Modern Buddy

Who's using it? I'm using 64-bit ultimate edition, it loads up faster than vista/xp did for this machine. PC gaming performance isnt really improved, but the operating system itself is much faster starting up, shutting down, and much easier on the system than vista.

I'm using an outdated mac with an outdated OS and I like it that way

I was surprised how going from installing 500 drivers in Vista on this PC back then, and now installing 7, I didnt install 1 driver at all. Everything worked with window's own drivers 100% fine.

Sounds like the way os x

I'm still using Vista. Any way I can upgrade...FOR FREE?

brape wrote:Sounds like the way os x

Cant forget OSX is designed to run off Mac's only. All the drivers you'd ever need for a Mac are already built into the operating system because of the limited hardware.

While there are hundreds of companies designing products and parts for computers running windows, windows cant support everything or else you'd have the biggest bloated OS ever. Windows 7 supports a lot of hardware now standard, but not 100% everything.

laxer wrote:I'm still using Vista. Any way I can upgrade...FOR FREE?

Yes/No. You can buy new computers now shipping with windows 7 this month, some stores may not carry the shipment of new computers with 7 on them until next week or so. Some stores like the best buy near me already have them on display. Technically this way you're buying the computer which cost money, but get windows 7 on it

Otherwise if you work for a company like a big office, you may get it for free in some instances. Many corporations and software engineer careers get pre-activated discs which can be installed unlimited amount of times legally. These type of discs are designed for office PC's where one disc can be used on hundreds of computers.

For $30 you can buy a upgrade from microsoft, digital or disc copy.
http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/ ... 6270320218

The catch? You got to be a student at a university and have a valid .edu email address. If you or someone you know is a student, you could pay them off to purchase if for you.

I'll be getting a new computer soon (within the next year hahaha). The one I'm using now is starting to frustrate me and I've had it for over 5 years. So I'll be using the Windoze 7 eventually. I've heard it doesn't suck, I guess that's as good as it gets with Microsuck. I really want to try Linux at some point, and I even have a laptop I don't use anymore to try it out. I'm just too lazy to get on with the process.

Where is the Linux option? This poll is worthless!

You folks do realize that this is about as volatile a subject as religion or politics, right?

I use all 3 major OSes. For the MS third, I've heard that it's quite an improvement over Vista (Which I have installed on a test system that I've booted up maybe 3 times), but seeing as I have to support XP at work, I'll save a few pennies and skip it for the time being, at least until the major bugs and security flaws are found (SP1).

I'm typing this from an Ubuntu install, lol.

Everything worked with window's own drivers

They are not Windows drivers, they are drivers written by the hardware manufacturer, designed to Microsoft's standards, and included on the OS disc.

Many corporations and software engineer careers get pre-activated discs which can be installed unlimited amount of times legally

Uh, no.

Installed legally on hundreds (hundreds of thousands, even) *company* PCs, maybe, but not on your personal PC.

For $30 you can buy a upgrade from microsoft, digital or disc copy. (URL snipped)...

The catch? You got to be a student at a university and have a valid .edu email address. If you or someone you know is a student, you could pay them off to purchase if for you.

Uh, no again.

Here's a quote from the link provided:
"Am I Eligible? Yes, if…
"You are enrolled in coursework, current proof or enrollment may be required in the United States."

Just because Microsoft may never check does not make it legal, or ethical. Sorry, but the License bastard in me just can't help it sometimes.

digital-entropy wrote:Where is the Linux option? This poll is worthless!

Linux? Bah. Where's the DOS 5 option?

I have no idea what any of you are talking about

jfrost2 wrote:but the operating system itself is much faster starting up, shutting down, and much easier on the system than vista.

that will come in handy when you have to reboot all the time.

Man, I wish people got this fired up about their scooters, sheesh!!

Dunno if I'm going to switch yet, my boyfriend is the tech nerd and has had a beta of it for a bit and he likes it. Maybe I will as soon as he gets around to installing it for me

jfrost2 wrote:

laxer wrote:I'm still using Vista. Any way I can upgrade...FOR FREE?

Yes/No. You can buy new computers now shipping with windows 7 this month, some stores may not carry the shipment of new computers with 7 on them until next week or so. Some stores like the best buy near me already have them on display. Technically this way you're buying the computer which cost money, but get windows 7 on it

But that's not getting it free. The cost of Windows is included in the price you pay for that hardware. (Which is a bit annoying for those of us who might buy a PC with the intention of installing Linux or some other OS on it.)

jfrost2 wrote:Otherwise if you work for a company like a big office, you may get it for free in some instances. Many corporations and software engineer careers get pre-activated discs which can be installed unlimited amount of times legally. These type of discs are designed for office PC's where one disc can be used on hundreds of computers.

