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Why does Windows 7 have such a positive image?
- Thread starter Pika
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No, it emulates an archaic S3 Trio. From what I've seen, it can't even implement ClearType on the screen fonts.
Try the new VMWare instead.
For games that will run natively on Windows 7, however, build #7100 is brilliant. Very fast indeed. The only trouble is that Punkbuster doesn't really work - at least not in Call of Duty 4.
I'm going to see what I can do with VMWare, in that regard.(Lazy Punkbuster devs couldn't be bothered with pre-release OSes.)
I think F.E.A.R should work natively in 7, though? I remember running it in Vista with no issues.
No, it emulates an archaic S3 Trio. From what I've seen, it can't even implement ClearType on the screen fonts.
Try the new VMWare instead.
For games that will run natively on Windows 7, however, build #7100 is brilliant. Very fast indeed. The only trouble is that Punkbuster doesn't really work - at least not in Call of Duty 4.
(Lazy Punkbuster devs couldn't be bothered with pre-release OSes.)
I think F.E.A.R should work natively in 7, though? I remember running it in Vista with no issues.
or just get Call of Duty 4 for Mac?
Theres no point playing games in a virtual machines, they aren't designed for that and its just horrible, but in bootcamp Windows 7 does perform well for gaming, i get much higher frame rates in Left4Dead in Windows 7 than i do in XP.
And UAC doesn't do half those things you just mentioned, it seems like you are very confused. Maybe some anti virus suite? UAC is hardly an issue, no need to exaggerate it to make excuses.
Here's the way I see it. The original Vista was a failure. But Vista SP1 fixed most everything. However, the damage to Vista's name had already been done. Now, we have Windows 7, which is a rehash of Vista SP1, with some good new features. As such, Win7 will do well.
I've been using the Win7 beta on my Macbook for a while, and plan on getting the RC in a couple of days. Because of using Windows 7, I now have little fear of getting a PC in a few months.
I've been using the Win7 beta on my Macbook for a while, and plan on getting the RC in a couple of days. Because of using Windows 7, I now have little fear of getting a PC in a few months.
I'm an old Windows boy, and I went through pretty much every Microsoft OS since 95 (yes, I know I'm young). But then it stopped at one point in 2006 and I turned to OS X 10.4 and fell in love. As of today, OS X is still my favorite "serious" OS.
But I'm also a gamer. I even work with games journalism. XP always served my needs when it came to gaming. I tried to install Vista on my old computer (Athlon 64 4000+, 2GB RAM, 8800GTX) and it was truly awful. It actually didn't run properly. The operating system didn't run properly with 2GB of RAM.
I abandoned Vista until recently, when I got a new computer (Phenom II 920BE, 8GB RAM) and I tried Vista on it. I could see where MS wanted Vista to go in the first place, with those specs in ran flawlessly, speed-wise. But it still had quite a few problems. For instance, on Vista, if I put my computer to sleep (i.e. I want my power bill to not be quite so devastating on my economy) all USB peripherals die, the DVD-rom spins up to max and stops functioning in Windows and all my seven system fans spin up to max. I have to turn the computer properly off (not just reboot, off and on again) to solve it. And those small things that nag on your user experience is why a lot of people have abandoned MS (more so in form of not switching to Vista) in recent years.
Then 7 happened. It ran like XP, but with the eyecandy of Vista (let's face it, we like shiny stuff. Girls like diamons, guys like applications that go "bling".). It was stable and a lot of the things that annoyed us about Vista has been fixed. Now, I am not delusional and thinking that 7 is a new OS, because it itsn't. Not by a long shot. But it is what Microsoft's customers want, and this is what is so important. They've actually listened, they've improved what's already there instead of filling it up with functions.
In short, I think 7 will be pretty brilliant, because Windows is not (expect for a few details) a bad operating system essentially. It has it's areas where it excels (is this spelled properly?). For me, Windows is my only choice when I go gaming. And 7 is the essential reason for why.
(I realize that I might piss a lot of people off, someone might hate me and I can't speak for anyone but me.)
But I'm also a gamer. I even work with games journalism. XP always served my needs when it came to gaming. I tried to install Vista on my old computer (Athlon 64 4000+, 2GB RAM, 8800GTX) and it was truly awful. It actually didn't run properly. The operating system didn't run properly with 2GB of RAM.
I abandoned Vista until recently, when I got a new computer (Phenom II 920BE, 8GB RAM) and I tried Vista on it. I could see where MS wanted Vista to go in the first place, with those specs in ran flawlessly, speed-wise. But it still had quite a few problems. For instance, on Vista, if I put my computer to sleep (i.e. I want my power bill to not be quite so devastating on my economy) all USB peripherals die, the DVD-rom spins up to max and stops functioning in Windows and all my seven system fans spin up to max. I have to turn the computer properly off (not just reboot, off and on again) to solve it. And those small things that nag on your user experience is why a lot of people have abandoned MS (more so in form of not switching to Vista) in recent years.
Then 7 happened. It ran like XP, but with the eyecandy of Vista (let's face it, we like shiny stuff. Girls like diamons, guys like applications that go "bling".). It was stable and a lot of the things that annoyed us about Vista has been fixed. Now, I am not delusional and thinking that 7 is a new OS, because it itsn't. Not by a long shot. But it is what Microsoft's customers want, and this is what is so important. They've actually listened, they've improved what's already there instead of filling it up with functions.
In short, I think 7 will be pretty brilliant, because Windows is not (expect for a few details) a bad operating system essentially. It has it's areas where it excels (is this spelled properly?). For me, Windows is my only choice when I go gaming. And 7 is the essential reason for why.
