Windows 7 strong, but don't pay to upgrade

Thursday 15th October, 05:37 AM JST

By Peter Svensson

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Klein2 at 06:38 PM JST - 15th October

"Strangely? Windows 3.11 is slower than DOS, Windows 95 is slower than 3.11... etc."

This is an interesting observation. I would say that the OSs continue to get more bloated and soupy. Hard to describe, but DOS was simply related to processor speed. It seemed to go about the same speed no matter what you did with RAM, unless you diddled the cache or used a faster processor. Then WIN3.1 started to take overhead, but it used the RAM "better". By the time we got to Win95 and Win98, which were better at paging and coordinating the RAM, in my opinion, we kind of reached the peak. Tons and tons of ram and a fast processor gave great production value. You could ramp up the hardware and really see the results on-screen. It seemed that useful programs worked quickly on those OSes.

Since then, things have gotten muddled. It seems that no matter how drastically one upgrades, the SNAP is not there. The processors are 6 or 7 times faster, but they are burdened with winking icons and retracing this or that.

I clearly do not belong in a Windows environment, but the alternative is hanging around Mac snobs or being a Linux geek, and I need to spend my time on other things. I am a Windows curmudgeon by default.
Yelnats at 07:14 PM JST - 15th October

Hakujinseisensei knows his stuff!

After upgrading, users will have to reinstall all their programs and find their files in the folder where Windows 7 tucks them away.

Now isn't that a waste of time. I never have to do that when upgrading on a Mac....and I heard that the upgrade to 7 from XP is a huge painful experience and most lose badly. Back up your entire ..things you need! Because the upgrade is going to clean you out.

Mac cross language platform is fantastic. I use it with multiple at home and especially on the job. So nice to be able to use different languages at a click of a key.

Only hassle I find with my Macs and it is not a Mac problem, but a photoshop tutorial problem. I do not want to jump up to CS4. No need but so many tutorials are doing just that. They should not leave us behind.

Hope all you Windows people have fun trying to get your printers and drawing pads and scanners and cards and cameras working.

Fixing a Dell to run like a Mac, does cost the same as the initial purchase of a Mac, that already has what you need in it. Not that stupid IME language download and other silly things like...virus scan.
Fadamor at 11:57 PM JST - 15th October

I've been running the Win 7 x64 Release Candidate since it went public back in the Spring. Yes, I had to re-install a lot of stuff and there are some companies, Logitech, who have refused to release Win 7 drivers until Win 7 goes "live", but the computer works fine. I highly recommend Win 7 on a new computer.

WITH THAT SAID, as is the case with ANY O/S upgrade, the hardware specs of your Win98 or WinXP machine will probably not be adequate for Win 7 unless you invested in RAM upgrades. NEVER look at Microsoft's "Minimum" requirements and feel that is OK, because that is the MINIMUM RAM necessary to get Win 7 to even start. You need MORE RAM if you want to actually use another application on the Windows desktop.

I'm a net admin and I'd say 90% of the complaints I've heard over "slow computers" can be directly attributed to insufficient RAM for what they are trying to do.
BlackOut at 09:11 AM JST - 16th October

Yelnats,

just to remind you, it is a window7 article.

if mac is really nice for you, then stick with it. no point to tell anyone to change unless if you want to buy one for each of us.

or if you really interesting in using or learn Win7 then use it for real, don't just, i heard this that then make some wrong comment about the system.

and i have never seen anyone advice people to update from xp to win7. if that is what Mac people try to do on MS platform, no wonder you got endless problem. learn it the right way if you want to work with win7.
BlackOut at 09:13 AM JST - 16th October

not

update

but "upgrade"
TOXIN at 10:17 AM JST - 16th October

@hakujinsensei

the dell comes with XP

no it come with vista 64bit.

mac comes with more cool software and it is integrated but open source is available for either for free so...

same go with any platform. open-source selections even alot more in PC world both for linux and ms.

what next

dell - 3GB DDR3 1067MHz / mac - 2GB DDR2 800MHz

dell- 250GB 7200 RPM SATA / mac - 160GB 5400-rpm SATA

what will i pick? if it free, i go with dell and remove that vista.

a lot of them are the same but dell offer "bigger, a lot faster hdd and ram." and i don't care the OS.

if i have to pay?

i will leave both, and stay with my old laptop, get win7x64, max my ram to 6gigs only if i want to.