That's not free either. To stay legal, those businesses still have to pay Microsoft for every machine they install it on. The installation media and activation codes that can be used on multiple computers are simply a convenience for people who have to install Windows over and over, not a blanket license to do that as much as we feel like.

Is this going to have a negative effect on my social security?

brape wrote:I'm using an outdated mac with an outdated OS and I like it that way

SNL flashback!


Macbook running Leopard here. No Windows, no problems.

My wife has a Dell netbook running XP, and will likely not upgrade.

At home I use primarily OS X on my workstation, and Linux on my servers, so Win7 doesn't affect me much.

I have a WinXP installation on my iMac that I run once in a while, usually because I'm doing free tech support for family or friends and I need it for reference. I have no plans to upgrade that to Win7, maybe not even when/if my family and friends do: it'd be a good excuse for not giving them free tech support anymore.

I also have a TabletPC running WinXP that I use for drawing on. I never interact with the OS on that (just the drawing software), so there'd be no point in upgrading it. Which is good, because there's no way this machine could run Win7. Same story with the 5-year-old laptop with a broken keyboard that I watch DVDs/streaming video on while pedaling my stationary bike.

The situation at work is a little different. They use some specialized software that's written only for Windows, and a fleet of laptops that simply won't last much longer with the abuse they take, so at some point we're going to have to buy new ones, and those will inevitably come with Win7. We've fudged by installing WinXP over the copies of Vista we've received, but with Win7 we'll probably have to use it. I'll have to install it on my own office workstation when that happens... just don't tell my friends and family.

I think we need to have some sort of poll that relates OS usage with how many times a year you're okay with your scooter needing service. There's that old "if your car performed the way Windows does..."

And re: bloatedness, does anyone else remember this:

Microsoft today announced that it will be changing its name to "Moft" -- which will clear up space on user's hard disks. It is estimated that a typical Windows 95 installation contains about 2,800,000 copies of the word "Microsoft", in copyright notices, end-user licence agreements, 'About' screens, etc. So, after the change, a user will have about 14 MBytes more disk space. Stock prices of hard-disk manufacturers dipped slightly after the announcement. "Well, the programs will take up less space on the user's disk," said Bill Gates, CEO of Moft. "But we have never cared about that. The change will allow us to ship Windows 95 on 13 disks instead of 14, thus saving about $50 million a year in media costs. We are also looking at shortening the names of some of our software products; for instance 'The Microsoft Exchange' may be changed to 'The Moft Pit'. Gates added that the junior programmer who discovered the potential savings has been rewarded with a free copy of 'Moft Off for Moft Win 95'.

Syd wrote:

Everything worked with window's own drivers

They are not Windows drivers, they are drivers written by the hardware manufacturer, designed to Microsoft's standards, and included on the OS disc.

Many corporations and software engineer careers get pre-activated discs which can be installed unlimited amount of times legally

Uh, no.

Installed legally on hundreds (hundreds of thousands, even) *company* PCs, maybe, but not on your personal PC.

For $30 you can buy a upgrade from microsoft, digital or disc copy. (URL snipped)...

The catch? You got to be a student at a university and have a valid .edu email address. If you or someone you know is a student, you could pay them off to purchase if for you.

Uh, no again.

Here's a quote from the link provided:
"Am I Eligible? Yes, if…
"You are enrolled in coursework, current proof or enrollment may be required in the United States."

Just because Microsoft may never check does not make it legal, or ethical. Sorry, but the License bastard in me just can't help it sometimes.

Of course microsoft doesn't make their own drivers for many of the products, but when I reffered to "window's own drivers" i meant what came standard in the basic installation.

Also, you are wrong on your own, many corporations and students in certain fields get copies for personal use besides office use. I know my uncle who was a software engineer for Oracle years ago got windows 98 for free when he worked there. Also a friend who is a software engineer major in school was given windows vista ultimate for free for personal use by the school, and the company he student-worked in.

Also for the $30 promotion, there's tons of people online out of school for years but still having a valid email from the school that can purchase it. University workers, students, and graduates with valid emails are eligible for purchase. I'm a student myself, but I was not asked for proof besides a university email address.

Still reading email and running various MS programs on Win95. Drivers still work with my outdated periph's.

Also, using XP on the coolest netbook on the market (Acer Aspire One model AOD-250) and a laptop. Netbook is not upgradable but not necessary for my use. I do use it to send faxes via Bluetooth connection to my cell phone and off to wherever. I'll likely keep the laptop running XP. I'll probaby buy a new one w/Win7 if I'm ever going to use Win7.

