Is the Windows 7 beta worth installing?

If it is your main computer then no it’s a beta and not designed for that. If you have another computer then yes it’s pretty good.

@lightlyseared When is the full release planned? Also I have a backup computer, but it isn’t very good. What are the recommended tech specs?

Not really.

That last sentence of yours seem rather demanding.

If it can Vista with aero you should be OK.

As the beta expires in august Internet rumour suggests that it will be released in time for the new school year.

@lightlyseared GODDAMNIT. I have to wait untill next Augest to upgrade from Vista? And let me guess, you have to pay for it. Ugg. And I have no other computer capable of running Vista.

Not if that is your main computer. A good rule of thumb is to never run a beta OS on your main machine.

You could dual boot if you wanted too, but I wouldn’t install it over your main OS especially if you can’t afford to have any down time.

Here is my question: Can this OS cause any PERMANENT damage to my computer or my hard drive? Because I can deal with re-installing Vista if something goes wrong as long as all my files/programs are still intact. (Yes, I do not have much experiance with OS and my last computer failed 4 times, 3 times the hard drive and once the motherboard and keyboard, so I’m paranoid about having to re-install all my files and programs)

Do not install it. You are basically in the last group of people that should install it. At this point I wouldn’t run it unless it is on a separate partition or in a virtual machine.

From my understanding you will not be able to stick in a Vista CD and downgrade. You will have to nuke and pave if something goes wrong.

@johnpowell Thank you. I will wait for the full release (and pray it isn’t over $100)

@fortris

I seriously doubt it’s gonna be any less than $100 though.. _
And I also doubt it’s gonna be any better than Vista either.

@archaeopteryx :: I agree about the price. But I have been playing with it and it is better than Vista. The performance is better. And I am running it in a VM under OS X and it works pretty well. And It just feels like the UI has been thought about. It isn’t great, but it is better.

Or Vista set the bar so low I will be happy if it doesn’t get my cat pregnant. And my cat is fixed. WTF Vista?

I mean for current Vista users. Hoping its going to be an upgrade price, not a full price. I mean, lets face it, Vista was broken.

There’s always an upgrade price but it will still be expensive

I have windows 7 running in a virtual machine on my laptop and its really fast. I have no idea how much processing power goes into it but it gets about 16gig of HD space and 2gig of ram and 8mb of graphics ram. with those specs it lags a bit but that is the lack of vram and I have no idea how to increase it. I would highly recommend it although if you don’t have an activation key it will expire after a month. Its much better than Vista so remember their is calm at the end of the storm.

I know this is off-topic, but Linux is much better. :-)

@archaeopteryx I agree, but their are many more people who use Vista or XP then Linux. So people gravitate to what their friends have or what they have at work, chances are that those are all PC’s with a Microsoft OS.

@tehrani625

Yeah, that’s true.

@archaeopteryx I ran linux on a laptop for a few years. I liked it but it wasn’t my full time computer. So I didn’t really get that much into it. I like my PC, it does what I want and doesn’t ask much from me. I also think that it works much better then a mac would.

@archaeopteryx WHAT DID I SAY? No linux. Linux is only good if you have 1337 H4X0R 5KI115

@fortris

Sorry for being off-topic again.
But, no, I’m afraid your theory about Linux is no longer true.

Just give Ubuntu 8.10 a shot, and then come kill me if you ever face a problem where you have to be a computer geek to fix it. :)

(NOTE: I was talking about Ubuntu 8.10 now, 9.04 will likely be even much..much more amazing than 8.10.)

@archaeopteryx BUT WHAT DOES IT DO?!? It is just an OS, there are barely any mainstream applications for it!

@fortris

True, but not true at the same time.

First of all, Linux, 100% free as in “freedom” and as in “pizza” too.

Being free as in Freedom is a very important feature. Because if you look at the End User License Agreement for Windows Vista for example, you’ll find things like:
=====
* If your copy of Vista came with the purchase of a new computer, that copy of Vista may only be legally used on that machine, forever.
* If you bought Vista in a retail store and installed it on a machine you already owned, you have to completely delete it on that machine before you can install it on another machine.
* You give Microsoft the right, through programs like Windows Defender, to delete programs from your system that it decides are spyware.
* You consent to being spied upon by Microsoft, through the “Windows Genuine Advantage” system. This system tries to identify instances of copying that Microsoft thinks are illegitimate. Unfortunately, a recent study indicated that this system has already screwed up in over 500,000 cases.
====

I don’t know about, but personally, I will never agree to give access to my personal files and programs to anyone. And don’t be so optimistic that these things will be removed in Windows 7.

