Windows 7 really that great? I say no because...

[Diamondec]

Is Windows 7 all that great?

Sure its faster but when it come to playing your favorite older games forget it. I was trying to play my 23 bit games on my 64 bit computer expecting easy access to these games and lots of play time. Instead I ended up making phone calls, and a small headache from trying to get my game to play on the windows 7 main frame. My advice stick to windows XP or vista.
_________________
To dream the impossible dream.

[Raven]

My understanding of 7 is that they took vista, re-skinned it, and deleted all (some of) the unnecessary background programs windows like to run to slow down your entire bloody computer.

Or you could go buy a Linix and have a comp that's still good in 10 years if you upgrade it. Or a Macintosh, which will at least work.
_________________
The Lichen grows slowly, atop of a rock.
It doesn't think, it scarcely feels,
But mightn't it be somehow greater than we?

[QueenOfTheShadows]

Uggh I hated vista almost as much as I hated millennium, mostly because vista emulates everything. If 7 is basally repackaged vista I'll pass.

My big questions are did they get rid of the annoying "are you sure you want to delete this?" box that then switches to the "you need to be logged in as an administrator to do that" (when you are logged in as the computer's admin) box when you click on yes....
Is it no longer a giant shiny emulator?

Is windows 7 actually windows comparable? (vista isn't, and says it isn't on the box)
_________________
say hello! at zahz's keep;P

[Namhias]

I've used both 7 and vista and must admit that 7 is a huge improvement over vista. It's faster, less buggy and has excellent hardware support. Also it's easier to get rid of that annoying admin confirmation. Sure, it's still shiny and slower than windows xp, but it's a fairly decent modern upgrade is you ask me. If you have a modern computer, windows 7 will work without any problems. (Most of the time, but every windows computer has that problem...)

I'm a linux fan however, mainly because it's stable, fast, and extremely customizable. I run both windows and linux, windows for the games and some windows apps that aren't available for linux, and linux because it's fast, stable, easy to keep up to date, and because I can use it as a sandbox to test stuff. Oh, and did I mention it's completely free and open source?

I guess it just depends on your wishes what operating system is best for you.

[QueenOfTheShadows]

Well I i think I'd like to test out a windows 7 machine before I buy one, (this is after having dealt with computers running millennium and ME and Vista) preferably one installed whith the sorts of programs I like to mess around with, i didn't with vista, and purchased a computer based on word of mouth and hardware stats that appeared to meet my usage requirements. If i were a standard/ basiv computer user I probably wouldn't have had any/ as many issues with it. So really from my experience if it is an os that functions and runs in the same manner of vista, it should be fine If all you look to do is write a document, store pictures, surf the net , maybe watch some video; or copy a CD, and answer email, you know the basic stuff.... any internet capable computer would be fine.

But keep in mind that if 7 is based off of vista it would not be backwards comparable with other older windows compatible programs, other than perhaps vista. this is rather important for gamers or those wanting to make use of specific programs. This is the major drawback to these newer versions to come out

If it's still an os that emulating windows It will probably face the same problems I experienced with art programs while running renders. the process of emulating windows and by extension windows running a program will make the os clunky in the long run and often slower.

Advice if your a heavier computer user you may want to keep at least one version of Linux around any way and stick with something that you know will work with whatever programs you have. and "upgrade" only if and when nessary.
_________________
say hello! at zahz's keep;P

[Ragnarok]

I'm one of those bizarre people who actually liked Vista (at least, once I got a laptop with enough RAM to properly run it), and 7 seems to have kept the good points, and removed/fixed many of its negatives.

...Of course, I'm a little biased against non-Windows OS, simply because the vast majority of the software I use for my work is Windows-only. I couldn't change my OS, even if I wanted to.
_________________
To win against an opponent stronger than yourself, you must not be weaker than that opponent. - Takamachi Nanoha

[MythRat]

I'm running 7 on my laptop and I actually like it, though not being able to play Quake 3 on it is annoying.
7 seems to be (according to my roommate who has a mac) as close as microsoft could get to a mac os without incurring a copyright lawsuit
The downside of this is that, unlike XP, there's not really an easy way to go in an mess with the system. It's almost like they assume that if you need an OS this easy to handle, you shouldn't be allowed to mess with system shit anyway, lol. It just means you're equally barred even if you know what you're doing. To be fair, though, I haven't found a need to go in and do system surgery because it hasn't screwed up (yet. *knock on wood*).
It runs Photoshop CS4 REALLY well ^_^ And that gives me warm fuzzies. Honestly, overall, I'm happy with it. Haven't had any problems with it freezing or locking up for no damn reason and running more than three programs at once doesn't make it crash and burn like XP loved to do to me.
_________________
"Humans are so interesting. Do you know, in a universe full of wonders, they've managed to invent boredom?" - Death

[Namhias]

I have been getting some unexpected blue-screens lately, and after painstakingly going over the logs, I found that Windows decided it doesn't like the old WiFi driver anymore. Also I've noticed that windows makes more errors than other operating systems when it comes to copying files.. I've been forced to run MD5 checksums on the really important stuff.

One of the things that bugs me about Windows in general, is that it slows down after a couple of months / years. Sure, I can clean the system, perform maintenance, and make it go fast again, but it's still a hassle. On the plus side, I do get to enjoy games and windows-only software.