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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
OT-Windows 7; will you or won't you?
Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 11:52 AM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> My computer guy says it's like taking the parking brake off Vista; Today is the official release and many are cheering. Here's a breakdown of the good and the bad: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=3114&tag=nl.e064 I'm leaning toward doing it, but I'll wait a while and see what the early bird Guinea Pigs say. Faster, leaner, and up to 30% longer life on your laptop battery charge. Works for me. Sounds like something we could all use. |
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Jason Joseph, Photographer
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Dublin | OH | USA | Posted: 11:56 AM on 10.22.09 |
->> ''My computer guy says it's like taking the parking brake off Vista"
Which means it will now roll your computer the rest of the way off of the cliff:) |
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Jeff Stanton, Photographer
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Princeton | IN | USA | Posted: 11:57 AM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> Phil, I never worked on Vista, so I don't know how bad it really was. I know a lot of people were simply fed up with the issues and some were backed into a corner wanting to switch back to XP, but unable to due to the warranty on their computers. Before my laptop died, I loved XP and never had problems with it. |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 12:21 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> XP was never the problem. It was Vista, and being as how many people who bought computers from a retail outlet in the last year (Dell included) were forced to take Vista, myself included, Windows 7 is a step in the right direction, I'm thinking.
FYI, Vista was horrible. Imagine sitting and editing images and having your computer decide on it's own, with little or no notice, it was going to "update" itself and reboot. This happened to me and has happened to others. Vista was a nightmare, a horrible OS. |
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Matthew Sauk, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 12:32 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> I have used windows 7 on my laptop for the past couple months now and it has been extremely stable and a non resource hog like vista has been.
Zero complaints about the OS so far and will purchase it when I need to for the laptop.
For my computer I use a steamlined XP 64 OS that I downloaded. Everything that was not needed was deleted and it runs solid. |
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Philip Johnson, Photographer
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Garland | TX | USA | Posted: 12:34 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> I must be one of the lucky ones and have not had any problems with Vista.
I talked to one of the techs at work and he didn't see anything perform better under Windows 7. He said it was mostly window dressing. It might make the user feel better, but wasn't going to improve anything under the hood. That was his thoughts. |
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David Harpe, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 12:46 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> Like most releases of this level - I'm going to wait a few months for the ".1" update. Even though operating systems go through some of the most extensive beta testing on the planet, there's nothing like a full-out release to find the chinks in the armor. |
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Alan Look, Photographer
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Bloomington/Normal | IL | United States | Posted: 12:47 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> probably in 2011 |
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George Holland, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 1:03 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> I plan on upgrading to Windows 7 on my desktop and laptop since Free Upgrade coupons came with them. I built my PC and the Systems Builder version of Vista came with a W7 coupon and Microsoft emailed a shipping confirmation this morning. Lenovo on the other hand hasn't even validated the request I made months ago. |
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Jim Colburn, Photo Editor, Photographer
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McAllen | TX | USA | Posted: 2:00 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> I might upgrade from XP to Windows 7 eventually on my MacBook Pro. Then I'd have two systems on the same machine that look like OSX. |
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Danny Munson, Photographer
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San Dimas | Ca | United States | Posted: 2:26 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> I'm with Philip and have not had problems with Vista. I much prefer it over XP that is on my laptop. Will upgrade but in no hurry to do so. |
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Kevin Johnston, Photographer
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Oden | MI | USA | Posted: 3:02 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> I was looking at laptops a couple of months ago and asked the salesperson if he was aware of any problems with the Vista operating system and I though he was going to have a stroke. He got really upset and started into a rant about how the problems with Vista were all because it was originally released on underpowered machines.
Does that sound like a correct assessment to those of you who are tech savy? If does sound correct do you think 7 will have the same problems? |
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Matthew Sauk, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 3:18 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> I have been using it on a intel celeron with 2 gb memory and it has been great. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 3:47 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> At this point won't since everything work peachy the way are now. They'll have pry XP from my cold, dead hand or sometime after Alan in 2011.
