2008 First look at Windows 7 beta 1

ZDNet writes:

"I have to thank Santa for leaving me a copy of Windows 7 beta 1 in my stocking for Christmas Day. This beta (build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400) should be the first and only beta from Microsoft of Windows 7, and I'm pleased to report that it's a good one."

[tatotiburon]

This is how Vista suppose to be. Can't wait for this OS.

[xc7x]

So in a sense it's Vista modified. Hopefully no driver issues like Vista had at the beginning.

[uie4rhig]

Win7 uses vista kernel, so all drivers shud work with win7 as they work with vista ;)

[SaiyanFury]

I've also read that Windows 7 is supposed to outperform XP so if they keep the driver compatibility and speed coupled with the Vista GUI, I think things could be good again.

[whoelse]

lol looking more and more like MAC OS.

[heroicjanitor]

You made me laugh there actually. It says something that you are hopeful they will outperform an operating system they released over 7 years ago.

[sloth4urluv]

Actually not really, Its hard to add features to something, increase its compatibily/flexibility, and maintain performance at the same time.

[heroicjanitor]

It's not that hard when today's pcs are hundreds of times faster than what was available 7 years ago...

[ArmrdChaos]

Same exact thing happened when they brought out Windows ME. They were unable to get XP finished and decided to push that abortion of an OS out the door. Vista is nothing more than the modern day version of ME. Hopefully Windows 7 will be to Vista what XP was to ME.

[GameOn]

I thought ME crashed all the time. Vista isn't that bad.

[Leathersoup]

It's weird... I had ME and I'm now running Vista and I've never run into the issues that other people seem to have...

[Kevin McCallister]

That's because 97% of the people complaining about Vista or ME never actually used either OS, they just read about them on the internet. And if they did, it was probably on a new laptop that didn't meet specifications and boots up with 178 programs running in the background like Dell is fond of doing.

[Panthers]

ive never had a single crash with vista.

[cherrypie]

See, you clearly dont know WTF you're talking about.

[ArmrdChaos]

I DO know what I am talking about AND have used both...or more like had to FIX both. I have had to deal with MANY friends and family systems that had problems with ME. I likewise had to deal with NUMEROUS driver/bug related issues with VISTA at work. I will admit that Vista is not as unstable as ME BUT there are definite similarities as to how MS brought them to market. They both represent unfinished versions of a successor OS. Anyone who wishes to blatantly accuse me of incompetence WITHOUT knowing who I am or what I do for a living should set pom poms down and step back from them.

[Kevin McCallister]

Just to be clear, my post wasn't directed at you ArmrdChaos, I'm more so talking about people in general. With that said though, lmao at the person with 5 different accounts that got angry and disagreed with everyone here in about 1 minute.

[darkequitus]

Why the defensiveness. I can't see why. The guy who said "That's because 97% of the people complaining about Vista or ME never actually used..", then you fall in the 3% like me (former driver programmer) had problems with Me.

WOW!

[ArmrdChaos]

I understood where you were coming from...its all good. In this case of the OS similarities I call it as I see it. I am hoping that Windows 7 finally makes it worth the move.

************

Dark...not defensiveness...more to the point of irritated. I just get a little tired of the usual "your opinion != to my opinion so your are an idiot" type responses around here.

[Kevin McCallister]

I agree. When we look back there's no question Vista will be seen in the same light as ME (it already is in most peoples' eyes). I think it all boils down to bad timing on MS's part. XP still had plenty of years left in it and the issue with the underpowered laptops and slow benchmark results messed up Vista's reputation pretty early in its life. When it comes to performance, ME did have its issues, but I find Vista to be a very nice and stable OS. It seems like the community at large wanted Vista to fail from the get go, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Windows 7.

[darkequitus]

Ok, agreed,

But that is N4G all over. I have given up fighting all these "tech gurus" on this site.

[sak500]

These OS Vista/ME had issues with drivers. Even though xp had initially the same problem but it was more compatible with the legacy devices. I've tried both ME and VIsta Ultimate. When back to Xp pro sp3. No need for resource hog of a machine when u can have same things done, faster on xp. My system still is not antique, C2D @ 3.4Ghz, Watercooled, 2x1Gb 800mhz, dual channel, 7950GX2 512x2 Single sli card.

[uie4rhig]

im more on vista coz i play games more often.. i used to have XP installed as well.. but since it was pretty annoying having multiple OS's.. i decided to remove XP and just use linux and vista.. and to be honest.. it is much stabeler with SP1 (have tried both yes) but still not on par with XP/Linux.. yes you can work with it usually .. but it's still gay sometimes.. and i kept Vista over XP coz everything was installed on there and cudn't be bothered installing anything on XP plus Vista is genuine ^^, :P

if you dont believe me i have my vista here all personalised in the screenshot.. and one of weirdest thing that has happened to Vista is attached to the video ;P
http://img220.imageshack.us...

