At about the same time I was experiencing freezes on the HP2710P tablet pc with Vista Business, I decided to download the beta version of Windows 7 (build 7000). Let me say at the outset that the installation and the amazing experience I have had with Windows 7 had me seriously thinking if I should stay with Mac OS X. Of course, it is too early to say if I will do so, but one thing is for certain, switching back to Windows is now a possibility. Even with just the beta version (we all know that the final version will only be better), my experience has been superb to say the least. Most of the things that I like with theMac OS X, I can now see almost flawlessly implemented in Windows 7. W7 has practically turned the 2 year old HP2710P 1.2 ghz Core two Duo into a productivity gem.
The Install. After downloading the ISO image for the 32 bit version, I just followed the steps here in order to have a DVD disc of the beta OS. I then popped the DVD in an external DVD drive and after a restart, I just followed the onscreen instruction. It was defintely the best install experience of any windows OS. I was done in less than 30 minutes. All of the 2710Ps drivers seem to be built into the installer and everything from sound, wireless, and tablet functionality were all working fine. The only issue was with the fingerprint reader but it was handled very well by W7's ACTION CENTER (a notification appeared in the system tray).
Compatibility with my favorite applications. All of my must have applications are installed and are functioning without any issues. I have installed Office 2007, Mindmanager 8.0, Zoundry Raven, Sugarsync, Firefox 3.0.5, Photoshop CS3, and TextAloud. I also installed a trial version of Kaspsersky internet Security as it is one of the 3 being endorsed by W7's Action Center.
Tons of Keyboard shortcuts. One thing I love in the OS X is Quicksilver, a software that allows you to customize triggers to open a specific application or folder. The built-in W7 shortcuts coupled with Launchy is, IMHO, close enough to Quicksilver.
Attention Grabber no More. Using it for 2 days, I find that W7 allows me to work without any distractions which was common (read: everytime) in Vista. Applications would open in a snap, no slow downs, and except for those from Kaspersky, I hardly ever get any pop ups from the OS. However, I would need to give it more time before I say more.
Speed is awesome. At least when compared to Vista and XP. ZDNet actually made a comparison here.
Lots of Eyecandy. From Aero that is no longer a memory hog, to a powerful Windows Media Center, W7 simply has so much to offer in the geek department. Click here for more.
The experience thus far has been great that I also installed W7 in the netbook. I will write about that experience as soon as I finish installing my favorite applications.
Let me just end this blog with this statement for now:
As someone who performs almost every computing task on a Mac (for the past one and a half years) and tells anyone who will listen that the average consumer should be using a Mac instead of a Windows machine because of security and stability, I'm starting to prep myself for the single moment that I thought would never come: I'll be using a Windows 7 machine as my main computer and telling anyone who will listen that, believe it or not, using the latest Microsoft operating system is truly worth it - once again.
UPDATE: I have now installed W7 in two other computers here.
It sounds as though you are saying that you like windows again because in their work since Vista, Microsoft has now copied all of the things you liked about OSX and got rid of a bunch of major irritations they had introduced since XP. It would be interesting to hear about the things that are actually making you feel that Windows 7 is better than OSX now that would make it worth switching if you have been a mac user for a while. I switched from XP to OSX in 2005 so effectively windows is a whole new world again.
Posted by: Robin Barooah | January 17, 2009 at 09:26 AM
Robin,
Thanks for the comment. I will be writing about my 'decision' soon. For now all I can say is that with a single OS, I no longer have to switch back and forth to do work on my must have PC applications. Sure, it may be not so bad using a virtual machine but it is still just not as intuitive. I would have to say that better 3rd party applications still work in favor of Windows.
Posted by: Nap | January 17, 2009 at 10:50 AM
The premise of Vista was a good one, looking back at the videos Microsoft had at PDC2003. But by the time Vista was out, a lot of the features they had promised were in OS X, and some features were cut, and some features had made it to XP. If this doesn't give you an idea of how screwed up Vista development was, let me remind you they did resets, starting over, and even had to deal with XP's then security issues (which to their credit, got fixed with SP2). By the time Vista rolled out, device makers, and OEMs didn't believe it was actually coming out due to the amount of delays, and didn't prepare, causing driver issues (driver issues being one of the biggest problems with any Windows release) and hardware not optimized for Vista. The problem list goes on, but to Vista's credit, you need not run antivirus as long as you aren't downloading stuff willy-nilly (something I'm sure Mac fans don't do either; thus it is fair to expect at least advanced users not to need it, and less advanced users can get something like AVG for free). With UAC (a feature much like the elevation in any other modern operating system) thrown in, security is not an issue with Windows.
Of course, with the initial bad experiences with Vista, and Apple doing its anti-Vista campaign, it is hard to blame people for not admitting any merit in the OS. That is where Windows 7 comes in. It polishes stuff across the board, from under the hood (increasing the maximum cores from something most users don't have to something most users will never have in the lifetime of Windows 7, among other changes), to right in front of your face (adding a proper touch API, Superbar, other misc polish). It isn't that Vista didn't have a solid foundation that 7 could build on, it just had bad timing and a couple dents and scratches that are too big for some to ignore. Windows 7 buffs and polishes, and here is the result.
On a last note, if you are using Windows 7, make sure to get the Windows Live Essentials package, for free, to round out Windows 7's functionality (MS had to remove functionality to avoid antitrust allegations, but still provides it, for free).
Posted by: Yert | January 19, 2009 at 01:09 AM
Welcome back, while I'm not sure why some people think so highly of the buggiest version of OSx, Leopard its nice to know that even in its still full of debugging code and defiantly a Beta, Windows 7 impresses.
Don't give up your Mac, just expand your universe.
Posted by: Joe | January 19, 2009 at 10:58 AM
One note, to get all of the hardware to load, and to use all of the security features on the hardware, you will need the following updates from HP:
sp38202 - HP Update Software
sp41474 - HP Drive Protection Driver
sp41982 - Ricoh Card Reader Driver
sp44778 - HP ProtectTools Security Manager Suite (on the 2730P support page)
sp43616 - HP Keyboard and Quickbutton drivers
Posted by: Russ Shupert | October 23, 2009 at 03:17 AM