Win7 is Vista repackaged (read that to mean, lots of Vista re-engineering to run faster, be more secure and have better drivers with a new outer wrapper). The underling majority of Win7 O/S software is still Vista.

Glad to hear its faster and recognizes more peripherals unlike the Vista experience.

Too late now but you could have got a free copy of Win7 if you'd registered w/MS to hold a Win7 Introduction Party at your house. They would have sent you a Party Kit plus you'd get a certificate for a free copy of Win7. Too late for the offer now.

I also understand if you are a bon i fide student you can get Win7 for $50.

..rickko..

I'll hold off on the upgrade until it's been on the market a few months.

Even tho everyone I know in the tech field is impressed with Win7, I want the millions that do upgrade to find the most glaring bugs and give Microsoft a chance to fix them before I subject myself to it.

jfrost2 wrote:Also, you are wrong on your own, many corporations and students in certain fields get copies for personal use besides office use. I know my uncle who was a software engineer for Oracle years ago got windows 98 for free when he worked there. Also a friend who is a software engineer major in school was given windows vista ultimate for free for personal use by the school, and the company he student-worked in.

All that demonstrates is that businesses and schools sometimes cheat, or (small possibility) that they paid for it as a perk for their employees/students. Giving employees free software* is very uncommon, and rarely legal.

*unless it's the company's own software... Microsoft employees probably get Win7+Office Uber Edition for free, but not anybody else's software

Also for the $30 promotion, there's tons of people online out of school for years but still having a valid email from the school that can purchase it. University workers, students, and graduates with valid emails are eligible for purchase. I'm a student myself, but I was not asked for proof besides a university email address.

Yes, that's how they usually check for eligibility, because it's easier than actually confirming some other way, and it's usually accurate. But if you aren't currently a full-time student (or employee) at a qualifying school, you are not actually eligible, and the only way to get it at the price is to lie.

The bottom line is that: yes, there are all sorts of ways to get expensive software for little or no money. But unless you're an actual student or a registered charity, they're rarely legit, so you might as well just download it through the torrents and not kid yourself.

ERik3tb wrote:I'll hold off on the upgrade until it's been on the market a few months.

Even tho everyone I know in the tech field is impressed with Win7, I want the millions that do upgrade to find the most glaring bugs and give Microsoft a chance to fix them before I subject myself to it.

Actually Win7 Beta has been in the hands of literally millions of regular users like me and you for 8 months.

So, MS has been receiving bug reports & fixing them for a long time. That's why the released version of Win7 is so solid right out of the box.

Those who got the Beta copies will have to buy the released version by Feb. next year when the beta copy expires on their computer. (No free lunch for the testers).

..rickko..

rickko wrote:

ERik3tb wrote:I'll hold off on the upgrade until it's been on the market a few months.

Even tho everyone I know in the tech field is impressed with Win7, I want the millions that do upgrade to find the most glaring bugs and give Microsoft a chance to fix them before I subject myself to it.

Actually Win7 Beta has been in the hands of literally millions of regular users like me and you for 8 months.

So, MS has been receiving bug reports & fixing them for a long time. That's why the released version of Win7 is so solid right out of the box.

Those who got the Beta copies will have to buy the released version by Feb. next year when the beta copy expires on their computer. (No free lunch for the testers).

..rickko..

I've been running beta and RC versions of windows 7 on my netbook for months, it's worked flawless even in beta stages. Now I have retail version on my netbook and PC. Netbook is running 32bit home premium, PC is running x64 ultimate.

Dual booting Winders7 and Fedora 11 on note book, dual booting RHEL5.4 and XP pro on desktop.
There was an obscure SATA PCMCIA cardbus card I bought a whiles ago, but lost the XP driver disk. Company went under and I could not find the drivers for this card anywhere. Winders7 has native drivers for it!
So far so good...

I'll upgrade only if it increases the frame rate in Crysis....

I decided to become an early adopter this time. I purchased an Acer Laptop with an Athon 64 single core processor, 3GB memory, 160GB hard drive for $350.

So far Windows 7 has lived up to the hype. It takes some getting used to over XP. I like the UI better than Mac OSX.

Later this weekend, I'm going to try out a new Linux distro (on another PC) that people have been raving about.

Yep. The only way I'd upgrade is if it came with a new computer. Spending $130 or so for ANOTHER operating system on a computer I already have isn't worth it; especially when they work just fine. I already paid for the O/S I've got on the computers I use. Why pay more for a "fixed" version of Vista to run on older computers? I don't need 64-bit capability. I need the hassle of trying to find drivers compatible with my older peripherals and W-7.

