Windows 7 Beta and Windows Live

[engine]

Windows 7 Beta and Windows Live [microsoft.com]

In a keynote address at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced the beta availability of the Windows 7 operating system as well as the availability of the latest version of the Windows Live, a suite of personal communications services and applications. “I’m thrilled to announce the availability of the Windows 7 beta, which is on track to deliver simplicity and reliability,” Ballmer said. “Windows 7 and Windows Live are part of an incredible pipeline of consumer technology that is making it easier than ever for people to communicate, share and get more done.”

Test drive the beta from Jan 9th
[microsoft.com...]

Microsoft also announced the global availability of Windows Live, a free suite of communications and sharing applications. Windows Live makes it easy for people to communicate, share and keep their online lives in sync and in one place with one login. The new and enhanced Windows Live services — including PCMag.com 2008 Editors’ Choice winner Windows Live Messenger — along with Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Photo Gallery are designed to work seamlessly with more than 50 popular Internet services.

[frontpage]

Windows 7 - solving a problem that does not exist - more bloatware with twice the spyware/DRM uselessness.

Just give us Win XP Pro SP4.

[adfree]

When will Apple finally realize that this is the only sky high multi billion business opportunity in the history of mankind presented on a silver platter?

[bill]

The Windows 7 beta is getting quite good reviews. I haven't downloaded it yet, but you might want to actually try it before bashing it.

Anyone with actual experience have any impressions?

[IanTurner]

It can't be more user unfriendly and bug ridden than Vista.

Vista was nearly enough to make me want to use a Linux Desktop.

Personally I think a rerelease of Windows 2000 would be good.

[dudibob]

Personally I think a rerelease of Windows 2000 would be good.

Oh no, one of my friends still uses a Windows 2000 PC and the 'third time lucky' rule in starting it up!

On a relevant note, I haven't tried 7 yet but am hoping for XP with Vista visuals, or better yet just XP

[iThink]

Although it is cool to kick the Microsoft products but I'm yet to come across a completely negative review of the beta release on any of the well known blogs/sites. One review is saying that startup time on a laptop with SSD is under 5 seconds. That alone is a major improvement over XP or Vista and not to talk about Windows 2000. Also the claim by Microsoft engineers that it will run well on low-end laptops and netbooks, if true, is a big positive as per me. Just imagine a netbook with SSD and windows 7 booting in 5 seconds, well that alone is the deal maker for me.

[driller41]

Is the DRM from Vista still included - that is something I do not like?

[kaled]

If Windows 7 can boot in a few seconds then it is likely to be unhibernating a "clean boot". That "clean boot" will have to be resaved after each update and will probably take up as much disk space as there is RAM (since MS won't think of compressing it).

Kaled.

[kaled]

MS are keen to say that they've listened to customers. Do you think that means that Windows 7 (aka Vista.1) will be a free upgrade for Vista users? I doubt it!

Having looked through the blurb, only the enhanced taskbar and jump lists look genuinely useful. However, of the taskbar, the major change appears to be full size quick-launch icons (wow) and of the jump list they've simply sorted items in the recent folder by type. I'll be generous and call that 3 man-days of work in total (but six months in committee deciding on these changes).

Kaled.

[iThink]

If Windows 7 can boot in a few seconds then it is likely to be unhibernating a "clean boot"

As much as I understand, a lot of services will be started in parallel to save time while booting the system. Also, the services that are not needed by all users or the ones that are not needed immediately after the startup won't be started at all. Such services will be started as and when they are needed. This will reduce boot time as well the resources required to run the OS.

[youfoundjake]

I've installed windows 7 in vmware, and i am impressed with it. I have also read that its alot more stable then vista, but on the other hand, i've had no issues with vista, only 98se and ME.
Yeah, i preferred NT4 and windows 2000 myself, still running it on one of my boxes.

[bill]

I'd be interested to hear how well MS has addressed the UAC issue [webmasterworld.com] as that has been a big annoyance for some. Are their fixes just window dressing or are they fundamentally fixing the issues.

[mcavic]

I've installed windows 7 in vmware

Me too. I haven't done much with it, just wanted to look at the interface. It's not all bad. It has some nice features, like the ability to reposition running programs on the task bar (something I really want on XP). Also, the screenshot tool, whatever they call it, is absolute genius.

[Robert Charlton]

What about resources? What does it need (hardware and memory) to run well?

Also, how backwardly compatible is it?