if you want hardware, but you don't want the os,

some people switch their OS though.... the ones that do, lets have you guys post some links to pics n tutorial of the cool Mac computers that can totally change the main OS to something not mac ; )
TOXIN at 10:46 AM JST - 16th October

@hakujinsensei

lets have you guys post some links to pics n specs of the cool notebook computers you built for less

build for less at this moment seem to be impossible but this one close. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/building-dream-notebook,1026.html read step 3-5. it is not cheaper but it sound like a fun activity to do.

and it possible to do.

anyway i think it still better go with dell speck according to your link, and if anyone want to increase ram, that xps can host up to 8GB of DDR3 compare to only 4 gb of DDR2 by mac book. another big advantageous here.

to me the best investment go with pc technology, handsdown.
Yelnats at 11:52 AM JST - 16th October

BlackOut

I read it on a PC support page, because I was interested in reading about the new system. It was a PC support specialist trying to help those with XP upgrade to 7 The guy wrote nothing about Macs at all.
BlackOut at 12:11 PM JST - 16th October

every expert i came across, they recommended to do clean install, not upgrade the system.

even this link i took from MS social answer.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/GettingReadyforWindows7/thread/7fb2abd8-82f2-45c8-b328-a7ffa3b25508

Currently, there is not a direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. You will need to backup your data manually and restore after doing a clean install.
DarkKnightNine at 01:50 PM JST - 16th October

Strangely? Windows 3.11 is slower than DOS, Windows 95 is slower than 3.11... etc. Hardware now is so cheap this really isnt a factor unless you are running a backwards PC. The new operating systems do more, and require more resources. If you dont need to do more, use an older operating system. It's all about what you need the PC for, there are many choices out there. I'm all for choices such as Linux, however Linux is only really suitable for a minority of people.

Wow! I guess this statement actually makes sense in a Windows world. My computer (a Mac) is actually getting faster, the OS can do more and it's actually getting faster too with each upgrade. Leopard was faster than Tiger; Tiger faster than Panther; Panther faster than Jaguar and so on. Maybe it's us Mac user who are crazy for thinking that technology advances forward or that the OS should perform better on faster machines and become less bloated. Oh yes and those dreaded Mac prices. So please tell me how much a Dell would cost after you upgraded to specs that actually made it usable for more than just checking your email and installed all the software you need for doing "real world" work. In most cases, you'll find the Mac is much cheaper for what you get out of the box. But hey, maybe we're the stupid ones...... NOT!!!
DarkKnightNine at 01:55 PM JST - 16th October

I'm currently using Windows 7 N (for Europe which means no IE and no Media Player) and can say that this is the best windows ever. Runs as smooth as an XP and looks really well.

That's not saying much since XP never really ran that smoothly.
DarkKnightNine at 02:10 PM JST - 16th October

A lot of people have mentioned about Mac being multilingual and that's awesome, but the one outstanding factor that I always tell my Windows friends when suggesting they buy a Mac (besides performing better at "real world" tasks) is that a Mac is actually two computers in one. People tend to forget the fact that any modern Mac can also run Windows OS if you ever needed to.
TOXIN at 02:11 PM JST - 16th October

So please tell me how much a Dell would cost after you upgraded to specs that actually made it usable for more than just checking your email and installed all the software you need for doing "real world" work.

if you read what hakujinsensei said, you would already know the price.

to be fair, that price, that system, can work a lot more than just check email and install 3rd party software. if you want it work better, you can leave vista go for ubuntu or even win7. both request everything a lot less than vista, and run way better.
JeffLee at 06:50 AM JST - 17th October

So please tell me how much a Dell would cost after you upgraded to specs for more than just checking your email for doing "real world" work.

Nothing. I use open source software. I tried a Mac once for doing "real world" work - and it didn't work out. I remember not being able to keep different applications running in different langugages at the same time and the OS wouldn't display which applications were currently running, in the toolbar, etc. I usually run 5-6 aps at the same time while working and need to quickly switch them. The Mac also garbled the names of files emailed from Japanese clients. The Mac couldn't cut it. I switched to Win 2000 with Office 2000, and all those problems disappeared. now I'm doing PC open source. My business runs on it...for free.
nightvision at 08:16 AM JST - 20th October

"Klein2 at 06:38 PM JST - 15th October

I clearly do not belong in a Windows environment, but the alternative is hanging around Mac snobs or being a Linux geek..."

One of the more sensible things uttered here.