Windows 7
Macs never interested me all that much. Personally, I think that Macs are terribly overrated. Maybe I feel that way because I started on Windows? Maybe. Regardless of the reason, I just do not find Macs intuitive, appealing, or so life-altering enough to switch from my Windows PC based platforms. I’ll be a Windows guy until technology outgrows our present work environment completely. I know that without doubt the company I keep will call me a technology heretic, but I have to be completely honest! I love Windows; I hate Macs. There, I confessed. Forgive me, my friends!
Windows 7 was released today. I’m intrigued. It looks as though Microsoft incorporated a bunch of small, detail oriented changes into Windows in an attempt to make it more user intuitive and friendly. It looks great so far, if the Windows 7 Video Tour is a accurate indication. What worries me the most is the installation or upgrade procedure. I’m also worried about breaking peripherals, such as my printer, external drives, network router, games, programs, phone, etc. So, before I take the dive and go purchase and install Windows 7, I’d very much like to hear from those who have already done so.
Have you purchased and installed Windows 7? How was the upgrade procedure? Did you upgrade from Vista? Did the upgrade to Windows 7 break any of your peripherals? Does your phone or printer still work properly on Windows 7, for example? Are you glad you upgraded?
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I know I’m not going to answer any of the questions you asked, but here is my experience:
I grew up with PC’s/Windows all of my life. And every time I got on a Mac, I found myself frustrated beyond compare. I was the same as you; I hated Macs, and told everyone who said otherwise that my Dell was doing just fine.
But this summer, after the 15th-ish Blue Screen I’ve experienced on my Dell, I decided to take a dive.
So I bought a Mac. And I’ll never invest in another PC. Ever. PC’s have a lifespan of like.. two years, before glitches, spyware, malware, viruses, technical difficulties.. I promise you, if you ever buy a Mac, and force yourself to get used to it, your mind will change. Quickly.
As another PC fan, I’m excited about it. I’m getting a new laptop with Windows 7 preloaded (hopefully arriving tomorrow…), so I won’t have to deal with upgrade issues.
I had played with the Beta and RC a few months ago. Win7 is overall much nicer than Vista. It might even be better than XP. I’m thinking of getting it to upgrade my wife’s laptop from XP/Tablet. I have a copy of Vista on a dual-boot computer somewhere which I’ll probably upgrade as well. The big difficulty will be with the 64bit switch as Win7 defaults to 64bit if you have a suitable processor (and chances are, you do) and some programs still haven’t made the switch (Adobe Flash player is one that comes to mind)…and the 32-bit emulation is buggy at times.
@Kenton: I hear you. I just don’t ever foresee myself switching over to macs. I have had my fiar share of issues with Windows, but nothing has ever been so monumental that I would dump it and start over with Macs.
@Julie: Congrats on the new laptop! may it produce much enlightened writing from you!!! :)
@Christopher: If it’s better than XP then I’m sold and will deal with the peripheral upgrade issues.
I’ve been running the release candidate for a few months now, and I think I’m pretty much sold on it now. I’ve swapped drives in laptops running the win7 RC, and it picked up ALL of the hardware on the laptops on its own. Those laptops have since been reformatted with their intial OSes and sold off, but I’m still running the RC on my home PC, with little to no issues…
…Aside from the fact that every now and again, it tells me I don’t have permission to modify a file, even though I’m system admin. Stupid security.
Also, @Kenton, in the nicest way possible, most, if not all of the PC issues you’ve listed can be boiled down to user error. I’m not blaming this on you, or attempting to insult your intelligence, as there are alot of people aren’t familiar with windows enough to use it effectivley. Windows, being feature laden and incredibly open to user configuration, is also open to more malicious attacks than something that’s locked down tight, like a mac. To the average user, I’m sure macs work great, but for someone on the tech end of things, using a mac is like bringing a nerf bat to a baseball game.
Additionally (I say this after a full day at work on Win7 now that it’s released), I am a bit disturbed by Win7’s (and I just checked this and its on Vista as well) poor execution of keyboard internationalisation. I have a US keyboard and machine but I live in the UK and type in multiple languages. It’s always easier for me to use the US-International layout (basically it just changes the right alt key to AltGr and gives access to alternate keys by using AltGr + key, so that ß is AltGr + s, § is AltGr + Shift + s, and £ is AltGr + Shift + 4 [same key as $]). However, Win7 doesn’t handle split keys (the ‘/” key in particular) when there is AltGr defined. Every single time I need to type an actual quotation mark (e.g. “and then”, it would treat the key as if AltGr was pressed, resulting in änd then”). I don’t have that problem in Linux (KDE, Gnome, or even the stinkin’ console!).
However, with very few exceptions, people can really be OS-agnostic and live a regular life (or put enough portable apps on a USB stick to simulate their computer from wherever).