Well, I never did get around to installing the UNofficial Windows 7 beta (really offically late alpha) in a VM. Now, I need to reinstall VMWare Server, after a kernel update seems to have fried things (oh, the joys of “almost ready for Aunt Tilly” Ubuntu). Why? Well, because I need my WInXP, Win2K, Win98 and various other ‘nix-flavored “computers” running in VMs and because… I just downloaded the official Windows 7 Beta from Microsoft, and it’s only good through August (although I hear rumors there’s a way to kil the kill switch, I will NOT be attempting any such thing).
I did get a few of “page not loading” errors before I finally managed to get MS to cough up the download. Slow. Took 1.5 hours for the measly 3.15GB. *heh* And that’s another thing that kinda surprised me. I waited until tonight to download it. Microsoft announced that only 2.5 million downloads of the beta were being offered. Where was the demand?
Of course, I do NOT want to put it on a machine we’d need for daily use here at twc central, because Microsoft is waffling (so what else is new?) on its official release date for Windows 7 and because, well, it is beta software. Well, you can hardly blame ’em after the (well-earned) beating Microsoft has taken for Vista. (I’m still pulling out hair I can ill-afford to lose over Vista’s finicky networking. You try to get 64-bit Vista talking with 64-bit XP. The Microsoft Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder patch that does an OK job making 32-bit XP computers visible to Vista computers is… 32-bit, and–so far–does NOT do the job with 64-bit XP computers I’ve tried it with [naturally] as the only “nearly-MS-approved” method, since a 64-bit version of the patch seems to be AWOL. Thanks, Microsoft. Yeh, yeh, I’ve downloaded the source code from Microsoft to build it for “other operating systems”, but… .)
Well, maybe I ought to just slap another compy together and see if the system requirements listed (1Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, etc.) by Microsoft will really run Windows 7. (My bet is NOT. MS consistently understates basic requirements, enticing folks who shouldn’t attempt to load an OS to do so, but maybe the zebra can change his stripes. And yes, I mangled the old metaphor because it sometimes seems that shrink wrap betas, bait and switches and other increasingly prevalent MS tactics shopuld deserve some stripes, at times. *heh*)
Anywho, I have through August to test this out, so I may just put it on the back burner for a while and concentrate on more pressing tasks around here. Yeh, that’s probably a Good Idea, what with all those Resolutions staring me in the face every day. 🙂
Note: Downloading the Win7 Beta requires having either Silverlight installed on your Windows box or Moonlight, an open source implementation of Microsoft Silverlight for Unix systems on your ‘nix box. Using Moonlight was not a happy-making thing on my Ubuntu box, and since I prefer burning ISOs outside VMs anyway (“anyway” because I need to reinstall VMWare Server, you recall), I used a 32-bit WinXP system to download and burn the 64-bit Win7 beta. But. Methought to meself, “Self, better d/l the 32-bit as well,” so went through that super-frustrating experience on my Ubuntu box using Moonlight. Succeeded, but not w/o losing some more hair…
That said and done, here are some direct download links that may work. No promises, and do scan these downloads for malware as you would ANY download.
32-bit Windows 7 Beta direct link
64-bit Windows 7 Beta direct link
Note also that you must visit the Silverlight disenabled Microsoft site to obtain your product key. Oh, you also have to have a Microsoft Live ID. Use a throwaway email address for that, if you wish.
Oh, and (another tagalong) Why Windows 7? The version number Windows 7 calls itself by is Windows version 6.1 (Vista was 6.0). An explanation at the Windows Vista Blog gives some reasons, and if you believe all that jazz, I have some nice bottom land I’d like to sell you (only I’d rather not mention just what it’s on the bottom of).
I won’t be downloading Windows 7 anytime soon. My experiences with Vista leave me somewhat wary of now MS OSes.
OK, so I’ve hated so very, very many things about Vista–from the crappy networking (Vista, quite apart from phanboi protestations, does NOT play well with others), to being forced to circumvent the training wheels approach to system security that assumes that ALL users are idiots… and a plethora of points in between.
But. I did give it a try, and now know enough that MOST Vista gripes are easily dealt with (for others). Most. I still have a user whose husband’s 64-bit Vista HTPC cannot see her XP-64 PC. Why? See above. But still… I began thinking of components scattered around twc central that’d be useful in building a low-end Win7 PC. Unfortunately, most of the spare parts laying around don’t include motherboards that are friendly toward 1GB and above configurations. *sigh* But I have scads of old 20-40GB IDE hard drives laying around that’d–according to M$–afford plenty of space to try Win7 beta out. Hmmm… I can get a dual Xenon mobo (w/2X Xenon 2.4Ghz CPUs) and 1GB memory for about $120 (w/shipping)… that’d certainly be enough horsies for the M$ minumum config, and since the MOBO has six memory slots, with room for up to 12GB, if it worked OK, I could just make it into an HTPC box. Something to think about. Of course, most of that cost is memory, since the Xeon MOBO requires registered memory. Oh, and were I to make it an HTPC box, I’d have to add a USB external sound box, since the (“server”) MOBO has only one PCI card. Maybe other way around, since I already have a selection of nice PCI sound cards–external tuner. It’d be fun, at least, and give me a way to play around with the HTPC concept the Windows 7 way.
