1 Free Year of Windows 7 (or a bit less)

[valis]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... nload.aspx

"The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, youll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010."

Not sure I'd choose this for anything I consider 'critical', nor would I consider this 'free' in all senses of the word. But I've recently built machines for my wife & mother and they have had no issues (beyond what they would encounter on any OS) and the installation I've had on a spare partition has had no major issues.

It's an interesting move from MS and I think speaks for the loss of mindshare they've had over the last several years. Also I expect we'll see some comparisons between this & solutions like Ubunto, hopefully with some emphases on things that are still non-free in Windows.

[braincell]

I would get it except for the fact that there will be no easy way to upgrade when the finished version is released. I don't want to risk spending many hours installing software and hardware only to have to do it again in a year.

[katano]

well, i will, no i did already not on my DAW of course had the windows 7 beta, then the build 7057 and now the official RC1... but i also have a software distribution system. btw all user settings and data can be moved to a new installation/pc quite easily, it's called windows easy transfer (under control panel -> system and security -> backup and restore)...

even if you have to reinstall all programs, you could easily do that in 3 to 4 hours (windows 7 base install took me about 17mins), not that much time when i see how long some people spend posting silly comments on facebook or forums

windows 7 is much better than vista, that's all i can say. i'm working with 7 since january, on my notebook at work! it's more stable, it's faster, boot time is shorter, everything seems to be just a bit 'rounder' and it's how the first xp successor should have been. vista is dead!

cheers
roman

[valis]

There's also an "unsupported" method to upgrade existing Win7 'beta' installs (and the RC) to a 'final'/gold build. The downside is that people who do this are experiencing a large majority of the issues reported with Win7, hence why it's not supported for the public betas/RC's. I think 1 year (or even 10 months) isn't a bad time-period to do a reinstall, especially with an OS 'at launch'. I wouldn't recommend you move your primary music/work partition to Win7 by any means though.

Also I should state that I really could care less what OS anyone uses, just thought I'd post this url up before it gets hammered. Both the inital MSDN beta, then the initial public beta, and finally the MSDN/Technet RC release (over the weekend) have all wound up having issues. I managed to get the 64bit ISO fully downloaded in about 20 mins when I posted this link... hopefully they've beefed up availability for the public RC release though, as it doesn't do your reputation much good to put this out for public consumption and then have the backend support system for it fail.

[valis]

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2 ... le-now.ars

[iSiStOy]

Better than the rss I'm registered to...
Thanks!

I don't think it is time to upgrade as well. I can't imagine what still needs to be corrected and what huge test cases still need to be done with 7. In fact, why even follow Vista's end-of the-year-2008 story, as it was definitively a waste of time, seeing how bad it was behaving on my PC laptop with dev & db tools installed...
Not to talk about its tested performances in managing an audio prod system, compared to "the rest"... Not even talking about S|C cards not supported

What looks great to me though, with this Vista's story, is the .NET integration!
When you see how fast (when not "interoping") you can develop powerful apps and sites, you can't possibly want to go back to win32, even with some admitted/known lacks of performances and the quirks due to the managed memory system.

'Can't wait to have 7 drivers for scope but also some courage to do the reinstall

[netguyjoel]

I'm waiting, for S|C to write the 64 bit drivers & at least 6 mos of 7 to be out, before I do anything either...
I'm not gonne be a MS guinea pig again. I've learned my lesson. ME, Vista...etc etc

I don't think it is time to upgrade as well.
'Can't wait to have 7 drivers for scope but also some courage to do the reinstall

[braincell]

That would be nice. I'm using Vista 64 bit and I had to get another card. SC disappointed me big time.

[ScofieldKid]

Yeah, it is hard to fault MicroSoft too much for Vista.

But... my question for Windows7... is the same as before. Are the 3rd party software writers going to get off the dime for this? If I can't get 64-bit Apps that run correctly on Windows7, then it's moot. Similarly, if 64-bit drivers aren't there for specific hardware, then it's moot. Other questions still outstanding are Microsoft License nightmares, and the MultiMedia API prioritization issues. So for example, will I ever be able to replace a hard drive or upgrade a graphics card or change a motherboard without having to buy another copy of Windows7? And on the MultiMedia issue, does that stuff work any better?

Lots of questions remain...

[valis]

I'm finding Win7 to be faster than Vista64 was for graphics & 3d apps. Did a bit of digging and it seems they (again) rewrote major portions of the compositing engine for the UI:

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/0 ... mance.aspx

Might be able to get Xp64 off here after all...

[braincell]

Vista 64 is working great for me on my DAW. The computer is new and all of the software and hardware so I can not compare it to XP.

[next to nothing]

So for example, will I ever be able to replace a hard drive or upgrade a graphics card or change a motherboard without having to buy another copy of Windows7?

If they keep the vista model, the answer is yes and yes.

First of all, the rules i suspect you are referring to only applies to OEM versions of windows (cheap versions bought along with hardware). Full price versions have no such limitations.

Second, MS have a point system for components that is pretty tiresome.
the motherboard scores most points, hard drives probably less. If parts are switched because of malfunctioning, you shouldn't have any problems getting your points deducted.

This is MS way to ensure you only use their OEM OS on one computer, but if you buy a full version none of these "point rules" applies, and you can install it on as many computers you want without any limitations (beside you probably only want to go online with one of them at the same time, not sure about this though).

[valis]

More detail than I was aware of, but I concur. I use retail "Pro" or "Ultimate" copies of OS's here and I've yet to see a licensing issue beyond initial install. The only time I can ever recall having to call them was for the initial Win7 beta, and that was due to me restoring an image of the OS improperly.

I'm surprised btw that GaryB hasn't shown up to express dismay at MS giving a year's "free" use, and what the 'hidden' costs might be...(I know a few possibilities occured to me.)

[garyb]

everybody knows that M$ doesn't do it to be helpful, just like everybody knew that Vista was this year's Windows ME.

i won't switch until there is software or hardware that i wish to run that is not supported on XP. when the time comes, i'll switch because that's how planned obsolesence works...

[ScofieldKid]

I'm not seeing much of about audio improvements in Windows7. I'll assume all is as it was before, like:

See also: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb614507.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.85).aspx

On the positive side, it's possible that Microsoft now has the attention of the developers. I saw on some of the boards that people are running Ableton and the Focusrite Saffire on W7. So maybe the developers are catching up at this point.

[braincell]

I just installed Windows 7 on my cheap laptop. It has 2 gigs of RAM at 1.6 Ghz. This computer is now running much faster and cooler than in Vista. I'm using an old Mackie Spike which it gave generic USB audio drivers. I will test it with ASIO4ALL which has WaveRT later.