…from twc use, though not much content yet.
Just installed Win7 Beta and… first impressions:
Someone at Microsoft has at least a budding sense of humor. Win7 Beta-Default deskop background is a Beta swimming in a blue field. Cute. *sigh* (I don’t do “cute” well… )
Installed quickly for a Windows OS. Under 30 mins to a working desktop. Not all that bad. Reboots for parts of the installation process were all under one minute. Seems more responsive than Vista systems I’ve been on, but that’s purely subjective.
Internet Exploder 8 seems to suck a little less than previous iterations of Internet Exploder.
I dislike the default system sounds, but that’s purely idiosyncratic.
The eye candy is nice. Not necessary but nice. Comparable to my default Ubuntu setup.
Recognized all my hardware, set my display to its native resolution.
Small printing problem from within a Control Panel applet, but printing from other apps seems to work fine. Printing over the network’s another story. Seems I need to install a patch to the WinXP computers, as is neccesary for many with mixed Vista/XP networks. Funny, that. Network printing in Linux has been relatively simple, apart from the problems after the upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 that eventually sorted themselves out (Right: long story; see previous posts on that :-)).
So far, this is just about the best beta (shrinkwrapped or not *heh*) I’ve seen from Microsoft, of any kind.
More later.
Update: OK, I have a bit of time for one of my gripes, now. Granular control of security settings is a pain. UAC, for example, allows users to set the security settings to only four simplified, general settings (unbleieveably irritating, two degrees of sorta irritating and off). No granular control. For that, one has to dig around in Win 7’s innards–which I’m perfectly satisfied to do, but which Aunt Tilly and Bubba Billy Bob Joe Jim can’t (shouldn’t) and probably don’t know anyone technically adept enough to do for them. So, the dumbed down training wheels approach is fine for Aunt Tilly and Bubba Billy Bob Joe Jim (by which I mean Academia Nut Fruitcakes (and [darned near] all Prisons for Kids administrators, recent liberal arts graduates, etc.), Big Box-High Dollar “Tech Support” Personnel, as well as the average, innumerate, illiterate computer user). But it’s decidedly NOT OK with me that the GUI doesn’t have an “advanced” tab that allows advanced, granular settings. It’s as though Me$$y$oft is trying to be Apple. *heh*
However, that said, there’s a neat lil app from the WinVistaClub, The Ultimate Windows Tweaker, that very nearly satisfies my desire for a decent GUI to handle digging into some innards (without doing Registry edits, etc.). It appears to work the same for Win7 as it does for Vista, so it’s making my life a tad easier and more comfortable. 😉
Then there are the silly things like no “browse to” button for navigating to files for changing the desktop background. No. Have to select from a “theme” or use Explorer to go to a folder with appropriate graphics files, right click on one and then select “Set as Desktop Background”. *feh* Silly time waster.
Little things, but it’s little things like this that either irk or please me. ‘s’way I am.
BTW, I’d forgotten, after just eight months or so of daily Ubuntu use, just how much I hate Windows’ DRM crap. Watch a TV show or movie online at a site that a.) does “own the rights” and b.) has made it available for free (with ads or whatever) for streaming and… Windows intrudes and says I don’t have the rights to watch it? *feh* yes, *feh* I say! Pain in the tuches doesn’t begin to describe it!