I do have VISTA on a laptop and it is stable now. It runs on a laptop that is twice as fast as my XP desktop and with more RAM, but performs tasks slightly slower it seems.
Kevin J. - I think the tech was partially right. The larger issue was drivers that were stable in XP did not work in VISTA. Hardware and software makers had to scramble to create new ones to function in VISTA. An uncle could not use any of three printers after he installed VISTA when it first came out. When I bought the laptop I planned to use it as a scanning station when it wasn't on the road. That idea flopped because HP hadn't created drivers for it which are now available.
For me VISTA didn't start really working okay until I added more RAM. It pretty much ran on par with Win98 until I added another GB of RAM. Since then, it has not given me problems in the last three years other than it not running one program initially. Apparently a fix was uploaded about year later in the automatic downloads and it now works. |
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Matt Franz, Photographer
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Dayton | OH | USA | Posted: 5:40 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> I've been using it for 6 months on a Lenovo laptop and I have had great success. I really like this OS. The upgrade process is kind of a bummer, but going from XP (which is what I was one) to 7 was a complete reinstall instead of an in place upgrade. Otherwise, it is running really well. It has a really stable x64 version (which is what I am running). Overall, it was a good move for me. Absolutely destroys my XP build in boot time and general snappiness. |
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Darren Whitley, Photographer
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Maryville | MO | USA | Posted: 5:51 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> Yes, I will purchase and install it. How soon? I don't really know but I'll probably install it on all three of my computers at home. Never good to run an operating system with so many patches (XP Pro). I've been running the beta for some time now and I'd like to run the 64-bit OS to utilize cheap RAM. Time will tell, but the release candidate has been wonderful.
Still, sorta miss the OSX applications like Automator for instance. Who wants to buy a file renaming program, when it could ship with the OS?
Someday I'll buy a Mac of my own. |
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Jason Ossey, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Atlanta | GA | USA | Posted: 6:24 PM on 10.22.09 |
| ->> I have been using Windows 7 (Beta and RC1) for all of 2009. The operating system has made my system much quicker and much more stable. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I like it so much it is now on all of my PCs. I have had no driver issues or problems in general. All I have experienced is greater productivity because of a snappier OS. |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 6:49 PM on 10.22.09 |
->> Kevin; "He got really upset and started into a rant about how the problems with Vista were all because it was originally released on underpowered machines."
I know you didn't say this, but with regards to your salesperson's comments, I'm not sure I understand what an underpowered machine has to do with an OS that develops a mind of it's own about rebooting regardless whatever else is going on with the user. In addition, I have a load of directories I can't get into because I don't have permission, even though I am an administrator... I can't see full file information when looking at my directory trees IF the OS detects they are images; I have to jump a bunch of hoops to set the directory to display full file information every friggin' time I download from my CF cards. The whole problem with Vista is that it tries too hard to be "easy" and intuitive and it ends up being in the way of advanced users, like most of us. |
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Steven Ickes, Photographer
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Mechanicsburg | PA | USA | Posted: 11:41 AM on 10.23.09 |
| ->> Old school Windows XP until it dies...then probably OSX. |
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Philip Johnson, Photographer
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Garland | TX | USA | Posted: 12:10 PM on 10.23.09 |
->> Phil,
It sounds like you have some odd defaults step up on your computer. The good thing is you can go in and change them. |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 1:44 PM on 10.23.09 |
| ->> I will make the move in the next three months. Like everyone else I want to see things shake out a bit. I CAN NOT STAND VISTA!! The things that I would do to the team that developed Vista can not be printed. |
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Daniel Putz, Photographer
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Jefferson | MD | USA | Posted: 1:56 PM on 10.23.09 |
->> XP wasn't a problem, Vista wasn't a problem, 7 isn't a problem.
