Windows 7 set to break retail records

[TheCoxwain]

Source: Guardian

Windows 7 has become the biggest-grossing pre-order in Amazon's history – worth even more than the most recent JK Rowling book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

"The launch of Windows 7 has superseded everyone's expectations," the managing director of Amazon.co.uk, Brian McBride, said. "Demand is still going strong."

Millions of computer users will be getting their first taste of Microsoft's latest operating system tomorrow, when Windows 7 goes on sale worldwide.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/21/windows-7-launch

---

What is wrong with those pommies?

Microsoft? Windoze? Really????

They must lead really boring lives if they are super excited about this.








.

[derby378]

I think everyone's hoping 7 suceeds where Vista floundered

Our hospital never got around to adopting Vista, and neither have I. There's been too many horror stories.

[WriteDown]

1. Supposed to be good..

We shall see. I didn't try the beta, but I'm anxious to see it in action.

[still_one]

7. It is good. Performance, user interface, Most of the things wrong in Vista have

been addressed in Windows 7

However, there may be some issues with print drivers not ready yet

[4lbs]

30. Blame the printer manufacturers like HP and Epson for that.

As with Vista, Microsoft relied on the printer manufacturers to have updated drivers ready at launch time.

However, the manufacturers only have updated Win7 drivers for their latest printers. Anything a year old will either have to wait, or they'll want you to buy a new printer.

Much of this was mitigated in Windows 2000/XP because Microsoft had basic function printer drivers ready for the most popular printers, and the manufacturers later released drivers that had more features. In addition, 7+ years ago, the different brand/model numbers of printers was much less than it is today.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

32. Windows 7 discovered my LaserJet 4000 from 1997 just fine

I don't like the new interface any better, but anything is better than that bag of shit Vista.

[still_one]

74. My old printers no problem, the new ones that was the issue /nt

[DireStrike]

51. I have no problem with blaming HP for anything. Or everything. -nt-

[still_one]

75. I wasn't blaming MSFT for that. However, when Vista came out, you Norton or McAffee

anti-Virus software wouldn't support 64 bit Vista. Even Microsofts anti-virus program wouldn't support 64 bit, which shows that when they released Vista it wasn't ready. If my memory serves me AVG did support the 64 bit version back then

It wasn't until SP1 that Vista 64 bit was at least reasonable

[PatrynXX]

61. Crashes more often than XP

Loved Vista Biz. Hardly ever crashed and had faster reboots. In the past month on my Windows 7 RC1 has crashed more often than Vista or XP combined ever did.

If you've got Vista Biz. Hold on to that. Rather not downgrade to Windows 7. :P

At some point I'll move all my main stuff back to my old drive with Vista. Windows 7 has just been the worst experience I've had since ME.

This isn't an upgrade OS. It's better if you buy a computer with it on it or vista on it. I have heard it's a bit of a long long upgrade process to go from XP to 7. Only time I thought it was promising was during the first Beta. It rarely crashed. I had a questionable Alpha copy and that was worthless.

But really wouldn't upgrade Vista Biz for $120 or so. When I can get things done faster on Vista. And $120 gets me this dumb superbar, and video thumbnails. Other than that, I see no difference. Except I can find things easier in File manager in Vista. Hopefully Windows 8 will bring something new. All this is is Windows 98 vs Windows 98SE

[still_one]

76. I am running the release version off MSDN, and haven't had any problems with windows 7

[Oregone]

2. Even the pirated torrent is popular

uh, whoops.

[Hawkeye-X]

14. the RTM versions hasn't been released on the usual torrents

so I'll just twiddle until the 22nd.

Hawkeye-X

[Oregone]

17. If its activated, these devious and evil pirates may be getting full retail updates

I often see those bastards trading "Windows 7 Ultimate AIO Activated". Im not sure what build that is or what is not finished on it

[conspirator]

3. Probably desperate vista users that want to get rid of that sh*t.

I am sticking with XP.

[Oregone]

8. Thats the boat Im in

Bought a new computer with it pre-installed (64 bit edition). At first it wasnt so bad but Im getting BSODs now. Its a big memory hog too

[Ruby the Liberal]

36. Me too. Fortunately, W7 only cost me $30

through my school.

I can't wait to see what all applications I will lose that won't work on it. I haven't installed many of them to Vista yet.

I am so sick of Vista crashing so I am making the jump.

[Kansas Wyatt]

87. Well that turned out to be a good strategy for MicroShit

Screw up the the previous product, so people would desperately run out and buy your replacement.

