Pitseleh wrote:Ok, I know he's trying to tell us something... And it involves computers...
My question is this: is Windows 7 out, officially? I have to buy a laptop, and I'm definitely buying it on Labor Day weekend, and this operational system thing has been giving me grief. My bf has been telling me to toss Windows all together, but I need Windows or Mac to run my design programs. I cannot afford a Mac. So, what's the deal? Will i be stuck with Vista? Will I have to live the Win 7 experience first hand? Will I win the lottery and get a Mac Book Pro and a new iPod?
Well, Windows XP is still great. Windows 7 is not officially released yet but they have made available certain "Release Candidates" with watermarks in the bottom left that say they're release candidates with build number and activation timer and all that. There are a few things you can do.
Unfortunately, I never actually
ran Vista so I can't really report on it. I've been told that a large portion of its "grief" with the average user is simply the sort of common problem you can't avoid in changing operating systems and that's learning where everything has moved to. Even I'm having a little trouble because Windows 7 is built on Vista so it's very similar. From what I can tell and what I've been told, W7 is Vista Ultimate but slimmed down so that it's not so resource intensive but with minor core tweaks as well. I also had to turn off the feature that causes it to ask you every 5 seconds if you're sure you want to do something. Pretty sure that every innovation since Vista has been under the assumption that the average computer user is a total moron and will click anything that pops onto the screen from the internet, so it warns you about EVERYTHING. My only qualm with the whole Vista/7 platform is there is no more command line. No "Start->Run".
Anyway, the 2nd hand feedback
I've heard is that Vista Ultimate is pretty nice. And it does allow you to turn some of the more annoying features off, plus if you do a little internet digging, I've heard there are basically streamlining and optimization guides online that will help you to shut off certain Vista features you don't use or don't want to make it slimmer and faster. The main complaint with Vista is that it's so big and bulky and dominant that it just requires a supercomputer to work with a damn.
Another advantage to Vista Ultimate is that later this year you will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 if you want. Unless you get a special deal for it from the retailer, it won't be a
free upgrade, but at least it's possible.
Let me issue this caveat: I don't know much about the other Vista/7 builds like Vista/7 Home, Vista/7 Business, Vista/7 Media Center, etc.
Distracted wrote:I have Vista and it's given me no grief at all. The worst I've had to do is to "save as" to get doc files instead of docx files to send to people that get gibberish when they try to read docx. Of course, I don't really do much with my laptop except write and surf the net.
Right, Vista comes with Office 2007 (and it may actually be shipping with Office 2008 now...) which saves in .docx. Really the issue is Office 2007/08 but, when you buy a PC pre-built, it's likely that Office 2007/2008 will be bundled with Vista/Windows 7.
My install is OEM so I will still be installing Office 2003 since we asked posters to no longer submit .docx, I shouldn't need to view it anymore... but... one of these days that will probably change again
PS: if you waited until you could get a laptop WITH Windows 7, you wouldn't have any problems I have had. I have had to deal with a number of more complicated things. Number one I have the release-to-manufacture (version they'll be burning to disc when it's released. It's available for purchase on a site where you subscribe called technet which I believe is actually legal...) plus I was actually installing it myself and third, I was installing on something called a RAID system which requires some special hardware drivers...which don't tend to exist for brand new operating systems, haha, so you have to get creative and use the Vista drivers with some tweaks to make it work.
User-wise, it's incredibly user friendly and I gotta tell you, the interface is just beautiful and smooth. It's really nice.
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