Pick your poison, they all suck in they're own little ways. |
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Mike Janes, Photographer
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Attica | NY | USA | Posted: 3:50 PM on 10.23.09 |
| ->> I'm debating to just go to Mac Pro instead - Vista is horrible, hated it since the day I got it. Laptop blew up just over a year after getting it and will cost $801 to fix when the thing cost under $750 in the first place. Mac sounds like a good jump right now. |
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Aaron Bell, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Belleville | ON | Canada | Posted: 6:31 PM on 10.23.09 |
->> Thanks for the link Phil.
I'll upgrade - might as well use the most up to date tools possible. I have been running Vista for a couple of years now and after the initial run of no drivers I think it's been pretty good. As a PC user with no intentions of switching back to Mac I suppose I look at OS bugs a little like taxes. Kind of a pain in the backside but part of life.
Anyone have any feedback on performance changes with PhotoShop or ACDSee? |
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Keith Kountz, Photographer, Assistant
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Fresno | CA | USA | Posted: 1:07 AM on 10.24.09 |
->> Running on a True 64bit OS is the only way to go. So many programs are now taking advantage of it, example Photoshop, Lightroom just to name a few.
XP 64 was just a patch and I will not touch on what Vista 64 was. Photoshop 64 is smoking fast on Win7 64...if and I mean IF you have the RAM!!! don't expect your system that is running XP just "fine" right now to be upgraded to win7 and be able to keep up.
I have been Running the Beta and then the RC and experimented with RAM configs and found the minimum to be 4GB. Now I have 8GB (speed and brand matched)in my desktop and it seem to be doing the job. Also another thing to help is to upgrade your hard-drives, if you don't have a SATA drive you already slowing your computer down.
Know what you have in your computer before you update. Just because it might work could mean it might be slower than what you already have. |
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Matt Kartozian, Photographer
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Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 1:40 AM on 10.24.09 |
| ->> Ill stick with XP until W7 gets SP2. |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 2:45 AM on 10.24.09 |
| ->> Excellent advice, Keith... |
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Martin McNeil, Photographer
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East Kilbride | Lanarkshire | United Kingdom | Posted: 3:35 AM on 10.24.09 |
->> I usually upgrade my OS when I have cause to change my hardware out. Probably 6 months, perhaps a year... no doubt Photoshop CS5 will be out then too so, if I'm going to *have* to re-install my software, I might as well do it with the most up-to-date apps.
Until then I'm taking the "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it" approach :) |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 8:30 PM on 10.30.09 |
->> Never any problems with Vista, I have Vista 32bit and 64bit on two separate tower systems and five other laptops running 64bit Vista with no issues and another tower that has XP running on it no issues either.
Just upgraded my 64 bit tower system to windows 7 and did a complete clean install and my machine is screaming fast even faster than it was before. quad core processors 8gb ram sata drives etc...
Only thing that was a bummer through the whole thing is I had to reinstall all my software (photoshop, office etc...)
a pain but I wanted a clean new install of the OS. |
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Chuck Steenburgh, Photographer
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Lexington | VA | USA | Posted: 8:33 PM on 11.01.09 |
| ->> Liked the idea behind Vista, but hated how slow it was. I will have a free Windows 7 upgrade for my new notebook soon, and if all goes as planned I will probably migrate the desktop to Windows 7 (from Vista) in conjunction with a rebuild, though I may leave the backup system / file server on XP Pro. |
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Mike Janes, Photographer
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Attica | NY | USA | Posted: 10:49 AM on 11.12.09 |
| ->> Well, my laptop motherboard died and my desktop hard drive failed so in an emergency situation bought a Dell laptop with Windows 7. It's better but so many things don't seem to run too smooth - IE/Mozilla/Safari all are crashing non-stop on sites with flash...CS4 is either taking too long or crashing when using the 64bit version, 32 is better though the comp is a 64bit. Not sure what the problem is as everything is updated and new! |
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Paul Nelson, Photographer
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Temperance | MI | USA | Posted: 12:17 PM on 11.12.09 |
->> My day job is IT - and Martin's advice is probably some of the best I'm aware of. Best to swap your OS out when you're doing some hardware work or outright replacing your system. At other times, you spend significant time reinstalling and fixing. I see it all - fanboys and people running beta and anything that's fresh out the door so they can brag - and you know what? They never stop chasing it. If you have time, more power to you, but lots of us don't. It's worth waiting for the first service pack or major release to shake out the mistakes. Let the fanboys test it first.