BTW, there is a stunning deal at Circuitcity.com http://www.circuitcity.com/applications ... =A180-8048

if you are interested in a very cool 7-9hr battery life NETbook. I own it. It works great! I added an extra Gig of RAM.

I paid $97 more for this exact item at Costco a couple of months ago when they had it on sale! This is a real bargain.

Oh, the sale price is only good today! (10/29/9)

Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing to do with Circuit city.com or do I have any kind of relationship with them except to receive their email "deals."

..rickko..

The problem is with that Circuit City special: I hate rebates.

No Circuit City around here anymore. All the stores went under about a year ago...

babblefish wrote:No Circuit City around here anymore. All the stores went under about a year ago...

Tiger direct bought them out and opened a few stores back up under the circuit city name.

pcbikedude wrote:The problem is with that Circuit City special: I hate rebates.

I agree except you fill out the rebate online right after purchase. No mail etc. Really easy to do. Just a few clicks and your personal info. Then just before xmas $40 comes in the mail!

This is a deal; no tax, no shipping, low price, 6-cell battery + $100 DVD drive and wireless mouse pkg.

Of course you've got to want/need a Netbook.

jfrost2 wrote:Tiger direct bought them out and opened a few stores back up under the circuit city name.

I saw the trademark rights on the shelf during the big clearance sale, but I didn't have the cash on me, and they weren't taking credit.

I've been running Win7 since release day, when I did the upgrade thing on my laptop. IMHO, Win7 appears to be what Vista should have been. The tech isn't new, just refined as it should have been the first time round. As others have pointed out, the driver thing has been resolved. I have not noticed that it's hugely fast booting up, However, Win7 definitely recovers from sleep mode more quickly than Vista, which is more important to me. And, despite what the nay-sayers are saying, I like the toolbar and have thoroughly adapted to it. If I hit the lottery, the whole family will go Mac, but until then we're going to totter along with our affordable Wintel computers.

CAVEAT: The upgrade thing is serious business. If you're thinking of doing it, read the fine print carefully...

XP
If you're upgrading from XP, you really must pull all your data off to a backup, reformat your hard drive and do a completely clean install. It's a little scary if you're not a tech wiz.

VISTA
You must run the Win7 Upgrade Advisor and follow all the advice. You will have to uninstall iTunes. The upgrade will uninstall Windows Mail and Windows Media Player. There will probably be at least a couple programs which won't be Win7 compatible. Uninstall them. Do the upgrade. This may take hours. You'll be shocked. Reinstall iTunes after the upgrade. Then figure out what you're going to do for an email client. If you don't want the full-blown Windows Messenger thing installed on your computer, you'll have to carefully navigate the Microsoft menus to reinstall just the email client. Windows Media Player... no comment. After reading a few articles, I was ready for this process to be time-consuming and it certainly was.

Good luck.

I have 0 issues with applications not working, i copied and pasted everything from program files from the vista install backed up into C:\windows.old and they ran fine. Itunes and microsoft office were the only 2 programs needing a reinstall. All my programs and games worked 100% fine.

jrsjr wrote:
XP
If you're upgrading from XP, you really must pull all your data off to a backup, reformat your hard drive and do a completely clean install. It's a little scary if you're not a tech wiz.

VISTA
You must run the Win7 Upgrade Advisor and follow all the advice. You will have to uninstall iTunes. The upgrade will uninstall Windows Mail and Windows Media Player. There will probably be at least a couple programs which won't be Win7 compatible. Uninstall them. Do the upgrade. This may take hours. You'll be shocked. Reinstall iTunes after the upgrade. Then figure out what you're going to do for an email client. If you don't want the full-blown Windows Messenger thing installed on your computer, you'll have to carefully navigate the Microsoft menus to reinstall just the email client. Windows Media Player... no comment. After reading a few articles, I was ready for this process to be time-consuming and it certainly was.

Good luck.

This is exactly why I won't pay for a new O/S for a computer that already has an O/S I paid for before and works.

You can get a brand new 15.6" Acer laptop 2gb 64-bit Athelon Win7 right now for $419. If you subtract the $140 or so for Win 7 on it, the computer only costs $279!!! Why spend good $$$ and waste your time being tedious and careful on the upgrade when you can upgrade your technology & O/S for just $279 more than the Win7 upgrade software?

So far no one has given a good reason to justify the time and price to upgrade a perfectly good working O/S to Win7. Of course if you're having a nightmare with Vista then it might be worth it.

..rickko..