I took the plunge ...

After 5 glorious years and many miles and smiles (and some frowns too), my good old friend Mr. Lenovo T43p laptop finally started throwing serious errors a couple weeks back. So I was forced to replace my old friend with a new Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T.

This laptop of course came with Windows 7 64-bit. Yes, OK, it came with Home Premium and I Anytime Upgraded to Ultimate. Still ... I've done it. I took the plunge. Here I am running Windows 7 as my primary OS on my main system. And you know what? It wasn't all that big of a deal. To date I've only found 2 programs that won't run under Windows 7. My IPSec VPN software (Netgear's ProSafe VPN Client) and my SSL-VPN client (from Netgear's FVS336G).

But even that wasn't such a big deal. I found 2 replacements for my IPSec VPN; Shrew Software VPN (open source) and TheGreenBow VPN (traditional). The SSL-VPN issue was averted by implementing my SonicWALL SSL-VPN 200 appliance which is Windows 7 64-bit and IE 8 compatible. But just to be safe I still installed XP Mode under Windows 7 Ultimate. And once installed I installed & implemented the failed Netgear VPN's, which now run fine in their native XP environment.

Out of all the features of Windows 7 (and there are many), XP Compatibility Mode is arguably the best. It allows you to install applications that just can't or won't run under Windows 7 in the familiar XP Pro environment. XP Mode runs a streamlined copy of XP Professional under Windows 7 inside a streamlined version of Virtual PC. And it's not totally without it's own unique issues (like software licensing). But in total it's been a fairly painless operation. Much less painful than trying to recover necessary files from a totally dead laptop. :-)

Welcome to 2010 ...

What's all this then ...

One of my favorite comedy troops, Monty Python's Flying Circus, used to use that line quite a bit. And it seems strangely appropriate to use it here to talk about Microsoft Windows 7.

By now Windows 7 has been widely available at mail-order and retail outlets for quite some time. I've been playing with the pre-release beta and the final shipping copies for some time now as well. And I thought it was time to come out of my self-imposed cave and give you all some feedback on this new desktop OS from Microsoft.

First, I wouldn't say Windows 7 is revolutionary ... more like it's evolutionary. For those of you familiar with the much maligned Vista, you'll find Windows 7 a very similar place. For those of you coming from the much beloved Windows XP you'll find things a little different. Icons and standard folders aren't in the same place anymore. And those familiar Control Panel icons are mostly gone. But the good news it's all still there, with a little digging.

Windows 7 is a much more stable OS than prior Windows iterations have been. And since Vista has blazed the trail there are 64-bit drivers for most every reasonable device today. Plus Windows 7 adds 'XP Compatibility Mode' to it's arsenal. This allows you to run any app that can't run under 7 to run in a virtual machine in a true XP environment. This feature, however, is only available to user who purchase Windows 7 Professional or higher. Home Premium users are excluded. (sorry)

With Windows 7 Microsoft has also done something very interesting called Anytime Upgrade. This new feature allows you to start off with, say Home Premium, decide you need a Professional feature (like the aforementioned XP Mode), and just click through a window input your credit card info and almost immediately be upgraded to the new level of 7 you'd like.

After having played with all the versions available except Enterprise, I must say this Windows is robust and stable. Vista users will see a 30% increase in speed just by going to 7! And I have yet to find an app that won't run in 64-bit more, which I greatly prefer since it gives the user access to up to 16GB of RAM.

Overall I'd say Microsoft has scored a winner. I'll post back more as time goes on to update my experience ...

Welcome to 2010 ...