As far as being annoyed with security clearances on Vista, just kill off the UAC (User Access Control). It's like Clippy from the Office apps on steroids. You'll lose a little security over convienence, but as long as you're not doing questionable things on the computer, it rarely creates an issue and makes Vista more XP-friendly. Also never set Automatic Updates to automatic if you're worried about losing work and reboots when new updates come out. Set it to notify or download & notify - it'll bug you in the taskbar, but won't kill your apps to install them. I did test this once and had Vista wipe out all of my active apps to force-feed the new security updates and reboot. Not cool. Microsoft patches primarily come out on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, unless something calls for an out-of-cycle release. Again, not to knock the Vista-bashers, but you need to understand the OS, what happens when, etc - so even a general education on your platform goes a long way to a happy computing experience. (hint, hint, pick up a book, read online, ask a IT friend, etc...it goes a long way, just like this thread!) This is true with any operating system platform.
I run primarily Vista on all of my machines (even one dual booting w/OSX) and they're rock solid. However, I've had to change a zillion settings manually (but not the registry, thank god) to get the OS to run just what it needs to. Microsoft's problem is they're building an OS to meet everyone's needs instead of MY needs. Once you turn off and modify things under the hood, you'll get a good OS. I wish the Microsoft OS came with just the kernel loaded and then you tell it what needs to be installed (doh, that's Linux!). I'm so tied to Windows apps and processes though, it's hard to switch to another platform as a primary computer...and I don't feel like running virtual machines.
I will go to Windows 7, but want to align my hardware goals to it as well, so I'm looking at buying new motherboards, etc. I believe you should always have plans to migrate to the newest platform as it will have the most development and support. Just do your homework first and know what you're getting into. Of course everyone's mileage will vary, but even when Windows ME came out, I found a lot of positives with it, but it was also obvious that the 9x platform was just about done with. I will also agree with others - 64-bit is the way to move forward. Best bet is to make plans around it as well. Trying to stick with Windows XP and 32-bit will lead to issues down the road. No problem keeping the old computer, just don't try to keep it alive long-term on brand new hardware - you're undercutting your possibilities.
Save the major Windows upgrades (OS) for hardware changes because you're creating potential issues w/drivers. Windows runs best when freshly loaded and more changes means more garbage. Same thing with doing an in-place upgrade - refrain from doing it. Do a clean install if you know how to. Garbage in means garbage out. Who knows what's really been installed/removed/changed/deleted/whathaveyou. It's a good security practice as well...start with a known-good, clean slate.
When it's time to upgrade to another OS, take a hard look at your computer's components. The prices for computers are getting so rock bottom that you shouldn't suffer marginal performance with a new OS when you could have the fastest stuff for not much more...and btw - the best advice now is to save your money on new hardware until Diablo III or Starcraft II are announced for release. That's the time to upgrade the computer! |
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Brad Moore, Photographer, Assistant
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Weston | MA | USA | Posted: 12:54 PM on 11.12.09 |
->> Great post by Paul. MY FT job is also in IT as everything from desktop support to Network/Domain admin at a private college.
I'm absolutely thrilled with 7. It's everything so far that I hoped it would be after using Vista. The only program I've had any problems with was written back in 2001 and I'm not going to call that a Windows 7 issue. |
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