Windows 7, an OS X and Linux killer?

[Suprjacob]

There is a sale for Windows 7 pre-orders at major online retailers such as NewEgg. $100 for a Win 7 Professional Upgrade copy

[bonfilio]

7 is a Vista killer.. that's about it.

[Alessandro17]

There is a sale for Windows 7 pre-orders at major online retailers such as NewEgg. $100 for a Win 7 Professional Upgrade copy

 

I paid £100 for a Win 7 Professional FULL copy (Amazon.co.uk)

But you can't buy an upgrade in Europe. OTOH £100 is a lot more than $100.

[Ranguvar]

I like Win7. Overall, I like it better than OS X. It'll replace WinXP as what I use in a VM and dual-boot for some stubborn games that don't work in Wine (yet).

 

But I will never go back to using a non-Unix-like OS for my main system. Cygwin and MSYS can't make up for this. I have been absorbed too far into the shell (Terminal for you OSX peeps), and MS's PowerShell is too little too late.

 

 

I'll be keeping my current/planned setup, with Arch GNU/Linux as my main OS, Hackintosh in a VM for messing around with, and Windows 7 x64 Ultimate on another hard drive and in a VM (VM uses the raw hard disk). Other OSen that might eventually find their way onto my PC permanently are FreeBSD and Linux from Scratch (my own extremely sucky distro as it develops from copied LFS install directions into its own thing... or not).

[Neilis]

I've got Windows 7 on my Windows desktop, and truthfully - my opinion is MEH.

 

Now the thing is still not released yet so it may be unfair to judge a release candidate, but to me it looks like a dressed up Vista, and not even in a good way. The way they implemented the new taskbar just feels clunky on a Windows system. The search is now atrocious - by default (and it's a default that I had to search for the better part of an hour on how to change it) it only searches indexed locations. There is no advanced dialog like in Vista to just search non-indexed as an option. My system also has had serious problems with it. For instance the .NET Runtime Optimizer service was getting tangled up with something and was normally eating 90-95% of the system RAM, making the system nearly unuseable. I finally disabled that service and it's came back under control, but it was aggravating until I tracked down the issue.

 

IF they'd finally gotten WinFS working then I'd probably change my mind, but they haven't (really, I think a database/metadata-driven filesystem is the next big thing waiting to happen - I see lots of possibilities with it).

 

Truthfully, I view it as a minor step DOWN from Vista (which in turn I viewed as a minor step down from XP). For people who like Windows, it's more Windows. For most people who like OS X or Linux, it doesn't really offer anything new.

 

Naturally it has it's strengths too - namely the GUI is snappier than Linux's and playing back media/video files I've always found to be fastest and most convenient on a Windows system (VLC on Mac is good, but still doesn't compare to Media Player Classic on Windows).

 

Still though, after a month or two of fiddling with Windows 7 I'm back to mostly using my Hackintosh for my day to day tasks. When Linux improves it's GUI speed (DirectFB shows promise there) and gets iTunes (hey I can dream) then I'd likely look at switching to it instead.

 

PS: Not sure how many developers we have here, but the new Visual Studio 2010 (that is sort of a companion piece to Windows 7, given that most software for 7 will be developed with it) is TERRIBLE. Not from a UI design standpoint - there it actually shines, but they tried to redo their interface in Silverlight or something and it's just gotten so slow, buggy, and clunky that I can barely use it. I was playing around with 1 C# project just to test the waters a bit and after 3 weeks of working on it i eventually abandoned the whole project to avoid the pain of the development environment. Not being much of a fan of Xcode, I'm actually now just looking into using Simultron + wxWidgets on my Mac to try out some cross-platform development.

[vbetts]

7 is great, but right now it's hit and miss with performance in games, and other programs. It's about at Vistas level of performance right now(Which is really good considering it's just the launch of the OS), but it has so much more room for improvement compared to Vista. I don't doubt that Vista will get better than what it is now, but it'll never be as good as 7 is if 7 is done right. Which so far, it's great.

 

Would I call it an Os X and linux killer? No. Think of it like this.

 

The majority of people really looking forward to Windows 7 besides business, are gamers. I love Mac, and like to mess around in Linux, but how many games are released the same time as a PC game? Or released at all? People who look at 7 are not the same as people who look at Os X, or Linux. so, it's really not fair to compare them really. I can conclude it with this though.

 

They both have their strong points and weak points. With 7 RC being available for free until 2010(I could be wrong on this), this could be a top free distro people would look at seeing that windows is the most commonly used OS. Mac, yes there are a lot of osx86 boxes out there, but much compared to windows and PC. And a lot of people don't have money for a decent Mac. For Linux, face it. Not a lot of people use linux, know about linux, or aren't smart enough for Linux.

[aduffbrew]

7 is great, but right now ... but it has so much more room for improvement compared to Vista. I don't doubt that Vista will get better than what it is now, but it'll never be as good as 7 is if 7 is done right. Which so far, it's great.

I totally agree. Both OS X and Linux could use a strong Redmond contender to spur on innovation.

 

With 7 RC being available for free until 2010(I could be wrong on this), this could be a top free distro people would look at seeing that windows is the most commonly used OS.

I think Microsoft has finally hit on a brilliant strategy. Instead of telling people Windows 7 is better... SHOW them. I can't help but think this LONG "beta" release is Microsoft's way of saying "God, we're sorry! Give us another chance! PLEASE!"

 

It's certainly still Windows.. the same general clunky interface everyone knows and loves... just a little bit "better." My MacBook certainly doesn't freak out and try to levitate itself off my desk by revving the fan speeds up to 7,000,000 RPM as it does with Vista. Like Windows XP, I believe this version of Windows will gain a wide endorsement from consumer and corporate advocates alike.

 

With Redmond finally gaining some ground, I look forward to Cupertino kicking it into high gear once again!

[Hacktop]

Windows 7 is a good upgrade, but i like Snow Leopard more!

Please don't compare Windows 7 with Leopard but with Snow Leopard, that's fair.

Snow Leopard is a good operating system that boot up in 12 seconds, Windows 7 x32 Home Premium is 20 and is a SSD killer, it use more of the SSD than Snow Leopard.

SL doesn't use my SSD almost.

In Windows 7 you have Drive letters and that's worse worse worse, if you bought an new External HDD you can change all drive letters or the programs on your first external HDD doesn't work any more.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard doesn't use that ever.

Also SL is full 64 bit and 120 bucks, new full.

W7 Ultimate 219!!!!

Now an other important thing:

Backup.

Windows 7 have a Simple backup utility that almost won't work, but SL have Time Machine, and thats the best you can get.

 

Windows 7 need's a Virus Scanner, SL not!

SL works faster relaxer and it works fast for u, stacks dock, perfect network, better control pannel, and more.

 

So i say:

 

Snow Leopard, u win.

[Snerler]

Eh i dont find stacks useful at all, and I think Explorer is much better than finer. I do like the OS X control panel more.