BTW, the release notes page for the beta itself apparently proclaims that M$ is planning on a JUly ship date for Win7. Not that a savvy user would jump right on it. Early M$ releases are ALWAYS shrink-wrap betaware, it seems. (*sigh* Marketing dictating releases to development. That ws one of the main problems with Vista and was THE central problem with Windows Muppet Edition, which never saw the light of day on a twc central computer, although I did steal the few good bits and pieces of it to install on some Win98SE computers.)
*heh* Perri, our comments must’ve “crossed in the mail”–or I began commenting before you posted and lagged behind a bit.
Yeh, your comments about lack of backward-compatibility with both software and hardware were in the middle between “the crappy networking… to being forced to circumvent the training wheels approach to system security” for me. As I said, a plethora of woes. I enjoyed reading Jerry Pournelle’s trek through getting Vista playing well with his other equipment (with a mixed Mac-WinXP-Vista network, he has had more woes to work through than many users), and learned a lot of shortcuts, workarounds fixes and kludges from reading his and his readers’ travailas and fixes.
But it ought not to be that way. Indeed, as many kludgey and obscurantist fixes and workarounds as I’ve had to learn in order to make my main Linux box suit me, it’s been far, far easier and less complicated getting, for example, printer sharing set up here at twc central (almost all the other computers are set up to print of the HP that’s connected to my Ubuntu box in my office) has been a snap. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. Connecting a NETWORK-enabled (RJ-45 direct to the router) printer for printing from a 64-bit Vista computer for a client who was stumped took an act of Congress, three priests performing an exorcism, me in dreadlock wig with chicken bone rattle (just covering the bases because of M$’s unnecessary damned–I do not use the term lightly here–evil voodoo) and Divine inspiration to get done.
Well, it was almost that bad. Really.
And the thing had drivers BUILT IN TO VISTA!!!
*sheesh!*
Now that’s just wrong.
BTW, my new 22″ Acer monitor is really sweet, but. Yeh, the big but. XP problems. Ubuntu recognized the thing on booting. Native display mode? Notaproblem. In VMs, Win2K, Win98, Suse Linux 10, PC BSD: all no problem using the native widescreen display resolution. SP in VM? Nuh-uh, no way, no how. Nothing doing.
Same (bridged) video driver, except the XP VM will NOT recognize the native widescreen display resolution. Ticked me off, but then, at least it makes it easy for me to see when I’m using the XP VM… or will as soon as I reinstall VMWare Server… again.
Gee, I’ve wandered pretty far offtopic. Feels about right. The voices in my head like it, so that’s just OK.
Oh, just thought: “backing up my email”. Carbonite’s cool. I like to just drag n drop to a “secure folder” on my hosted space. Unlimited storage and bandwidth, so why not? The server’s mirrored and backed up daily, as I understand it, so between that and weekly DVD burns, I think I’m fairly well covered. And I like manual backups, because then
a. I know it’s been done and
b. if it hasn’t been, I have only myself to blame. *heh*
My problems with Vista have to do with backward compatibility with developer tools, and poor compatibility with some other developer tools. I am fortunate that I made a file by file backup of most of my important data when I upgraded from XP to Vista. Then, when I installed my development tools Vista essentially quit working, booting directly into the BSOD. It turned out not to be reparable, even with the so-called System Restore utility.
The backup formats between XP and Vista turned out not to be compatible, so I lost several years worth of collected email, but I did manage to recover everything else when I downgraded back to XP.
My son’s laptop is running Vista and he’s not having too much problem with it, other than a few applications that won’t run on it. Fortunately there’s a work-around for most of them, and the one that he wanted to use that he can’t work-around he’s given up on until I install a virtual machine running XP on the box for him.
Some other problems with Vista are a bit harder to swallow. For example, Microsoft decided to drop support for serial keys (dongles). Some computer operated sewing machines (like the one my mother uses) require the serial key or their software won’t run. Therefore, they can’t be upgraded to Vista. At least, that was the case as of August of last year. Whether that’s been fixed or not I don’t know.
I’ll wait for some time before I’ll go through the upgrade process again, even with Carbonite backing up my email.