Plus, again, it’s 100% free! Free of viruses, free as in pizza.. etc.

And finally, about the mainstream software, well, it’s not Linux’s fault, you have to blame the mainstream software vendors for not supporting Linux. Plus, Linux’s user base is growing exponentially, so in my opinion, it’s only a matter of time until Linux becomes a major OS that’s worth supporting.

@archaeopteryx Its because Linux is FOR programmers. Not normal people. Mainstream software isn’t supported because very few home users have Linux as their main OS.

@fortris

Like I said before, do not judge a book by its cover.
For example. I know a friend of mine who knows nothing about programming, and one day he came to me asking how to do some basic things like installing drivers for his Nvidia, and configuring his Linksys wireless modem, not knowing how amazingly Ubuntu will automatically recognize and install all these things for him. And when he saw it he didn’t believe his eyes!

Just go ahead and try it. And again, grab a shotgun and shoot me dead if you didn’t feel not only satisfied, but amazed! :-)

Plus, one more thing, if Ubuntu wasn’t easy to use, why the hell will a company like DELL start to ship laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled? :D

_NOTE: They ship Ubuntu 8.04, which is not the latest release. 8.10 is the latest one until now (until 9.04 which is due in April) and contains loads and loads of great improvements.

@fortris Linux can be used by normal people. They just have to be willing to get the learning curve. And you need to accept that their are other OS’s besides the “stuff” out of Microsoft and Apple.

@tehrani625

Exactly, thank you.

@tehrani625 I know, but they are niche OS’s.
@archaeopteryx Just drop it.

@fortris so is OSX that is based on Unix. Its easier to make Linux look good then it is to debug windows.

Linux may have come a long way in the last 5 years in ease-of-use, but it still requires a fair amount of technical know-how. You had better hope you don’t accidentally break your system some how; God help you if you do.

Windows 7 is much better than Vista. Use the new task bar for a few minutes and everything else will seem primitive.

Although, since it is just an evolution of Vista, it still contains much of Vistas insanity, such as “Flip3D” and slow shutdowns.

I am a Mac guy because I think Apple makes the best software. I go where the best software is.

[edit] You will also probably find the stupid amount of display managers available maddening. Both are very similar to Windows; KDE especially. Neither are very good.

@jackley

“Apple, makes the best software…???!!”

LOL! Nice one! :D

@jackley

Well, okay, let’s assume the Mac is the best OS.
How much did you pay for it? Because ya know, it’s not for free, right?

Plus, just because you can afford it, doesn’t mean everybody else can.
And personally, even if I could afford to buy a Mac, I wouldn’t waste my money on it, and I wouldn’t advise anybody else to waste their money on it either.

@archaeopteryx Then by your logic, things are only good when they are free?

@jackley

No, that’s not what I meant to say.
However, we both know some people believe that things are never good unless you pay for them. That’s why (in their logic) Linux is bad, simply because you don’t pay for it (in other words “Free”), which is far from truth.

What I meant to say is that, Macs are not affordable by everyone. They only look fascinating just because they’re expensive. You know, after all, Macs are not made in planet Mars or Jupiter, so they don’t carry any amazingly exceptional features that don’t exist in any other product. For example, I believe that whatever a Mac can do in return for a couple hundred dollars, my Ubuntu 8.10 Linux can do it much better, with less cost, if not for free.

Plus, I believe you are placing your assumptions on top of a weak experience in the Linux operating system. Keep in mind that Linux(and especially Ubuntu) is the fastest developing operating system. Every six months, comes a new version that carries a huge bunch of upgrades and fixes. Each release is another major milestone.. And it’s all for free.

—>Conclusion: Why do I pay lots of money for some product while there exists another product that can perform the exact same tasks (and more), for much less cost?
——-

WHAT THE F*CK? THIS THREAD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY ORIGINAL QUESTION!

