Windows 7 endless reboot answer evades Microsoft

[badger_fruit]

I don't like change, especially when it's "change for change sake" .. Vista was just too different for me to be bothered to buy; my family and I were happy using XP and didn't see why we should upgrade. It's the same reason why we're still using an Open Suse10.3 PC and not upgrading to 11.1.

As a PC support specialist, I knew I had to at least give it a try. Vista was terrible. I mean, it looked nice but that's about it. After trying to get basic things working, I gave up - after all, my place of work had no plans to upgrade from XP so learning this OS was nothing I needed to do.

My system went back to XP and I was happy.

Then, W7 came along, "urging" us to upgrade for a better experience.
Again, I resisted, everything works as it is but as more of our customers had expressed an interest in it, I figured again I would at least try it.

Here is my experience and opinion:-

I used the upgrade advisor, the idea being check compatibility before wiping out the HDD (not that it mattered, for testing, I was going to bash in a different HDD that could be formatted etc), it was just to see if my other hardware would work OK or not. I downloaded the advisor and every time I tried to run it, it told me "I need a working internet connection". OK, I do. I've just downloaded you and another background download was happily working away.

Re-tried about 20 times before giving up. I'd just go for it I thought.
So, a rather painless "clean" install and it was up and running. No sound and graphics looked like a dead, roadkill dog. Ok, drivers needed ... off I went. SoundMax didn't seem to provide any W7 drivers but I managed to get the NVidia 6200 card working with relative ease.

Ultimately, after 3 days of google searching I could not find a driver for the audio.
Show over folks. It's a media centre PC and I don't see why I should buy more hardware to get something that worked perfectly fine under XP to work with the new OS.

I have since tried it on another machine, same GFX card but this had a SB Audigy 2 sound-card, for some reason, the GFX card worked off the bat and with a quick download, the audio worked nicely too.

I've since re-installed opensuse back over it but I must say, it really was a nice and polished interface - even if it did take some time to get used to the 'quick launch' thing. I went back though, because there was nothing really new that didn't involve spending a boat load of cash on new hardware (touch-screen, DX10 and so on). Suse11.1 and KDE3.5 with Compiz still beat the looks and speed hands down.

Too many features which I now take for granted (eg bash hostory, multiple desktops) are still missing - of course, should windows want to impliment multiple/virtual desktops they they're screwed, they have to re-code almost 100% of the OS - the customisation aspect is still lacking without 3rd party tools.

In reference to "Sales up, problems down" - of course sales are up on Vista, W7 is nice and if you're not used to the new breed of linux desktops then you will be "wow'd" with the interface and whatnots - if you're an XP user then you may be wanting to have a nicer desktop but didn't like or want Vista (W7 Beta?)

So sales up, yes, you have most Vista users and a large number of XP users wanting to upgrade.

They claim that problems are down on the number compared to Vista - well dur, I bet the majority of "problems" were things like "where is Add/Remove programs" - which most vista users now know the answers to and there's been enough hype about the changes from XP to Vista that the XP users who went to W7 are well aware of.

Anyway, there. My 2p on W7.
Enjoy!!

[Dies]

Originally Posted by badger_fruit

...
of course, should windows want to impliment multiple/virtual desktops they they're screwed, they have to re-code almost 100% of the OS
...

Wow. I didn't know that. I guess I just didn't realize how many people had already re-written Windows.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/D...powertoys.mspx

http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/

http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/

http://www.codeplex.com/vdm

The list goes on...


I also find it surprising that a "PC support specialist" would be so resistant to change, and don't understand how they could keep that title for very long if they were. But hey, if someone can manage it then good for them.

[beaker_]

You don't understand? My guess is he's home by 5 and away on the weekends. There's nothing stupid about that.

[Dies]

Originally Posted by beaker_

You don't understand? My guess is he's home by 5 and away on the weekends. There's nothing stupid about that.

What the hell are you talking about? or on?

seriously...

[beaker_]

Ok, I'll explain. You stated, 'I don't understand how he could keep such a title or position...'. Well keeps that title or position because he sticks with what's tried, tested, and true. Instead of flailling about because an upgrade or new product has been released, he's home home with his wife & kids. The customer then sees someone who is incontrol and clearly has ownership of their systems and will his word as gossple,

As to what I'm on; I will experience a strong hit of nitrogen narcouses followed by a large plate of scallops. Good night.

[Dies]

Originally Posted by beaker_

Ok, I'll explain. You stated, 'I don't understand how he could keep such a title or position...'. Well keeps that title or position because he sticks with what's tried, tested, and true. Instead of flailling about because an upgrade or new product has been released, he's home home with his wife & kids. The customer then sees someone who is incontrol and clearly has ownership of their systems and will his word as gossple,

As to what I'm on; I will experience a strong hit of nitrogen narcouses followed by a large plate of scallops. Good night.

So I guess when his boss, unless he runs his own business of course, or one of his clients asks for help with their Windows Vista or Windows 7 system, he just tells them that those suck, he only works with Windows XP and that they should downgrade? Oh yeah, that sounds professional.

I guess at least his favorite version wasn't ME.

Like I said originally, if he can manage that then more power to him. I still don't see the point of your post or anywhere where I said anything about stupid.

[beaker_]

I'd love to stay and chat but its getting off topic and I'm gearing up.

Perhaps I missed wrote, 'nothing stupid about that.' It wasn't an aqusation but instead a general statement. Try repeating it next time your working till midnight while the electricians are at home. Perhaps trade language gets lost in translation... from the analog-digital-analog i.e.,

Yeah its actually more professional than you think. Consider Honeywell for ex., you will find a plethera of software which runs on either dos, win98, win nt, win2k, or winxp sp2, and they also spec the pc or server right down to the drivers (some had bad memory leaks). If you don't meet that spec and call for assistance, TAC will tell you in no uncertain terms, 'does it meet the spec,' 'no,' 'well that's just TFB, call back after you met the spec.' If the client wants to use something not gaurenteed to work, well, clearly his problems are self inflicted and are billable.

Clearly we've gone way off topic.

[scottro]

As for me, I'm high on the real thing. Caffeine, nicotine, and self help books.

And, on that note folks, I think that as this is going off topic, and degenerating into something not good, so I'm going to close it.