Windows 7

[deadscion]

According to Cnet, Windows 7 is nicer to use then Windows Vista, but does not perform better than Windows XP.
Their final opinion was it may be awhile before Windows XP users consider giving up their comfort zone for something new.
I was wondering what your opinion was?
Does anyone actually use it yet? maybe Total Cereal's Mikey? HEY Mikey!!
 
 

[Major_Tom]

maybe Total Cereal's Mikey? HEY Mikey!!


wasn't total...I thought it was LIFE.

I use it. It works well.

[deadscion]

Ah Yes! You are right of course. It was a Life Cereal advert. That was a long time ago heh.

[DeathMaster2003]

I have been running the RC for a long time and it has run great for me. i haven't had any crashes lockups or BSOD's LOL. on the same machine i had vista installed and at the end of 2 months of being installed my pc would not boot and this was retail vista. i have found that windows 7 is as stable as xp (beta version) i will be installing retail this month and i am hoping it is as stable as the RC version LOL. Games run great proggys running great i only have one problem with windows 7 and it came over from vista is sound card (X-FI) support which is getting better as drivers mature and windows is starting to be more flexable about protecting sound and stuff like freedom to do what we want with files.

the crazy thing is windows 8 is buzzing on the block all ready. I am just now installing windows 7!! WTF. Got to love the 3 year life windows life cycle. i am really happy with windows xp and how long it has stayed around and still as life left in it but it is nice to have a new OS that works as good as windows 7. my main pc/gaming rig is running windows 7 and i have a netbook and a laptop running xp. my kids got my old pc and it is running xp as well.

[OvermindDL1]

I am still running XP primarily, see no reason to update yet.

[Bryal]

I currently use Windows 7 Professional, and I have been very impressed with it.  For me at least, it boots faster than XP did, and handles any new hardware it finds with ease.  It has also been pleasant to look at with the Aero interface.  It does take some getting used to, but it wasn't hard adapting to it.

XP is fine, but it's getting outdated pretty fast.  It won't go away anytime soon, though.  I saw an article which stated that support for XP will continue into 2012 or so.  So, if you plan on sticking with XP, you're in luck (for a few more years, at least ).

[deadscion]

I have been playing around with my son's new computer, an Emachines EL1333g if you need to see the specs. It is a lowend next-gen 64 bit single core computer sold by Wal Mart with Windows 7 Home Edition.
     This stuff used a file security system similar to a Linux OS, where the user is never logged in admin mode. Infact most Nix' OS authors seriously recommend disconnection from any internet source completely before ever logging in as admin.
     This Windows 7 OS is strictly a one User OS. Added user accounts must tolerate admin set screen resolution, and icons created by admin account software installs. Win XP allows users their own independent desktop settings( a minus for win7).
    Also a user can not activate any kind of installing software without admin permission(a partial plus for win7).
    This file security was not written with old software in mind like Battlezone II. The users accounts folder gets cut off from a non admin user. One work around to this I found was to login on a non admin account, copy the entire BZ2 folder to the desktop and create new shortcut from Bzone.exe to the desktop for commandline options. This also means any mods installed need to be in zip format to be installed by the non admin user.
     I am sure there are other work arounds for the non admin user, however I have found out even admin has to do this to get BZ2 to function right.
      What about compatiblity mode? you ask, My experiments with compatibility mode( accessable through the shortcut properties) is no more reliable in Windows 7 then it was in Windows XP. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not depending on the software used.
      I do not see any performance improvement over Windows XP in this OS. My last computer has the same CPU speed but this computer CPU is 64 bit so most operations will be faster for this reason and not because it uses Windows 7.
Increased hardware compatibility?, I can still add more drivers to winXP for the same results(a minus for Win7).
      If this were my computer running Windows 7 I would find a way to modify the the file security for a bit more freedom and compatility with old software at laest with one login accont). Any mod would have to maintain good internet security.
    To summerize, If the 64 bit version of Windows XP works reliable enough, I would just as soon try it first insread of spending( or wasting ) money on an OS with few improvements.   

[SaderBiscut]

I believe/have been told it better utilizes multi-core processors, opposed to XP.  I am inclined to believe this.  I have it on my machines, and I like it, but I wouldn't really recommend for anything that doesn't have a dual-core processor.  Although, It seems to run well enough on my older Pentium-M 1.7GHz.

By this point x64 support is highly fleshed out, I'm not sure how it compares to XP x64, but I've almost exclusively been using 7 x64 and the only problem I've seen with it is some legacy hardware that never received 64-bit drivers, however the vast majority of everything has 64-bit support, and the only thing I haven't seen with it is my Lego Infrared tower.   I'm sure there's some other random peripherals out there that also lack driver support, but there's not much to be done for it.  x64 will not be faster (or slower) in the majority of applications, it won't run 32-bit applications any faster and unless you are utilizing a really heavy 64-bit application, speed increases should be negligible at best.  The primary advantage to it is the higher memory ceiling, in practice 32-bit systems can only utilize around 3.5 GB of memory, a point we're already passing.

In general, there's not much of a reason to use 7 x32 unless you have specific needs or only have a x32 processor.

As Bryal mentioned, it has better hardware support.  It is very fast about detecting new hardware and will almost always identify and install anything you add in the background in a highly automated fashion.  While this isn't so meaningful for people who are used to dealing with drivers and installing their own, it's a lot easier for people who do not have this skill-set.

You can disable UAC, which will turn off the restricted folder problems.  This will in effect be the same as running in root however, something you may want to consider.  You can run specific applications in administrator mode if you know the password, or you can relocate programs to directories you can write too. 

Windows XP x64 isn't any cheaper than Windows 7.  I'd argue for most cases upgrading to Windows 7 on older computers is pointless, but I advocate it for new computers.