It's Windows 7 Day!

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Just wondering how many of you are moving to the retail release of windows 7 today or in the next few weeks. I have been running the Beta and the RC since January and have had 0 issues. Even though I bought two copies of the retail box version when Microsoft was offering them for 50 each, I probably won't install the full retail for a few more days. The RC is just too stable to mess with.

[LightingPenguin]

And on this day, October 22nd 2009, the heavens opened up and down came WINDOWS 7 *angels sing*

I'm bought my copy today, and it runs just as stable as the RC. This is an amazing piece of technology, and Microsoft deserves major credit for it.

[KeepOnTruckin]

Windows XP is a major piece of technology. It is compatible with everything and takes much less system resources. Also you don't have to have a great computer to run it.

[LightingPenguin]

True, you dont need a great computer to run it. Because its 9 years old.
The minimum requirements for windows XP were:
a 233mhz processor, 64mb of ram, and 1.5gb of HDD space.

I'd like to point out, that now a days, the cheapest of computers run AT LEAST a 1 ghz processor, 512mb of ram minimum, and atleast 80+gb of HDD space. When you take that into consideration, any computer built within the last 4-5 years can most likely run Windows 7.

I'm not denying that windows XP was, and still is an amazing piece of technology. However I'm saying that Windows 7 is within the reach of many, many systems and is extremely stable. If you're computer is too old to run Windows 7, at some point you're no longer going to be able to do what society does on computers

When it gets to that point you should not be trying to complain about how Windows 7 does not run on a system that ran Windows XP extremely well, considering Windows XP is 8 years old. Standards change.

[Clifford]

Also remember that the development of Windows 7 began before Vista, so the step up to new hardware is not a new idea. (Which also means no, 7 is not a rewritten Vista kernel as some seem to believe) Eventually we were going to upgrade anyway. If we all said "But it's stable and compatible with everything, why change it?" we'd all still be running OS's with command line interfaces on 4-bit microcontrollers and 32 kilobytes of RAM.

[LightingPenguin]

DOS FTW

(CB Says I have to have a 10 character minimum for my post, so here it is CB. Enjoy it)

[SHARYNF]

My family has been on the leading edge of computer tech since 1965, ( IBM 7090) and having used MS products since the 80's and the golden rule is NEVER EVER put a MS OS on a production system until SP1. The early adaptors running the actual retail or ML version are the true beta testers. If you go back and search you will find the same comments "it works great, no problems" with XP ME Vista and it will be the same with Windows7. Even if MS did a perfect job and it is IMPOSSIBLE to fully test any system of this level of complexity, the next issue becomes all the third parties.

XP with SP2 or 3 is still a far more stable and proven system at this point in time

That said I really do appreciate all you early adoptors out there, it will make Windows7 SP1 come out all that much sooner ;-))))

Sharyn

[chrispo86]

I've been using the final release of Windows 7 Professional both 32bit and 64bit for a couple months now (it was made available early through both my college's and the IEEE (engineering association) Microsoft Academic Alliance website (which I loveee by the way, all sorts of MS freebies, such as, Win 7 Pro)). It runs really well, no major issues with it, except that my printer didn't show up in the devices/printers folder, but frankly I blame HP on that one (I've had many many problems with the HP drivers for this printer. I have some other grudges against HP, but I don't want to get started down that road right now...)

Anyway, yeah, runs really well. I like it better than Vista. Microsoft finally decided to pick up some of the slack.

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Originally Posted by SHARYNF

My family has been on the leading edge of computer tech since 1965, ( IBM 7090) and having used MS products since the 80's and the golden rule is NEVER EVER put a MS OS on a production system until SP1. The early adaptors running the actual retail or ML version are the true beta testers. If you go back and search you will find the same comments "it works great, no problems" with XP ME Vista and it will be the same with Windows7. Even if MS did a perfect job and it is IMPOSSIBLE to fully test any system of this level of complexity, the next issue becomes all the third parties.

XP with SP2 or 3 is still a far more stable and proven system at this point in time

That said I really do appreciate all you early adoptors out there, it will make Windows7 SP1 come out all that much sooner ;-))))

Sharyn

I used to follow that as well. Simply put though, windows 7 breaks that rule. Every single program I have thrown at it works. All of my lighting and drafting apps work great. I have had zero hardware issues.

And to the hardware thing...

I have installed windows 7 on my wifes 4 year old laptop, my Dell D600 (which came out in 2003 and is still stock), my EEE 900, my home built desktop, and my 1 year old Asus Laptop. All of those computers minus the Asus were all built to run XP. All of them run windows 7 flawlessly. I don't have aero running on the D600, but it still runs great. With Vista you did need pretty up to date hardware, with windows 7, if your not running a Pentium 1, give it a run.

Once again... I have had zero issues with it and I have it running on 6 or 7 machines. It works great.

[Clifford]

Windows 7 was always planned as the replacement for XP. Given the success of XP (it's still going strong after 9 years, an eternity in technology), Microsoft knew they had to at least match it in performance and reliability. They managed to accomplish this, as well as greatly updating the user interface and adding new features.

To address hardware, remember 7 was designed to replace XP. Even Microsoft didn't expect hundreds of millions of people to go out and buy new hardware. They even included a program that will automatically upgrade you to 7 without altering your personal data beyond restructuring the file system.

Vista did a terrible job at this and at it's use of resources. I propose we think of Vista like Windows ME, and forget it ever happened.