I have an old clunker of a PC from HP that I use as a work machine. It has a Pentium D 960 (3.6 GHz), 3GB of ram and a Radeon 3850 video card. The machine was previously running Windows XP Professional and I can't complain about the functionality as XP is very solid and very stable. With this system though, things never felt very "fluid" if that makes sense. The system always felt slow, despite having a decent CPU (we're talking office work here not gaming) and plenty of ram. I suppose crude is the word I am looking for. I always assumed this was the nature of the hardware as every Linux distribution I have used on it has also felt the same way - clunky, slow and unsophisticated.
So I grabbed Windows 7 a few weeks ago at first from one of "those" sites. It was pre-7000 build. I used it for about an hour but had to quickly load XP back on so I could "quit screwing around and get back to work." I liked what I saw. When MS released build 7000 "officially" this time around I grabbed that immediately and had some time yesterday and today to try it out.
The install is much like Vista's install for those who have seen it. Things are a tad quicker though. Total install time was less than 45 minutes and I wasn't babysitting it. I recall some guy on DailyTech stating it took him over two hours to install which I honestly couldn't believe. There were zero hiccups during install. Everything was straight forward. I chose not to enter my serial key during the install which didn't make any difference which I find nice.
After my first few hours using the OS my thoughts are: my gosh, what a wonderful OS. This boring, clunky, business PC which frankly I hated using is now fun to use! Everything is now very smooth and fast. Much faster than XP in just about everything I do. You would think I had a new hardware underneath but the same Pentium D is still there. I love the new task bar, but on top of its new features it's just plain fast! There is no delay switching windows, the preview pane is instant. I used Vista on this same PC and there was so much chugging and waiting from the hardware but now, everything is instant. I even loaded up CS:S for kicks. I can switch back to the desktop from the game instantly, with no delay.
When it comes to drivers, well, Windows didn't get everything but I didn't expect it to. Luckily all my hardware has up to date Vista drivers which I utilized with zero problems. My only real problem so far is with McAfee 8.5. I know some of you open-source/shareware freaks will say "who needs McAfee anyway?" but the reality is it's pretty much THE standard for corporate AV. McAfee has a great server side product called ePO that goes with the AV client that just about any big company is using. Well, AV won't install on build 7000. It worked on the pre-7000 build just fine, and it works in Vista just fine but build 7000 is refusing the install via it's "compatibility nazi". This is a real deal breaker. MS needs to take care of this ASAP.
Good job, Microsoft! You have convinced me. You made my boring business PC fun to use and fast! XP was great in 2001, revolutionary but now compared to Windows 7 it feels clunky and unsophisticated. I won't look back.
So I grabbed Windows 7 a few weeks ago at first from one of "those" sites. It was pre-7000 build. I used it for about an hour but had to quickly load XP back on so I could "quit screwing around and get back to work." I liked what I saw. When MS released build 7000 "officially" this time around I grabbed that immediately and had some time yesterday and today to try it out.
The install is much like Vista's install for those who have seen it. Things are a tad quicker though. Total install time was less than 45 minutes and I wasn't babysitting it. I recall some guy on DailyTech stating it took him over two hours to install which I honestly couldn't believe. There were zero hiccups during install. Everything was straight forward. I chose not to enter my serial key during the install which didn't make any difference which I find nice.
After my first few hours using the OS my thoughts are: my gosh, what a wonderful OS. This boring, clunky, business PC which frankly I hated using is now fun to use! Everything is now very smooth and fast. Much faster than XP in just about everything I do. You would think I had a new hardware underneath but the same Pentium D is still there. I love the new task bar, but on top of its new features it's just plain fast! There is no delay switching windows, the preview pane is instant. I used Vista on this same PC and there was so much chugging and waiting from the hardware but now, everything is instant. I even loaded up CS:S for kicks. I can switch back to the desktop from the game instantly, with no delay.
When it comes to drivers, well, Windows didn't get everything but I didn't expect it to. Luckily all my hardware has up to date Vista drivers which I utilized with zero problems. My only real problem so far is with McAfee 8.5. I know some of you open-source/shareware freaks will say "who needs McAfee anyway?" but the reality is it's pretty much THE standard for corporate AV. McAfee has a great server side product called ePO that goes with the AV client that just about any big company is using. Well, AV won't install on build 7000. It worked on the pre-7000 build just fine, and it works in Vista just fine but build 7000 is refusing the install via it's "compatibility nazi". This is a real deal breaker. MS needs to take care of this ASAP.
Good job, Microsoft! You have convinced me. You made my boring business PC fun to use and fast! XP was great in 2001, revolutionary but now compared to Windows 7 it feels clunky and unsophisticated. I won't look back.
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