Too bad Congress can't even do the job they were elected to do, otherwise they could bring in Bill Gates to explain himself again.

[tridim]

4. What's wrong with you?

Windows 7 is fabulous, although I'm not switching until XP completely dies (which I'm not sure will ever happen).

[TheCoxwain]

5. I am not saying its bad ... but record sales on Day 1 ...more that Harry potter??

doesnt smell right.

[tridim]

9. It's also selling better than "Goin' Rogue", even at 69% off.

Kind of hard to compare an OS to a book though.

[Oregone]

10. It smells fine...its a good OS

Thousands of torrent sharers cannot be wrong.

[eShirl]

82. Harry Potter is lame.

eom

[Erebus67]

15. Same here, sticking with XP on my desktop but Laptop came with Vista preloaded.

I'm very inclined to install 7 on the laptop in the hopes that it will solve some "bugs" I am having with Vista. I've considered putting XP on the laptop but if 7 really is as good as people are saying it is I may go that route. I will wait until it's been out a few weeks and see if there are any issues that come out once it goes production.

[onehandle]

6. Vista II. nt

[elocs]

11. I must confess that I have Vista and have never had any trouble with it.

Maybe having enough RAM is important. I have no reason to switch to W7.

[4lbs]

31. 2 GB of RAM is plenty, and almost every laptop sold this year will have at least that amount. (n/t)

.

[ohheckyeah]

73. I have Vista on my laptop as well and I've

had no problems so far. I do have 3 GB of RAM.

[junior college]

12. This is just a Vista upgrade but Microsoft is touting it as a new OS

It is a tad bit leaner than Vista but will not run on anything less than a Dual Core with 2GB RAM minimum. I tested it with a Pentium 4 2.6g and 2gb RAM and the system kept crashing. Windows 7 is being hyped by the media. Wait until people start using it....and then see what happens

[DJ13]

13. Microsoft? Windoze? Really???

Until Apple sells a version of their operating system that can work on normal PC's in retail the average PC user (that wants to easily run Win apps) hasnt got any choice.

Tell Jobs he's missing out will ya?

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Vista Service Pack 7. Whoopee.

I've still got XP running on a few machines (including under Fusion on my 13" Macbook Pro, which I'm about to upgrade to Snow Leopard), but Vista is where I parted company with Redmond and bought my first Mac.

[DJ13]

19. Im still on Win2000

Win7 is the first version since then I will likely upgrade for.

I wont buy a Mac simply because I cant stand Intel.

[Jackpine Radical]

35. Win 2k is essentially XP, iirc.

[DissedByBush]

58. XP is 2K with some improvements

2K is NT 5.0
32-bit XP is NT 5.1
64-bit XP is NT 5.2

Vista is NT 6.0
7 is NT 6.1

[DireStrike]

53. I went from W2k to XP for one game that I stopped playing in about a week.

I could still be on W2k with no problems at all.

[harmonicon]

48. same for me

I heard about vista, and when it was time for a new computer, I got a macbook. I still have my old XP drive within this computer via parallels, but I'm using it less and less. That was over two years ago - I think I'll completely ditch it when it's new computer time soon.

[Mudoria]

63. Not interested in anything Jobs pushes...

[MessiahRp]

18. Vista was so bad, people are clamoring to replace it at all costs.

Once I put Vista on my laptop it basically turned into a heap of shit.

I am going to buy a new laptop in the next 6 months and I will only buy it with Windows 7 pre-installed (no upgrade crap either because upgrades usually end up a mess as well).

Rp

[HopeHoops]

20. Earth to dumbfucks - WAIT SIX MONTHS!

If you are buying a new box, sure, go with Win7. Upgrading is a roll of the dice and the older the machine, the less likely there will be drivers for the critical hardware. M$ is in bed with the PC manufacturers. No drivers = new PC sale. It has been that way since the beginning.

Wait six months to upgrade. Watch the news.

[high density]

33. Most Vista drivers work fine in 7

This is hardly the same leap that was from XP to Vista. I have been running the release candidate for months and this is the most polished OS out of the gate I have ever seen from MS.

[Feron]

70. I like to wait until Service Pack 1 is released before jumping.

That way any major bugs found will be fixed.

Of course I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon. Vista suits my needs for now.

[Statistical]

85. I have been using Win7 for over a year now.

First the technical preview then the beta. Drivers were available from Day 1.

