its out now. wondering if anyone has had access to it early and would like to share a few things. err, answers to my questions. they are: 1. should I upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate or is it really worth it to strip out the Vista Premium and install whole brand new 7 ultimate? 2. is Ultimate worth having? if I upgrade to ultimate, I will have to buy two copies (1 for wife, 1 for me) or I can buy 7 home premium that will cover both our comps for about 1/3 to 1/4 the cost. hmm, that's all for now. thanx XoObies for any help / opinions here!
Can't really give you an answer on the upgrade vs. buy new question; I guess the only difference is you'd have to hang onto the Vista materials if you did upgrade, in practical terms. There are three versions of Win7 on offer to most people; Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. While you could do a feature-by-feature comparison, if you want all the bells and whistles Professional is often a good choice (key features it adds are support for two physical CPUs, > 16 GB of memory, Windows XP mode, domain join). Ultimate adds a few extra things, but only some people are likely to use them. This page is pretty good if you want all the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions Also includes links that explain what the various features are, and for Ultimate there's a good chance that'll be necessary.
i've gotten my hands on the RC at my school; to me; it feels like mac in certain ways, especially the task icons.
Managed to get hold of a copy of W7 Pro as part of the student discount offer (£30) Love the fact you dont even need to install drivers for it, its just does it all itself Still busy setting stuff up but loving it so far, deffo worth the money
eskara did it ask for a cd key for your vista or anything? I want to do that offer but I don't exactly have a legal copy.
i picked up the OEM home premium on sale for 97 bucks at Microcenter ... i was using the RC for a long time and boy do i love this ... better then XP
I was running Xp and got it anyway. It gives you an option to upgrade or do a custom install, IE. A brand new install which is what i did. I still have my XP on another HDD. I dont know if the upgrade asks for a key or not but you will have a windows 7 key emailed to you anyway.
Ultimate isn't worth having unless you can get it for free. I've been using a pre-release copy of 7 Pro for the past month or so, and it feels exactly like Vista, so choose wisely.
Yeah, I'm going to grab the $30 one with my old student email address, I was wondering the same thing, I got XP - no Vista, and as long as I do a clean install with the Win 7 I should be fine right? Only 1 license.. /shrug.
Yeah, the promotional prices were definitely great value for money. The full retail, on the other hand, still seems a little steep. Perversely, though, I only know a handful of people who have had to pay it - most of my acquaintances got in on the $50 deal, or are students and get it cheap anyway; the majority of the public seem to get the OS with new computers, which benefit from heavy discounts anyway. I'm still using the RC while I wait for other copies to arrive... but it has been pretty good to work with honestly. The OS seems to pretty much take care of itself now without even needing to invoke much geek voodoo to do it, and managing stuff across the network is far easier than it ever has been before. There are some things I think could work better (haven't been able to get windows media remote streaming to work even after reconfiguring my router, while Winamp Remote works just fine...) but overall, I've been pretty happy with it and wouldn't go back. Especially at work. Win7 lets me manage 30+ application windows as though there were only something like five. Not everybody actually likes the new taskbar much, considering how many people I've seen revert to Vista-style, but to me it's a huge improvement once you get used to it. P.S. Yes, I've seen it stated that Windows XP is a qualifying product for the Win7 "Upgrade" editions. You will need to do a clean install, though (which if it's anything like the RC isn't as bad as it sounds; it just shoves all your documents and program files into another folder on the hard drive, so you can retrieve them from there when you're done. I'd still back important stuff up though, just to be safe. As they say, you should really back up reasonably often anyway. ).
Got one copy installed yesterday replacing RC1 (Fresh install of course). I'm on call this weekend so I will likely hold off on my main machine until next week.
I've been running Win 7 for almost a year now. I like it a lot, and strongly recommend it, especially if you've been running that horrible bastard child called Vista. I would definitely install from scratch - the upgrade process IS better now, but it's always better to do a fresh install; you never know what is left behind to gum up the works. Ultimate version is not worth it IMO - the Home Premium version will give you everything you want and more.
Been using it for a while. It's much faster than XP imo. XP takes a few seconds to respond when opening windows at certain times, whereas with 7, I've never had this problem. Everything is instant. Windows 7 Pro is the best choice if you want Media Center and XP mode. If not, go with Premium.
Just as an aside... in Japan there's a deal on at Burger King... its the Windows 7 Whopper... 7 patties... I saw it on the news, seeing a lot of scronny people devouring them..... *shudders*
I might get pro with my student id and maybe get a 2nd hd and place it on that. As my HDD I have right now is all cluster fucked anyways...
thanks for all the comments folks! hope they keep coming - perhaps folks who already have used 7 can share neat tricks or tweaks. Phaedrae and I have decided we'll get Pro full versions and do clean installs for max performance. goodbye to craptacular Vista! oh, and srsly, I'd eat that whopper.