Well the official Release Candidate version of Windows 7 is
available and I'm very impressed. Very very impressed in fact, I am only just getting used to Leopard and how brilliantly easy it is to use when bam! MS drops this in my lap and now I'm not so sure about leopard. I will of course allow for the novelty period to expire before passing full judgement.
Windows 7 is very pretty, themes, changing backgrounds etc. are all very nice touches.
Functionality? Well the install was exactly the same as vista apart from the fact it installed EVERY SINGLE driver on my machine perfectly apart from my webcam, which is actually a Creative Webcam Vista so I think that can be forgiven. Drivers installed with OS without any user input = win!
All the extra pretty functions in aero don't appear to use any more processing oomph that Vista, its very fasr also = win!
Have had absolutely no issues with compatibility thus far, a few warnings but if you let it Windows 7 will deal with them for you and reinstall the software so it works, without any technical jargon whatsoever = win!
New taskbar is definitely better for launching and managing frequently used programs, think of the mac dock you're basically there. Initial fears of it being difficult to tell between whats running and whats not... well the big white rectangle and glossy pebbled effect on open programs is very very easy to understand and gleam information from at a glance. As everything else appears to have in Win 7 there are about a hyperbollion ways of customising this. Combined with the 'live view' preview = win!
Software - I have so far used UT, UT3, Live for Speed, Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, Illustrator, After Effects, Dreamweaver and Nero all without glitch. Just for the craic I thought I would run the ENTIRE creative suite 4 master collection, office 2008 enterprise and a handfull of other apps simultaneously, and it worked very well = win!
Your comments?
Admin edit: Moved post to correct thread.