Microsoft has a tool you can run which will determine if drivers are available.
No need to wait if you do your homework.

Win7 in beta had better driver support than Vista 1 year after launch.

[Warpy]

21. They want to dump Vista

and all the reviews I've read have said that Windows 7 is the OS that Vista should have been.

They just want to upgrade to something that works.

[thereismore]

22. So in order to get record sales, just release a POS product before the actual product... nt

[liberal N proud]

60. Look back at all the versions MS has had

Every other one was usable, those in between not so much.

[orwell]

23. The benchmarks say...

...it's faster than Vista, slower than XP.

If you use XP and it works for you, don't bother. If you are currently using Vista, it's a worthwhile upgrade, especially the 3 home computer promotion for 150 bucks.

I'll stick with XP. It's stable and for most office tasks, it's faster.

[harun]

24. It's marketing fluff. No one is excited about Vista 2.0.

[Fearless]

28. Clearly that isn't true.

[liberal N proud]

25. Ah the Microsoft software cycle

Create a shitty product, sell it to everyone, then create a second version that much improves the previous one and everyone comes running to solve their software problems.

Repeat.

[HuckleB]

43. All too true. ^^^ (POST OF THE DAY!) ^^^

[Alhena]

26. I'm buying a new PC first thing tomorrow morning

I don't expect a life-changing experience, but it's been a no-brainer to wait until Windows 7 arrives.

[Jackpine Radical]

71. And I hope you don't GET a life-changing experience.

Personally, I would avoid paying to be a MS beta tester. That would mean, like, waiting a little while if you can and letting other people find the bugs.

[Fearless]

27. Oh this will be good...

:popcorn:


Incidentally I've had it for more than a month... no issues.

[HuckleB]

42. But does it do things your old OS couldn't do?

[Grinchie]

49. Sure does! Consumes twice as much Ram, opens thousands more Handles, ad nauseum.

I'm sure it also updates itself via the Internet every 30 minutes for each virus, backdoor, or memory leak found daily, and will consume 50% of the CPU and cause the disk drive heads to seek every 250 msecs to a random clylinder to see how long your Hard Drive can stand up to the abuse.

[Fearless]

57. Don't put words in my mouth, a little etiquette would go a long way.

[HuckleB]

65. Actually, I think he or she is just posting his or her own opinion.

[Rosco T.]

81. That's an aboslute load of crap... and false in every respect n/m

[Fearless]

55. Plug and Play my 6 year old printer for instance...

It was faster and takes up less RAM than Vista did on my computer. Also, note that I got it for free and as I said, I have no complaints.

[HuckleB]

66. Free is a good price.

So how is Microsoft making money off this thing?

[Fearless]

79. No idea. Don't care.

[xc8mip]

29. Vista 2

beside flashy interface and "government friendly"features doesn't offer anything that xp can't do.

[HuckleB]

41. That's not good.

[Statistical]

86. Except a couple thing ...

New kernel protection model.
Improved hardware isolation.
Improved driver model.
Optimized performance for SSD.
Optimized performance for larger amounts of memory.
Better multi-core support
Vastly expanded remote desktop capabilities
Better security against malware & viruses
Starting all processes as reduced privilege user reduces escalation attack
More secure memory model
Improved disk cache algorithm
Improved TCP/IP stack w/ native IPv6 support
New Video driver model (WDDM) which reduces likelihood poor video card driver takes down whole OS
Ability to "reboot" failed drivers w/o system restart or BSOD
Robust security against buffer overflow.
Address Space Layout Randomization makes pre-planned attacks impossible
Improved file system protection (inability for non-window process to overwrite system files)
Kernel transaction manager to protect registry in failed installations.
Updated Windows Firewall
DirectX 10/11 support

Removal of larger number of rarely used functions which are installed by default in Windows XP and could be an attack vector to compromise the system (such as IPX/SPX, hyperterminal, apm, nt backup etc)

Of course Windows 7 x64 support is far superior to Windows XP x64 support simply because it is more common and widespread.

Other than that you are right not much new.

[L0oniX]

34. Paid for hype. pffft

[HuckleB]

40. Who actually purchased the pre-purchases? Is that what you're wondering?

[zbdent]

37. Maybe it's due to the disgust with W Vista ...

[Vehl]

38. I'm getting mine next week for 3 bucks:) student deal

I have a couple of my friends who already have it installed and it runs super fast in the same machines that were running Vista super slow. They don't seem to have any obvious problems with it.

