Win7 64 ???

[hutch--]

I just turned the i7 on as the DVD player on my dev machine has just given up the ghost and LO and BEHOLD, it only wanted 120 meg of updates.  :P

[Vortex]

Hi Hutch,

Is your Windows 7 disc integrated with Sp1?

If you have multiple computers to update, you can try the WSUS Offline Update tool :

http://www.wsusoffline.net

[hutch--]

Hi Erol,

Probably not but every time I turn it on which is not all that often, it wants another 100 meg or more of updates. For what its worth the i7 runs well and Win7 64 seems to be fast enough and if it was not for the irksome interface i would probably use it more. XP SP3 on my Core2 Quad does everything well so I am in no hurry to use the new one.

[dedndave]

you just need to turn it on a little more often   

[hutch--]

Dave,

Its a point of diminishing returns, 4 gig of memory on this Core2 quad allow me to do just about anything I have ever needed and the 3 gig Core2 quad is no slouch in terms of speed. The i7 is marginally faster and the box has 8 gig for Win7 64 bit but the bulk of software that I own is 32 bit and it does not do anything much better on the i7 than on the Core2. The down side is I don't like the Win7 interface and while I found a set of stubs that allow the old NT4 Winfile to run on it, the fundamental interface is slow and designed for consumer idiots rather than experienced users. The up side of 64 bit Win7 is most things run fast on it, particularly internet related applications.

[dedndave]

yah - i have a friend that has win7-64 - and have had to work on his machine a couple times

i think it's like anything else - you have to allow yourself to get used to it
problem is - that gets harder to do as we get older - lol

with XP - i know where everything is
with win7, i have to search for the "feature" with every little task
but, i remember it was the same way when i made the transition from win98 to XP   :P

[hutch--]

I had Win2000 inbetween, only went to XP due to formatting large hard disks. It is an OK OS version but a bit flaky alongside Win2000. I solved the problem of how ugly the default colour scheme was by using a Vista interface, added a few ancient toys like Winfile ad it has been doing the job for years. The irksome part to Win7 64 bit is the interface components are simply slower to use, I don't like the file dialogs in it at all and while the Aero Glass interface works fine, I see it as a cheesy gimmick.

[Mr Hippy]

The size of the updates doesn't cause much of a stir to me. It is how slow Windows Update works that kills me.

[dedndave]

never played with win 2000
i have heard a lot of good things about it
i wouldn't mind having a legal copy to use on test machines

[hutch--]

Dave, if you looked around you could probably pick up a retail version for peanuts, make sure you shove the later service pack through it, SP6a from memory. You are stuck with the boot partition being limited to 128 meg but once you shove the service pack through it you can set up the rest of the partitions to whatever size you like. Win2000 is rock solid and really well behaved. Most stuff runs on it apart from the later OS specific apps.

[dedndave]

i usually make the boot partition 100 Mb or smaller, anyways
i have heard that it was a bit faster than XP
a typical situation - as they add features, everything slows down a little

[Mr Hippy]

i usually make the boot partition 100 Mb or smaller, anyways
i have heard that it was a bit faster than XP
a typical situation - as they add features, everything slows down a little

Then again, technology is 10% faster every year. 

[dedndave]

yah but each OS is 15% slower to make up for it

[jj2007]

yah but each OS is 15% slower to make up for it

Strangely enough, Win7-32 boots faster than XP. It's actually the first time that a new OS boots faster than the old one. Once you've learnt how to switch Aero off, it's also fast in usage, and you can get used to it quickly.

There is one new feature I like: When you hover over the taskbar, a popup shows you the open windows e.g. of Firefox, and you can close the superfluous ones conveniently. On the other hand, you can no longer assign keys to Start menu items, i.e. a simple [WinKey]F to launch Firefox is no longer possible. And that's a real nuisance.

[Farabi]

With my SiS Mirage 3 and dual core 1,86 proseesor with 1 GB RAM, can I switch to win7? And is it support OpenGL?