(I realize that I might piss a lot of people off, someone might hate me and I can't speak for anyone but me.)
Let's face it, if they'd taken Vista exactly as it was, changed the name to 7, and released it 2 years after Vista, it would have been "much better". Many of the driver problems would have been fixed, computers now ship with 2-4x as much RAM as they did, and of course the Vista brand has been totally ruined. And in this world, brand image and marketing is everything.
Thing is, 7 ran better on my old computer (2GB RAM thingy) than Vista. So that's not completely true. 7 would problaby be awesome for netbooks.
Thing is, 7 ran better on my old computer (2GB RAM thingy) than Vista. So that's not completely true. 7 would problaby be awesome for netbooks.
It loads faster than xp on my netbook which is impressive
Well, Windows 7 is pretty quick, has a dock-like taskbar that can be moved around, has a pretty useful network mapping tool, looks nice, and I found myself actually enjoying it. It's still not Leopard, but it's caught up some.
Some drivers have to be tracked down, but that's similar to Linux, and 7 is still Beta.
Some drivers have to be tracked down, but that's similar to Linux, and 7 is still Beta.
I agree with this on newer up to date hardware. A bit of time and computers with much more ram and graphics power have solved a lot of Vista's early growing pains.
But while I agree with your point, I think it's a bit misleading too. Windows 7 is NOT simply just Vista SP1 with a new coat of paint. They might look a lot the same, but they run completely different. I've tried putting Vista SP1 on some older hardware and notebooks of mine with 1 gig of ram and it's horribly slow. XP runs much better on old hardware compared to Vista SP1. Sticking Windows 7 RC onto the old hardware and it's like having a brand new machine again. It's actually faster than XP which is quite a nice surprise.
I never said they were the same. I said if you rebranded Vista as 7, all of peoples negative attitudes towards Vista would be gone.
And Vista and 7 are relatively similar. 7's had a lot of work done to it's code to improve memory usage, a lot of services disabled so it boots quicker, lot of apps are now no longer built in to save disk space. But they still run in the same way. Same driver model, similar kernel, similar inconsistent GUI etc. They had to be similar in the way they operate, otherwise we would experience Vista all over again.
The Beta has been out for months and RC coming soon. If you consider that not using it...
I've used Windows 7 for over 6 months, and I can assure you that it does not suck. Many others have pointed out the reasons that 7 is superior to Vista, so I won't repeat them. If only Apple would refresh Boot Camp to turn on the damn fans when running 7, I'd be completely satisfied.
Vista had a good image BEFORE it's released too.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/reviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188500230
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/reviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188500230
^^^Well if you consider the type of people here who are using the new beta (i.e., Mac users), who probably carry a slight bias towards OS X because it has been better than Windows in a number of ways for years, I'd say it's encouraging to hear such glowing reviews.
I was already impressed when I heard about how small the memory footprint was going to be. I'm even more impressed when I hear that not only did they speed up Windows, but they made it not suck as well.
I'm definitely getting a MacBook Pro as my next laptop, but I'm very glad to hear that I'll have 2 good options when I get a computer after the MBP.
I was already impressed when I heard about how small the memory footprint was going to be. I'm even more impressed when I hear that not only did they speed up Windows, but they made it not suck as well.
I'm definitely getting a MacBook Pro as my next laptop, but I'm very glad to hear that I'll have 2 good options when I get a computer after the MBP.
The beta/RC of Vista and the beta/RC of Windows 7 are not even close in comparison. I had so much trouble with the Vista betas that I gave up on each after 2 weeks and never used it again. Everything from machines running hot to the point of shutdown, drivers causing crashes, extremely slow and poor performance, etc. I've installed 7's Beta and RC1 on the exact same machines, and it's night and day when compared to Vista at the same level of development.
XP was and, to my mind, still is great. Vista doesn't do it for me at all. Windows 7 is simply fixing what was wrong with Vista and gives us what we wanted after XP.
I've had Windows 7 running brilliantly on a £300 netbook. I'll also be skipping Vista all together both at work AND home and going from XP to Win 7.
Believe it or not, Microsoft doesn't ACTUALLY have devil horns and a pointy tail, and not every single thing to come out of Redmond is a festering, steaming pile of donkey doo.
I've had Windows 7 running brilliantly on a £300 netbook. I'll also be skipping Vista all together both at work AND home and going from XP to Win 7.
Believe it or not, Microsoft doesn't ACTUALLY have devil horns and a pointy tail, and not every single thing to come out of Redmond is a festering, steaming pile of donkey doo.
I'm thinking of trying the new Win7 RC - can anyone download it. I'm running a previous gen. MBP w/ 4gig RAM and would like to try it with Fusion or VirtualBox. What would be the steps to install it after downloading it? Does it have to be copied to a disk, or can the install be performed from and external HD?
I apologize for my ignorance, but this would be the first time I've tried Windows on my Mac.
I apologize for my ignorance, but this would be the first time I've tried Windows on my Mac.
assuming Virtual Box on the Mac is basically the same as on Windows, you can mount the iso file and install from that. Virtual Box 2.2.2 (the only one i have installed) offers Windows 7 as an OS in its preset lists, so select the 32/64 bit version and pretty much go for it. Assuming you don't need to install a full suite of apps and just want to check it out 1GB ram & 8GB hdd space should be enough.
64-bit Vista works in VirtualBox for me. Windows 7 shouldn't be that more complicated and you can just mount the ISO too.
I am running Win7 64 in VB no issues. Only offering it 1.5GB ram just to see what it is like. I have Vista 64 as the host so I can go > 3GB RAM.