Windows 7: Open Thread
October 15th, 2009There’s nothing worse than this OS vs. that OS threads, but people are asking me about Windows 7.
I’ll be very brief, so my head doesn’t explode:
Would I pay to upgrade my Windows XP box to Windows 7? No way.
Would I avoid Windows 7 like the plague/Vista? No.
If I was buying a new computer, would I get Windows XP or Windows 7?
This one is very subjective. If you want a modern looking GUI, maybe Windows 7 is for you. For me, I’d stick with XP. All of my software works 100% of the time. The thing is rock solid and fast. The end.
Besides, I run very demanding financial analysis software that needs to be reliable in real time trading environments. While I could use virtualized XP on Windows 7, why bother since I have everything running fine under native XP?
Re: Macs: I like Macs.* I’ve used them, off and on, since 1984. I’ve always accommodated the handful of Mac users who wanted to use their machines on corporate networks I’ve been involved with, even against the orders of stupid PHBs. While I like Macs, in general, the software I need to use doesn’t run on Mac OS.
* The Apple price premium, however, is absurd and Steve Jobs is a serious asshole. While Bill Gates may be the antichrist, or worse, somehow he doesn’t rise to that Steve Jobs level of asshole. That said, in the years before Steve Jobs came back, Apple nearly died. Apple needed a serious asshole like Jobs.
Re: Linux: Linux on the client side remains broken, in my opinion. Yes, many of you use Ubuntu. I’m happy for you. Wake me up when Photoshop runs on that thing. Mentioning WINE or Gimp will convince me that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Video editing? Never mind.
On the server side, however, Linux makes the most sense, in my opinion.
for the first time in my life, i am going to have to buy a Windows box sometime soon. is XP still an option when buying a new box?
as for Apple, i used to be a true believer back in the mid-90s. yes, they almost died and they made horrendous screw ups (my kit included) but at least they were nice about it. with Jobs, it’s “how can we make you hate us more than you hate M$?” they seem moderately successful at fulfilling this unlikely challenge. i cannot believe how awful (Windows-like?) OSX is to use. it beggars belief. because OS9 was so easy to use back in the day. maybe i’m just too old to deal with this shit now…
Model T’s are *still* rocking, folks.
http://bitchin100.com/wiki/index.php?title=NADSBox
I will argue the Linux point. Well, not in behalf of Ubuntu, but Linux in general.
My typical work environment has two workstations. One would be a 64 bit Slackware Linux machine. The other would be a 32 bit Windows XP machine.
For day to day things (email, browsing, development) it doesn’t really matter, but I prefer the stability of a Linux machine. I’ve been bitten one too many times by a crash or Windows wanting to reboot for some reason while I’m in the middle of something, and losing my work.
IMHO, GIMP does do everything that I have ever needed. There are a few (a very few) things that you can’t do in GIMP. Honestly, I’ve only run into one situation where I couldn’t edit a file, and had to hop on a Windows machine with a current copy of Photoshop.
I won’t argue the video editing. I’ve been looking for a good Linux solution. I will say that there are plenty of Windows offerings that absolutely suck. I spent a lot of money buying video editing suites to find they couldn’t do some function, or they would always crash mid-edit. Even expensive solutions like Adobe Premier got annoying when the machine would crash 15 minutes into editing a serious clip. My editing was all for hobby work, but it was still frustrating.
All in all, I use the best platform for the work. Why should I run a Windows app with Wine on Linux, just to say I did it in Linux? I don’t.
My serious work (which usually pays) is as a SysAdmin. I focus on *nix servers, but get dragged into working on Windows servers too. I get the best (and worst) of both worlds on a regular basis. I know both inside and out, and make my decisions based on the best option available, not brand loyalty.
About 3 or 4 months ago I disoovered FreeBSD. I run it at home now as my one and only server. It is THE best SERVER operating system I have ever come across. I will never bother with Linux ever again on the server side now that I aware of FreeBSD.
I had a brief look at W7…I’m gonna pass…
@tochigi
All the big manufactures (and probably lots of smaller ones) sell business class models with Windows XP Pro “downgrades”. You’re technically buying a Vista license and even getting the Vista Media, but the manufacturer installs XP Pro.
The situation changes next week. It’ll be a downgrade from Windows 7 to XP Pro. Don’t ask me which version of Windows 7 is which. There are going to be six different Windows 7 products. Bloated, More Bloated, Ultra Bloated, Extreme Ultra Bloated, etc.
Here’s an article about the various Windows 7 versions:
http://gizmodo.com/5145366/all-the-flavors-of-windows-7-explained
@ Kevin,
thanks for the info. i used to keep up with this kind of stuff until 6 or 7 years ago but now it just doesn’t interest me enough. unitl it starts costing me money, that is. the XP downgrade sounds like the way i will go.
cheers!
There isn’t a non-tech person I know who I haven’t reinstalled their OS at some point. A year ago I started telling people I refuse to install anything but Ubuntu. EIGHT conversions later and no REAL complaints. I almost lost one friendship over contention on whether Ubuntu didn’t really work OR the person just couldn’t get over their hangups. They were “branded”, but I was unmovable.
However, these people live in the dark and I’m sure Kevin has a point about image and video. My excuse for dual boot is high-end PC games.
When I bought a new PC it came with Vista. No option at the time for XP. I’m going to try RC7 (the 64 bit version) at some point when I can spare the time, just to see if I can get the brute working. Running a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit machine with 4 gigs (and only having access to 3 gigs of ram) seems silly.
Regarding your Ubuntu/Wine comment: I’ve tried Ubuntu before, and now run my laptop on occasion with the USB Flashkey. I installed the SuperUbuntu version, as it’s bundled with Skype, WINE, etc.
I got Flash and Photoshop 7 installed, and they seem to work OK. It’s hard to make a fair comparison though, as the USB access is slower, and I’ve only used them for a few minutes – I’d have to install Ubuntu properly on the HD to make a side by side.
Amazingly, SuperUbuntu found my Cintiq, and I was able to draw directly on my moniter – which was a nice piece of driver detection.
What’s your issue with WINE? It might save me some time if it’s still not ready for Prime Time. They’ve been working on that thing for years!
I skipped Vista and will likely skip 7…I have not even seen the interfaces, I dont care if all you give me is a command window as long as the damn thing works. I’m an XP and linux on server fan. XP is rock solid as it is, but recently I upgraded my HW to 64 bit and installed XP Pro 64 – even better performance and stability than 32.