Windows 7 First Impressions
To be completely honest I haven't been following the release dates for Windows 7 because I haven't been very excited about a new Windows version. With the last release (Vista) being delayed so many times and rumours about this date and that date, I gave up on Microsoft's schedule.
I downloaded the beta yesterday and installed it on a Dell D620 which is one of my test machines at work. There is no question that Microsoft really improved the installation process when Vista came out and they are using the same system in Windows 7. During the installation process you are only prompted for 5 things which are language settings, hard drive installation location, installation code, user/computer naming information and a password for your user. I have installed many different OSs over time including many Linux distros, Windows versions and even OSX; none of them are more easy that this is. I need to give kudos to Microsoft on this point as so many of us geeks out there overlook this because we are perfectly comfortable with 62 questions.
The second thing that impressed me right out of the gate was the fact that Windows 7 had all the drivers required for my D620 without a single download. This really glues down the fact that they are using the same driver design as Vista, but that they have included the updated drivers in the installation is awesome. In the past we might have seen driver inclusions but more often only in the final version which makes beta testing a bit more challenging. To summarize this point, complete installation from formatted disk to the desktop logged in took about an hour and less than 10 screens.
The desktop on first glance doesn't look very different from Vista, but that is because I was not really looking that hard. The task bar has been updated for the better, starting with transparency. It looks really nice in my opinion; but that's just eye candy really. A new feature that I really like is the hover function. I am not sure what Microsoft is really calling this but when you open software you don't see a block on the task bar like you used to. Now you see an icon and when you hover over that icon you get a preview of the windows that are open and associated to that application. If you then hover over those preview windows the window will appear so you can see it in real time behind the preview. Take a look at this screen shot to see how this applies. Notice that I had 3 explorer windows open and that's what you see in the preview.
Computer speed is always a question and we all talk about what hardware we have because it directly relates to the speed of our overall experience. But there is also a direct relationship between the operating system and the fluidity or speed of our experience. I definitely feel with the limited software I have installed on the machine that it is more refined. The preview and full size windows that appear when using the hover feature above come almost instantly. It almost feels like they could be instant but someone had to create a 100ms delay to make it feel more natural.
Windows 7 comes with IE 8, which for some will be confusing. The new web browser has been out in beta for a little which and is getting good press (ex. here) from what I can see so far. It definitely is not the fastest browser but I think that overall people are enjoying it.
If you have access to a Windows 7 beta and have not yet installed it then I would give it a try. For everyone who isn't lucky enough to have access to Windows 7 beta and if you are thinking of buying a computer now but could hold off for another year, I would wait a while to see if Microsoft will solidify their release dates. I really think that after the Vista debacle and after seeing this beta it will be worth the wait.
I downloaded the beta yesterday and installed it on a Dell D620 which is one of my test machines at work. There is no question that Microsoft really improved the installation process when Vista came out and they are using the same system in Windows 7. During the installation process you are only prompted for 5 things which are language settings, hard drive installation location, installation code, user/computer naming information and a password for your user. I have installed many different OSs over time including many Linux distros, Windows versions and even OSX; none of them are more easy that this is. I need to give kudos to Microsoft on this point as so many of us geeks out there overlook this because we are perfectly comfortable with 62 questions.
The second thing that impressed me right out of the gate was the fact that Windows 7 had all the drivers required for my D620 without a single download. This really glues down the fact that they are using the same driver design as Vista, but that they have included the updated drivers in the installation is awesome. In the past we might have seen driver inclusions but more often only in the final version which makes beta testing a bit more challenging. To summarize this point, complete installation from formatted disk to the desktop logged in took about an hour and less than 10 screens.
The desktop on first glance doesn't look very different from Vista, but that is because I was not really looking that hard. The task bar has been updated for the better, starting with transparency. It looks really nice in my opinion; but that's just eye candy really. A new feature that I really like is the hover function. I am not sure what Microsoft is really calling this but when you open software you don't see a block on the task bar like you used to. Now you see an icon and when you hover over that icon you get a preview of the windows that are open and associated to that application. If you then hover over those preview windows the window will appear so you can see it in real time behind the preview. Take a look at this screen shot to see how this applies. Notice that I had 3 explorer windows open and that's what you see in the preview.
Computer speed is always a question and we all talk about what hardware we have because it directly relates to the speed of our overall experience. But there is also a direct relationship between the operating system and the fluidity or speed of our experience. I definitely feel with the limited software I have installed on the machine that it is more refined. The preview and full size windows that appear when using the hover feature above come almost instantly. It almost feels like they could be instant but someone had to create a 100ms delay to make it feel more natural.
Windows 7 comes with IE 8, which for some will be confusing. The new web browser has been out in beta for a little which and is getting good press (ex. here) from what I can see so far. It definitely is not the fastest browser but I think that overall people are enjoying it.
If you have access to a Windows 7 beta and have not yet installed it then I would give it a try. For everyone who isn't lucky enough to have access to Windows 7 beta and if you are thinking of buying a computer now but could hold off for another year, I would wait a while to see if Microsoft will solidify their release dates. I really think that after the Vista debacle and after seeing this beta it will be worth the wait.
Tags: 7, 8, beta, ie, review, windows
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6 Comments
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Comment by The Sleepy Geek on January 13, 2009 at 5:27am -
That's another great point Gordon. I suppose I wrote this artcicle with the vision that the person would be the same if using on tool or the other. In other words would the tools work better for the same person.
It's funny that you mention Amiga. I used to know a person who did all the video graphics for a TV show through an Amiga and they were years ahead of their time at one point.
Thanks for your comments!
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Comment by Gordon Keenan on January 13, 2009 at 12:02am - Had a guy many years ago who used to do animation wolrk using an Amiga with a package called "Imagine". At that time everyone was on about Lightwave and how great it was etc.... and this guy sent me up a demo of some stuff he had worked on.... EVERYONE SAT THERE with their mouth open wide *STUNNED* as they could not believe that this had been done on such a low spec computer and such an old piece of software..... It's the talent behind the equipment that makes it all happen at the end of the day. Give someone a high end digital camera, and give a photographer a small throw away camera... I know who's going to take the better shot!
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Comment by The Sleepy Geek on January 12, 2009 at 3:48pm
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There is definitely merit to what you are talking about with regards to the application having the true relevance. However how the OS manages the resources that are allotted to each of those applications affects the overall experience. That being said I am going to contradict myself and tell you about a friend of a friend who is in production (video) and runs OSX because the software he likes was released there first.
Come and see me at www.thesleepygeek.com to see my main blog. Thanks for reading.
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Comment by The Sleepy Geek on January 12, 2009 at 3:47pm
- Aaaack, not a BSOD. Did you dig and find out what the cause was? :)
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Comment by Gordon Keenan on January 12, 2009 at 2:18pm
- Nice article. Have to agree with you all the way there, but I feel that had Microsoft just held back from releasing Vista MAYBE we would have had a really good operating systems like (potentially) Windows 7 is. But, while the operating on any machine is what everyone seems to bitch over, in reality is the applications that you use that really define what is a good system to go for.
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Comment by Edvard on January 12, 2009 at 1:56pm -
My first impression: I got blue screen of death! Nice!
Anyways, nice blog post, enjoyed reading it!
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