I'm glad that the one computer I have running Windows 7 is using the release candidate version. Why? Because, I wouldn't pay for an operating system that is obviously still in beta testing.

I was in the electronics section at Wal-Mart last night looking for gift ideas when I happened upon the only laptop that was powered up. It was running the all-new, shiny, latest and greatest Microsoft OS - Windows 7. In front of God and everyone, I simply clicked the "start" menu and waited... and waited... and nothing happened! I clicked it again and the darn thing locked up. I walked away.

I know I'm not the originator of this analogy... but... if you were at a car dealership, the salesman gave you the key to demo a brand-new car, and it just simply wouldn't start... would you buy it? Mind you, the battery works just fine, the radio sounds great, and there is plenty of gas in the tank... would you buy it? Unfortunately, I know in my mind, that there was a high probability that someone in that crowd was still going to buy that computer. Why? I suppose ignorance, stupidity, or both are to blame.

I'm just thankful that I have the mental capacity to install a known, working OS on any computer I end up selling to another person. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Microsoft. XP works just great for me. I'm sure they'll fix 7 eventually like they did XP after it first came out, which is the reason I didn't buy it until 2 years after it hit the market. But, I definitely frown on this shoddy business practice of shelling out a new OS before all of the major bugs have been ironed out. Whats even more sad is the fact that I don't have these problems on my other two computers that are running on free operating systems.

It is what it is, I guess. What do you do about it?

Tags: 7, laptop, microsoft, wal-mart, windows

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Comment by Michael on December 23, 2009 at 5:28am: If its out for Microsoft wait about a year or two then it may actually work....people look at corp America....even they do not get this stuff brand new and try to make it work....they wait till it does....

Comment by Matthew Ferguson on December 23, 2009 at 4:38am: Hey Jeremy, thanks for replying to my comment. I don't think Windows 7 is "under-cooked" like Vista was. With Vista, as Chris Pirillo says himself, the community didn't get much input in, even in the beta-testing stage, and Steve Ballmer himself admitted that Vista wasn't ready. I still don't agree that Microsoft released 7 too early, although I must admit Aero for my brother on his Athlon is a bit of a problem, but that's more to do with the hardware than the software. My other family members still seem to have no problem with aero, but my other brother did have one thing to add. He bought his dell a couple of years ago and he thinks that the aero is much more stable and better in 7, and he's had no problem with it.

The reason I said people like you give new versions of Windows a bad name is because I know a few people who hear "techies" say that new versions of windows are bad, or not ready, and so have decided to stick with Vista. This is VERY BAD. I know of one person who downgraded from Vista to XP on the day windows 7 came out, and refuses to ever go to 7 because she's heard many say it's not finished, or not better than Vista. I still disagree wtih this, as I tried vista on my netbook and it was horrific (An Asus Eee 100HE) but 7 runs perfectly and I've had no problem with it. I was running XP for a year and over and over I had issues, purely due to the age of the OS. One thing you said Windows 7 has is network issues, and I've had none on my netbook, but XP was plagued by disconnecting issues all the time when I had it installed. Personally, I've had no issues with aero, and I think you should give MS another chance, they're listening far more to the community now than they were with Vista.

Comment by Jeremy North on December 23, 2009 at 2:25am: Shannon VanWagner - I seem to remember Wal-Mart carrying a netbook with linux on it about a year or two ago, but I don't remember what distro. Thanks for your post.

Comment by Shannon VanWagner on December 22, 2009 at 8:52pm: "I suppose ignorance, stupidity, or both are to blame."
What if it's just that people don't get a choice? Because really, they don't - unless they go online and purchase GNU/Linux pre-installed from somewhere like the following:
http://eightvirtues.com
http://www.system76.com
http://linuxpreloaded.com
http://www.zareason.com
http://www.dell.com
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com
http://tuxmobil.org

It's really a shame that people don't have a choice... that's my point. This must change!

Shannon VanWagner
humans-enabled.com

Comment by Connor Bryant on December 22, 2009 at 2:16pm: My Friends and I have had absolutely no problems with windows 7.

Comment by Jeremy North on December 22, 2009 at 9:32am: One more thing... I don't really care if you disagree with me, but I won't tolerate name calling. Your comment won't even make it. I've denied one comment already. The rest of you seem to act like adults and I appreciate that! Moving on...

Comment by Jeremy North on December 22, 2009 at 9:19am: guiunit201 - I hope you're right. Perhaps it was pressure from the stock holders to get 7 out before they should have. Who knows. Either way I think I will wait for a while and eventually, get 7 Ultimate 64-bit edition... IF I end up getting it.

I do think the whole "Homegroup" thing is retarded. Its not even compatible with any other version of Windows, including the latest enterprise versions. I know its supposed to make everything easier, assuming all your other computers are running 7 and at least one is running 7 Premium or higher (needed to create a homegroup). On top of that, Windows 7 frequently WON'T find any of the shared files from any of the other PCs on the network. I don't have this problem with XP or Ubuntu - they find everything, every time, without fail.

Comment by Jeremy North on December 22, 2009 at 9:07am: Matthew Ferguson - You must have miss the comment I made to Cookenstein "This year I put Windows 7 on it", referring to my wife's computer. I also installed it on 3 computers last summer.

BSOD was never an issue and I never said it was, so I'm not sure why that came up. Unlike you, I never had very many BSODs on XP. Those issues only came up during an impending hard drive failure (mostly). I may have had a driver issue once. Other than that, it worked great for me.

You're absolutely right about store bought PCs having a ton of crapware. I always get rid of it all - even for my family and clients.

The issues I have is that the aero is a bit lagged at times (but better than Vista), desktop freezing once in a while, and networking issues (something I didn't mention earlier). Like I said, I don't hate MS. They just release their operating systems (that people spend money on) prematurely and full of bugs, more often than not.

I don't think I give MS Windows a bad name. I think they give themselves a bad name by releasing OSs like Vista (which everyone knows is crap), and the because of the aforementioned issues. I think Windows 7 is far better than Vista, but it still has its issues. I still have it on one of my PCs, but soon will take it off. I just can't get around the networking issues for what I need.

Comment by Jeremy North on December 22, 2009 at 8:39am: Thomas McGrath - Your observations have been mine as well. I was leery of XP until SP2 and had no regrets.

Comment by Jeremy North on December 22, 2009 at 8:33am: Joel - You're certainly right about the manufacturers loading up crapware on their PCs. I am constantly having to remove junk from my clients' and family's PCs. And what do you know... they run better! I have gotten very few BSODs from XP as well. Usually its when there is an impending hardware failure such as the hard drive.

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