[SonyOwnsNextYear]

lol, crashes were coming from many programs that vista did not fully support. NVIDIAS SLI being one of the major ones. all of you saying people do not or have not used vista are being ignorant. theres many people i know who build quad vid gamings systems THAT STILL DO NOT RECOMMEND VISTA.

try sli, on vista 64 with 8 gigs ram and run crysis. or anyother game for that matter. within the day, youll crash many a times. and wtf is wrong with file transfers? they take twice as long on vista tnah tey do on xp.So.....NO. vista is still not reliable.

[sloth4urluv]

Omg ME was horrible. Didnt understand how it could be that much worse from 98.

[pshizle]

its just kinda a resource hog that's all

it rarely does crash

cant wait for version 7

[s2kphile]

I'd have to agree with that statement. Vista is a resource hog, I bought a laptop with Vista Home 64-bit on it. My Vista uses 1.64GB of memory out of the 4Gig memory stick thats in there while XP in my desktop uses 841MB out of the 3GB that is in there and honestly IMO I feel like it runs faster then Vista. My laptop cost me $650 with vista while my desktop cost me $500 with XP.

But I do have to say it's little more user friendly for people who aren't computer/OS savvy. There is some features in Vista though that are missing like the "Wireless Config Zero" service. I just hope that the Windows 7 takes the best of XP and the best of Vista while using less resources then both if possible.

Please Microsoft don't make me spend $300 for your OS especially if I have your XP SP3 and your Vista SP1. I'd like to upgrade for free or less then $200 please. =)

[rsebes]

Windows 7 looks like vista with a name change. We shall see. If you have seriously not had any issues with vista consider yourself lucky. Someone, please connect your bluetooth headset to vista and try to use it... good luck.. lol

[Kakkoii]

@rsebes: It is not Vista with a different name. It has quite a large amount of improvements and optimizations. It's shaping up to be a great OS.

(Although, I'm going to apply a Windows XP skin to it when I start using Windows 7 lol. I couldn't care less for that Mac style crap all over.)

[Bladestar]

I love vista... it's the OS I use mostly.

Vista was a victim of Apple's "Hello I am a PC" campaign and companies like Dell, HP and other that in order to keep selling computer... added the famous, "Windows Vista Compatible"...

Vista works perfectly specially after SP1... with the proper hardware...

Windows 7 will improve in areas like supporting less powerful hardware, quicker boot and multi-touch screen.... ohh and gesture ala Surface...

My wife who's a graphic designer is going to love using a touch screen instead of a drawing pad.

[Jager]

im hating Vista... Cant play BF2 because of it (Punkbuster kicks Vista users)... hope they fix this :/

[uie4rhig]

im still wondering wondering what makes you love microsoft so much.. you're beyond a fanboy lol

[Bladestar]

@superaktieboy - and I wonder what make you hate Microsoft so much? Wait don't answer that... that's obvious... you probably have close friend who learned how to replace his hard drive and install linux and now feels he is in a virtual war against Microsoft the evil empire...

and you are his supporter.

I'm a software developer, I write applications for linux and unix too... specially VOIP (SIP) Sip proxy, PBX apps... etc.

I use a mac when I write cross browser applications...

I believe that each system have it's strength and weakness.. depending on it's intended purpose...

for example, I wouldn't try using a unix machine primarily to play games... Just like I would use a Mac to edit music...

I would use unix or linux to write VOIP apps...

I like windows personally because it supports a wider range of applications, games, etc.

Why would I hate it... like many of you? I make a living and I do not try to enforce what OS the system requires...

Sorry I am not a blind hater like you... who hates microsoft and anything from them just because "pedro" my linux nerd friend told me to...
I am very familiar and have all other OS... I use them daily.

[uie4rhig]

actually i'll have you know that i myself found out about linux.. thats one.. second is, i use Windows Vista more often than i use linux.. for the same reason you said, there is a greater application support on there.. and no i don't hate Microsoft coz i use MS Office, windows etc..

sorry but your argument is wrong.. and true you are not a blind hater.. you're blind lover (ah well you know what they say.. love is blind)..

also why wudn't you try to use linux/unix for games? if devs start making games for it, you'll know that linux will run the same games with much less powerful hardware..

i feel really sorry for you, but that post just proved exactly the opposite of what you just said..

[mirroredderorrim]

CALL THE AMBULANCE!

[darkequitus]

I run Vista Premium (SP2 beta)on my 24" iMac. To the point now, I use it more than my Mac native os.