I installed Windows 7 on a virtual machine. It ailed to impress, and I couldn’t find many normal functions such as the FREAKING WIRELESS INTERNET.

@fortris did you try opening IE? How much ram did you give the virtual machine?

@tehrani625 I opened IE and it just said I’m not connected, for some reason none of my laptop hardware is interacting with Virtual PC. And 750 MB.

You might want to try giving it some more ram depending on how much ram your pc has. What are you virtualizing with?

@fortris

Thanks for proving my point that Windows isn’t any easier than Linux. ;)

@tehrani625 Microsoft Virtual PC
@archaeopteryx How? By testing a beta on a virtual machine?

Huh, I have no idea how to help. I would just delete this one and make a new one.

@archaeopteryx What are you running right now?

@tehrani625

What else?
Ubuntu Linux of course.

I see,
I have an old dell that I am going to turn into a file server soon. I am going to use Ubuntu and samba.

@tehrani625

Good for you. :)

@archaeopteryx You didn’t answer my question fanboy.

@fortris

No, I’m not a fanboy, I’m basically someone who tried for himself, noticed the wide difference and then placed his decision, then he made the migration from Windows to Linux. And now all he is trying to do is advise other people to try for themselves.

Fanboys usually don’t do that. Fanboys, usually, all they do is laugh at you like this: “You use Windows?? ROFLMHO!!!! You’re pathetic!!”, which is totally not me.

And regarding your question:

Okay, a virtual machine? I didn’t notice that. Well, this is another story then.
However, I can still assure you that Win 7 won’t be any real difference than Vista, just another Vista with new dress, and probably less bloat (or more). Plus, even if it’s any better than Vista, I can also assure you that’s it won’t be any cheaper than Vista. Simply because, like any other corporation, MS is suffering to death these days. Their budget is collapsing slowly, so lowering the price of their new product might not be the solution. It will be their second mistake after the one they made in China to compete against Linux.

@archeaopteryx Tl;dr

I will say this, in Windows defense, Windows 7 is what vista should have been. Much less bloat and its very stable in this early beta stage. So that means that it can only get better from here, by better I mean better then the old friend that XP turned into. Oh and I like all the OS’s that I have used equally but at the moment lepeord can go burn and die, and XP is kinda boring. If anyone was interested. I am in the process of getting Linux in some form onto an old dell desktop and an old Vaio. The desktop will be a file server because I need to offload seasons of top gear from my laptop.

@archeaopteryx: your a fan boy.

@tehrani625

You’ve no idea what you’re talking about.

@fortris

I don’t care if you read it or not.
I only wanted to answer your question.

@tehrani625 Agreed.
@archaeopteryx Don’t really care any longer. Have fun humping Linux’s leg.

Stopped following

@archaeopteryx
1. Linux does not have the variety of software you can buy for windows. I don’t give a shit if it is because of people not installing linux. The fact is that there is no software
2.If Linux is perfect, why is it the third most used (out of five) Os and not the first?Are we masochists?
3. You are 1 trying to convince 20+ persons with no results.why don’t you just stop being off topic?

YES YES YES YES YES! I am not a fan windows by a long shot and vista was the biggest bottle of fail-sauce EVER! But I installed Win 7 and ive got to say its a fantastic improvement over vista. yes it looks very similar, BUT it runs as fast or sometimes faster than xp, and is the most compatible operating system ive seen of late. But still, if you want a good operationg system, get a mac and OSX will guide you! :)

NO…. DO NOT INSTALL WINDOWS 7 BETA, I HAD INSTALLED THE BETA AND IT WAS WORKING FINE, BUT AFTER 2 WEEKS MY LAPTOP STARTED TO GET HOTTER AND HOTTER, YESTERDAY I UPDATE WINDOWS 7 WITH UPDATE AND FINNALLY IT FRIED MY ALMOST NEW LAPTOP BIOS CHIP, WINDOWS 7 USES TOO MUCH RESOURCES TO SPEED THINGS UP AND IT WILL DAMAGE YOUR MOBO, BIOS OR HARD DRVIE IF NOT CAREFULL ! PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THIS PLEASURE TO BILL GATES…. WILL BE READY TO MAKE SOME MONEY WITH A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST MS SOON !

@jochyestrella given that you don’t know what the caps lock key is why should anyone trust your opinion on anything.