those concerned with such things. Personally, I keep modern in my software, and have no ancient machines or applications that I need to continue supporting. I also don't have the benefit at my small business (4 people) to justify the cost of an IT person, and so I end up taking care of everybody's computers. That is a much easier task with the office running OS X.

Will Windows 7 change that? Perhaps. I am very intrigued by the apparent ability of 7 to repair boot problems automatically, without reaching for the install DVD and without requiring any arcane knowledge. The point isn't making something look nice, the point is making something that I don't have to look at as often. The last thing I want to do is fix an employee's computer problem as computer support is not my business and I make absolutely no money when engaged in that activity.

[Marin85]

I have never ever had a single issue with suspend to RAM under Vista. I don´t know what is causing your problems.

[asiafish]

Luck, Karma, who knows? I've never had suspend to RAM work reliably on any Windows OS, all the way back to Windows 98 when I first had the feature available to me. I've had numerous ThinkPads, Toshibas and more recently Apples running Windows and through early releases of Vista the results with suspend to ram were always flakey. Sometimes it worked like a champ, sometimes it just refused to wake up.

Honestly I haven't revisited suspend to RAM on Vista since SP1 or on XP since SP3 as I had already moved my primary machine to OS X at that point. I've currently got 7 running on my R61e and have suspended to ram four times and it worked fine. Has Microsoft made suspend to ram mission-critical reliable yet? I honestly don't know. Apple's has been mission-critical relliable for at least the 16 years I've had Macs. Windows suspend to disk has been perfect since Windows 2000, and I actually prefer the way Windows gives the user the option of which one to use, while Apple is always suspend to ram on older machines, and always hybrid sleep on newer ones, absent tinkering in the terminal.

Sleep wasn't my only issue and wasn't my only reason for switching, it was just an example. Switching isn't the right term either, as I have always used both platforms and have no plan to phase one or the other out. The change is moving from Windows to OS X as my main user OS in the office. Perhaps 7 will be good enough to allow me to let my users decide, but only if it doesn't increase the time I have to devote to computer maintenance and support.

[Temetka]

Just to be clear:

I wasn't calling any member of the forum a windows zealot.

Carry on with the OS wars gentlemen.

I myself am comfortable in any OS and equally productive in windows or os x.