7 Beta on R61e

[asiafish]

Well, the new beta of Windows 7 installed without a hitch on my R61e. I don't have the buttons for volume working and have no idea if active protection is installed, but sound works, video is fine and I have wireless. The sleep and hibernate buttons work as do the screen brightness, but no FN-F5.

I am running the 32 bit version of 7 on the Celeron 540 with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive. It is fast and stable, though admitedly I've only used it for a day. Some things look nicer than Vista, especially the little touches. For example, the clock on the system tray is two lines, with the time on top and the date underneath. I REALLY like this. I also rather like the taskbar, though my exposure to it is limited. It looks a bit like the dock in OS X, but has a clearer representation that an application is actually running and retains the start button. If you don't like the clock or the fatter look, there is an option for small icons that makes the new taskbar look much like the old one. I like the clock, but not the large icons, so I keep switching back and forth.

That brings me to what I don't like, which is the start menu. I was never a fan of the new style start menus introduced first on XP and then changed even more in Vista. In XP the first thing I do is disable "Visual Styles" and set "Windows Classic" as the theme and use the "Classic" start menu. Ditto for Vista, with the added step of turning off the gadgets. With Windows 7 I can do all of the those, EXCEPT FOR THE START MENU. As someone who likes the old Windows 2000 interface best, I am disappointed that 7 doesn't allow me to duplicate it. Of course, OS X won't allow me to duplicate OS 9, though honestly I wouldn't want to.

I will probably play wiht this for a week and then go back to Vista. Not for any performance reason as Vista (64 bit business) and 7 both run just fine on this R61e, but rather because I don't want trust my data to a beta OS. This is for testing only, mainly to see how well it interacts with my Small Business Server 2003 (especially Exchange 2003) and how compatible it is on my mixed Windows 2003, Windows Vista and Mac OS X network. After testing the 32 bit version I will do a quicker test of the 64 bit just to verify compatibility. Of course I will report any glitches I find to Microsoft, which is their reason for letting me play with their new software, and am eager to move at least my R61e to the production version of Windows 7 when it is released, hopefully a 64 bit business version.

I am not one of those XP holdouts and have moved completely away from that OS except for playing older games, and that is in a virtual machine on my Mac. Vista, at least SP1, is so close to XP in speed on my computer that I see no reason to give up Vista's improved security model. Furthermore, Vista has, again since SP1, been very stable and enjoyable to use. Until Microsoft released Office 2008 Mac with better Exchange support, in fact, Vista (pre SP1) was my primary OS. I moved to OS X because it requires less of my time to support, as I only make money doing legal work, not supporting my employees' computers. Windows 7 may just allow me to offer my employees a choice at their next upgrade.

[jdhurst]

<snip? With Windows 7 I can do all of the those, EXCEPT FOR THE START MENU. As someone who likes the old Windows 2000 interface best, I am disappointed that 7 doesn't allow me to duplicate it. <snip>

So there is no more Windows Classic? Do I read your post correctly? This is a serious issue for me. The newer interfaces of any OS (MAC, Windows and Linux) are all counterproductive for me. They slow me down - seriously slow me down. I don't like clicking several times where one click will do the trick in a Classic interface.

I no longer have a Windows 95 machine, but that was the foundation machine for everything to come. All my machines (virtual except for XP and Vista) - Windows 98, Windows NT4 Workstation, Windows 2000, Windows XP and now Windows Vista all look exactly and precisely the same. Right down to the right hand Office Shortcut bar still here in my Vista box. No wallpaper of any kind, no themes, nothing. Just a solid, easy to use, productive work machine that is fast and slick.

I will really miss Windows Classic. Perhaps I can make Windows 7 produce a Classic look, just like I forced Vista to look and feel like all my prior machines.
... JDH

[asiafish]

Most of classic is there, only the start menu lost the classic option.

[agarza]

Wish the RTM version incorporates the Classic Menu.

[asiafish]

Yup, me too. Windows 2000 was the high-water mark, in my opinion. For its day, it was smooth, fast and intuitive. Too bad modern apps won't run on it.

[agarza]

I remember just when Windows 2000 was about to be released I tested some of the beta builds because I was waiting eagerly for that OS.
In Vista I did the same but was turned-off because it was a lag-OS.
Now on 7 I'm testing it and looking forward to keep using it. Now that my XP install is corrupt (installed 7 over the same partition as XP) I'm keeping it. Hope this OS turn out to be the next best OS from MS.
My T61 CPU fan turn off more seldom. Seems XP is becoming a real old OS now that 7 would have native support to be optimized using SSD drives.

[asiafish]

Windows 2000 was, in my opinion, a much bigger deal than 7 is today. Before Windows 2000 you had two choices, either NT4 which lacked support for USB and plug-and-play, or Windows 98 which was, to be polite, DOS-based garbage. I moved to Windows 2000 the day it was released and never looked back at 98 or NT4.

Windows 7, however, is just Vista refined. It is nice, it is improved, but it is not a radical change. I look at Windows 7 much the same as I looked at XP back when it was new. XP was an improvement over Windows 2000 in many ways, but until about 3-years-ago both were quite usable for just about everything. I used iTunes on Windows 2000 as well as the latest version of Microsoft Office, but the today's iTunes and Office won't install on Windows 2000, and that is the only reason why I no longer use that OS.

I used XP until Vista stabilized around the release of SP1, but now I no longer bother with XP at all, and use Vista on all of my PCs, including my MacBook Pro laptop and Mac Pro desktop. The MacBook Pro allows me to use OS X for business, which my law firm is standardized on, and Vista for gaming, which I do more than a fair amount of. Vista is fast, stable and quite pleasant. 7 will be an improvement, but I'll probably wait a while, for strictly financial reasons, as Vista is serving my needs well.