Okay, not the month gap I promised, but today was Win 7 Launch Day and, while I didn't throw a party, I do have it up and running on the laptop (thanks in large part to Patrick's efforts).
Soooo, what are my first impressions? Meh!
What will be your first impressions? Probably a whole lot better. Windows 7 is the smarter, younger brother to Vista, the OS that almost killed Microsoft. Given the urgency on the part of Billy Gates' alma mater, it was imperative that the company release a solid Vista fix and they have. It's all Vista-like with better performance, less intrusive nattering and performs somewhere close to my gimmicked-out XP. The new machine, Quincy, will certainly have it when it arrives sometime between now and the end of cold season. That's because Quincy will be a quad-core cadillac with 20G of memory and will be running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 so that I can run multiple virtual machines with 3G of memory each. But each of those machines will be XP computers.
Really, what bugs me about Win 7 on first up close and personal blush, is the eye candy. I know. It cements my curmudgeon reputation. But the fact is, I'm old and I tend not to be diverted by pretty young things any more. Took awhile, but I finally got most of the eye candy dispensed with and finally got something approaching a usable desktop. Didn't get to the shutting off of those irritating "do you REALLY want to" dialogs, but it will happen. And I am certainly not going to depend on Microsoft for security on a main machine. That's what ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite's for. But I'll wait a bit and give the native stuff a try on the Moby Dick the laptop. Actually want to test out the new MS Security Essentials and see just how it does. Can't hurt, since the laptop isn't doing any production work any time soon. Simply some surfing and use for demoing the latest versions of what I AM producing right now.
I want speed first and foremost in a computer. Most every decision I make in regards to changing computer or software is based on speed. I want a second saved here and another second or seven saved there. And despite the impressive ability of Win 7 to be almost, if not AS fast, as XP on the IBM laptop, I just don't have the energy to fiddle around getting the new OS in just the right spot on my current production computers. It'd have to be a darn sight faster than it actually is, to force me to move prematurely.
On the other hand, YOUR mileage will vary. For most everybody who I have been cautioning not to go near a computer purchase since the spring, HAVE AT IT! I think the wait will have been worthwhile. Unless, of course, your new-found patience will let you WAIT JUST A LITTLE LONGER.
Those holiday-season sales will be upon us in about 45 days!
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