[4lbs]

47. I bought a new laptop earlier this month pre-loaded with Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

Part of the deal was a free upgrade to Win7 this week.

It was a very nice deal too, with a few coupons I was given by Office Depot that knocked $150 off the price.

$600 for a HP Pavilion dv7t (17" LCD widescreen, 3 GB RAM, 320GB hard drive). The RAM were a 2GB and 1 GB module. I yanked the 1 GB module, bought a 2 GB module for $29 and beefed up the RAM to 4 GB.

[Vehl]

52. Thats Awesome.

You probably know this already..but make sure that Both the modules are matching though..if not you might not be getting the max out of your ram.


Mine is a Vista lappy too..cant wait to install Vista. But im gonna get a new HDD and install Vista on it, then transfer my old hdd to this one cos im running uot of space in my current hdd

[TheCoxwain]

92. I am getting windows 7 for free !!! ( through school)

[HuckleB]

39. I won't be getting it.

None for me, thanks.

[Grinchie]

45. You probably will be forced to -- when they break all the Media content with Silverlight.

[HuckleB]

67. I don't think so.

[Grinchie]

44. Nice Propaganda Piece. Bought and Paid for by Microsoft.

And conveniently slipped into the Guardian to make it look legit.

[slay]

46. Only cause their last overpriced OS Vista sucked - everyone who has Vista deserves a rebate

towards Winblows 7 at least. Fuck Microsoft greedy bastards.

[DireStrike]

50. Well that doesn't make any sense.

Oh well.

[sellitman]

54. My last pc with Windoz is now a Linux computer

Now everything I own is either Apple or Linus.

Too late MS.

[HuckleB]

68. Thank goodness for options.

[BadgerKid]

84. Run your Windows inside Linux

with virtual machine software (I use Sun's free VM Server) or WINE.

[sellitman]

93. Why?

Why would I ever need to run windows in Linux?

Look ma....no viruses!

[BadgerKid]

94. Exactly!

I misread your sentiment at first. I'm a linux guy at heart but am stuck running WinXP occasionally for workplace interoperability and some Windows-only apps. Glad you're free of the beast :hi:

[DissedByBush]

56. And its best selling point is

that it doesn't suck as much as its predecessor.

I went Mac a couple years ago and I'm very happy. I get enough frustration from PCs at work.

[Politicub]

59. Why? Really?

Windows 7 doesn't seem to be that big of an upgrade, unless there's something about it that I'm missing.

[totodeinhere]

62. I'm sticking with XP for now.

XP will be supported until 2014. I'll just wait and get Windows 7 when I buy a new PC. That is unless I decide to get a Mac.

[mule_train]

64. me too - vista showed that MS really lost it's way in bloatware nt

[Union Yes]

69. And Bill Gates said "Let there be unregulated capitolism" and the guv's antitrust suit went poof!

Only in fuckin 'Murikkka.

The land of predatory capitolism.

[skoalyman]

72. Its good but I'll run the pirated version until the price comes way down

in year or 2 :P

[depakid]

77. As an FYI: the student discount gets it for $30

[Vehl]

89. Yep! and if ur uni has an agreement; most compe/compsci students get it for free+cost of a blank DVD

[Kip Humphrey]

78. I wonder how many Amazon pre-orders have Redmond shipping addresses .

just sayin'

[nadinbrzezinski]

80. This household will gladly wait

until SP 2 and mostly no choice....

Com'on MAC, get me games OUT.

[Swamp Rat]

83. Ubuntu 9.04

It's free. :)

http://www.ubuntu.com

[Canuckistanian]

88. The "Pet Rock" set retail records back in the 70s

As did the "Easy-Bake Oven" in the 60s. The 50s had the "hula-hoop".

Congratulations to Microsoft in the "00s".

[LatteLibertine]

90. It's what Vista should have been

I'm on Vista x64 Home Premium now. I started liking it after turning off all services I do not use and updating to SP1. SP2 has improved it further. IMO tweaked Vista HP x64 SP2 is solid. I may go Win 7 and I'm going to wait a bit.

[CRF450]

91. OEM copies for Win7 Home Premium are going for $110 on newegg

I'll probably buy one copy for the laptop, my gaming rig has a bunch of stuff among several games and I don't quite wanna start over again for a while. Vista runs just fine on it, while I could use an OS thats a bit speedier than Vista for the laptop. I had the Beta of Windows 7 on it for several months and used it regularly, its was pretty damn good!

[ddeclue]

95. not with MY money it won't.