With enough ram (3gb for me) and a dual core, Vista is by far the most stable and user friendly os MS has ever produced.

I agree, those who complained about vista either did not have the right setup or worse still, followed like sheep and believe a few horror stories as universal.

People still do not understand superfech and see ot a a memory hog just because some ram is pre-allcoated but released if needed

darkequitus:psn/xbl

[hfaze]

I hear ya on that (I'm running Vista Ultimate on my 20" iMac ;-), but I have run into enough funky issues with Vista to keep me from completely warming up to it.

The latest ATI Catalyst drivers have killed DRM on my Vista install, which is enough to keep Rhapsody from working. On my Acer Aspire 5674 running XP SP3, the latest ATI Catalyst drivers do not have the same issue.

And about the only thing I use Windows for is Microsoft Office, and Rhapsody (for my Sansa MP3 player and Rhapsody To-Go). Thus nullifying one of my two reasons...

And you use Vista more than MacOS? I love MacOS 10.5 Tiger.. Then again, I'm a UNIX head at heart... :-)

[bobdog626]

Don't Put Window 7 out now or you will confuse the hell out of your customer's . They Will Turn toward MAC if you do. I Know i Sell your Product .Keep Window 7 at bay until you get it RIGHT.

[Sanhlami]

A refined version of Vista. I'll expect nothing but positives from Windows 7.

[Guardian0fPeace]

Last year, around winter, Vista's updates made it far worse, and it would crash just when browsing through files, but since SP1 and summer updates, it's really improved immensely--64bit edition has been great for greatly demanding tasks such as gaming and video editing with major special effects!

They should dump 32bit, pure obsolete garbage!

[akaFullMetal]

looks alot like vista

[xwabbit]

I still wont get this lol, with windows seven it will be a lot e z r to track people who are misbehaving over the internet :P. So ill stay with windows XP ^^ and avoid getting caught :D

[Mutley416]

I know a guy who uses a modded OS/ Windows XP Black Edition...Well no not me...some one else does umm my brother inLAW...It`s friggin great...all the best of XP/Vista/Apple/Linux=great OS

And ME sucked...SO did Vista @ launch...dude no friggin printer drivers...WTF-

It would have to have some really good stuff to get me to leave my current OS...I mean for the guy I know to leave his OS...

[Karum]

You know I actually like Vista, sure it has it's [rpblems and issues but my install runs smoothly and works quite well overall.

I like the look and feel of it much more than XP so if Win7 can be a much better version of Windows than Vista is then I'll be happy to move to that OS, albeit not right away.

[lelik]

whats up with the taskbar looking like linux?

[SAiOSiN]

Looks a lot like Vista, but with a little Leopard OSX twist. I have use both operating systems and Leopard is easier to use.

[devilhunterx]

wow, i have heard santa giving lump of coal, but this is like he took a dump in the sock

[moja]

It's that time again, ramping up for another MS OS release. Kinda exciting to see the progress. Anyway, it struck me as peculiar that the new window manager and taskbar look more similar to linux - ie more pronounced corners and flat-colored taskbar. Anyone else think so? Perhaps for the best it will borrow some secure architecture.

[SiLeNt KNighT]

The only problem i have with vista is memory allocation. it uses up way to much ram, even at idle states. if W7 can improve on this which is almost a given it will. W7 is going to be awesome. Ive been running vista for almost two years now and ive NEVER had a problem with crashes or drivers that i didnt have with XP. I agree with Kevin McCallister though, theres so many people that hate vista that never even used it. "my friends uncles nephews brothers grandmas baby mama is running vista on a Eee pc and they said it suuucks!!"

I just wish MS would give vista users a hook up on W7 =/

[CrazyOrange]

my laptop is pretty old and labeld with "Windows Vista Capable" and its NOT. !
Geniune Intel CPU T2500 @ 2.00 Ghz // 512 RAM

[outlawlife]

vista has come a long way from what it was though i have to say, if anybody here was in the beta program then you know what i'm talking about

i still run xp pro, and probably will on this pc forever

my next purchase is going to be a mac so i probably won't actually have a box with windows 7 on it for some time but from what i see theya re addressing the issues with vista

i don't mind vista for the most part, it is relatively stable but xp pro works very well for me right now so there is no need to upgrade

[dkgshiz]

if I didn't lose interest in pc gaming. Now I just use Ubuntu 8.10 and Leopard. Windows 7 looks almost the same as vista. MS surely didn't stick with Vista too long. Vista lasted like 2 years. Now there already coming out with the new OS! If your not a PC gamer, theres no need to use Windows. Just get a Mac. Or use Ubuntu, since its free.

[jjesso1993]

downloaded the beta this mourning using it now. its alot faster than vista using alot less ram than vista and have not had any crashes