Looks like the Windows 7 build 6956 is already a lot better than Vista, even though the beta will not be released until the 13th of January. So some folks over at Softpedia released an immersive set of screenshots yesterday so we can all live the dream.
According to the article the current build works great – compared to Vista – on a virtual machine with 1.6 GB ram and an Intel Core Duo on 3 GHz. There is a benchmark gallery you might find interesting on ZDNet, not to mention the boot video if you haven’t seen it already.
Not a surprise, most articles i’ve read are already touting this “pre-beta” as superior to Vista.
Superior to Vista? Not setting a very high bar for excellence, are we? It seems some of us have forgotten that Windows 7 is not competing against the commercial flop that is Vista – It is primarily competing against the installed base of boring but functional Windows XP machines,
and I doubt a substantial portion of these users have 3 GHz Core Duo processors.
For demanding consumers who expect a rock solid, secure operating system with an elegant, intuitive and efficient user interface, the horse to beat is clearly Apple’s OS X, and Apple’s horse already left the gate quite a long while ago…
For cheapskates who consider “free” the ultimate product spec and for people who like to tinker ad infinitum with their computers at the cost of any sort of productivity or consistent user experience, then Windows 7 will be up against the variety of available Linux distributions, which are getting easier to use and nicer to look at every day.
A 3GHz machine as a test bed? Really? I hope Microsoft plans to carefully define their “Windows 7 Capable” certification program if they want to avoid a repeat of the Vista fiasco.
It was running virtually on that machine. I guess the OS has lower specs if you run it natively.
It can run on a netbook so I doubt it needs 3GHz Core Duo processors.
If it can run on a netbook without modification… Why is it that in Virtualbox it is so darn slow?
Keep an objective mind about 7… Longhorn was prettier, faster and more reliable than XP when it was a beta (that we now call Vista).
My 7 year old computer (april 2002) up and running with Microsoft Windows 7 (april 2009)
Mainboard: Epox EP-8K3A (FSB @ 183MHz)
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 1467MHz/256KB/1.50V/49.5W (AXDA1700DLT3C/Thoroughbred B) @ 2GHz/1.6V
Memory: 512MB DDR @ 183MHz (2-2-2-5 1T)
Video card: Hercules 3D Prophet II MX (Nvidia Geforce 2MX – 32MB)
Sound Card: Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 (Model: SB0060 Chip: EMU10K1-SEF)
Ethernet Card: Realtek RTL8029AS 10Mbit
Hard Disk Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80Gb ATA/133
CD-RW Drive: Plextor PX-W1610TA
DVD Drive: Pioneer DVD-106S
Power Supply: Enermax EG365P-VE
Monitor: Dell D1025HE @ 1600×1200 72Hz
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (Pre-Beta 1 Build 6956 32-bit)
Windows 7 setup took its time at step 2 (unpacking the files…). “It” Booted really fast afterwards (much faster then a clean XP SP3 install). Some hardware was not found like the Ethernet Card, Sound Card and Video Card. I used a self modified Creative Sound Blaster Audigy series Driver for XP (2.09.0016), which worked directly from the setup file. For updating the Windows 7 standard VGA driver (max 1024×768)
I used the latest driver pack for my model (Geforce 2MX) directly downloadable from the Nvidia website (ForceWare 93.71 whql XP). This did not work strait from the setup file. I had to point to the unpacked directory from within the Device Manager. For the Ethernet card I used the Win2000 files directly downloadable from the Realtek website, which works just fine.
At first everything seems to work well until I tested the sound card. Some minor crackling/pops appear while playing any sound. Sometimes it is there and sometimes it completely disappears, but there are no crashes. While testing the video card everything in 2D seems to work perfectly until I tested the 3D part. The Blue Screen of Death appears and gives me the well know nv4_mini.sys error. This also appears while setting any video in full screen mode (YouTube, media player…).
1. All my programs seems to work (from CCleaner to Winamp – 30 peaces).
2. I can visit the Internet and read my e-mails (Firefox/Thunderbird)
3. I can play my CD’s and listen to any kind of music file (with sometimes minor crackling/pops) (Winamp/MPC)
4. I can play my DVD’s and look to any video file (although not in full screen) (MPC)
5. I can not play any game which uses the 3D engine (although all the windows games seems to work including the windows screen savers)
6. I can still use my old Plextor to write CD’s and my Pioneer to Rip DVD’s (Nero/DVDFab)
7. The system is much more responsive than XP SP3 and starts up really fast.
I did disabled most of the services that I will never use and all the (useless) “beauty/goodies” that comes with this new Windows release. It now looks like an enhanced windows 95 with the same taskbar, window view, …
It will not take long before I get everything to work smoothly, It’s just a matter of time… (no, I refuse to buy a new PC)
I JUST REPLACED MY XP FOR 7!
And it seems to run just fine on my 4 year old LE1600 Motion Tablet PC which was originally designed for XP.
You can read my comparison between XP, Vista and Windows 7 beta1 (build 7000) here:
http://max.zamorsky.name/2009/01/13/windows7-auf-einem-motion-computing-le1600-tablet-pcwindows7-on-a-motion-computing-le1600-tablet-pc/