I've been reminded why I ditched Windows

[inTempus]

I decided that I wanted a Windows 7 machine. I ditched Windows about 4 years ago and went to Mac.

But Windows 7 promised to be everything that Vista wasn't. Intrigued, I dusted off my Dell 9100 Pentium D 3ghz 64bit system with 4 gigs of RAM which was retired to the closet about 3 weeks after installing Vista on it (Vista is the reason I went to Mac).

So I bought my shiny new copy of Windows 7 and raced home to upgrade my old Vista installation.

I drop the disc in the drive and it won't boot from it. Ok, no problem... I start Vista and double click on the drive to begin the install routine. Of course I get some cryptic error saying my version of Vista isn't upgradable with my Windows 7 Pro software. WTF?

Frustrated, I call my buddy who works in IT. He comes over.

After taking my machine apart, messing with the jumpers on the DVD drives (changing the master and slave) and making no progress... he whips out his thumb drive which is bootable and where he keeps various versions of OS's for work.

He boots from the thumb drive (after going into the BIOS and adding it to the boot order) and mysteriously it starts to read from the DVD drive while it's installing Windows 7. He doesn't know why it did this, but we're happy all the same.

Wow, talk about a great user experience. Typical Windows... that hasn't changed.

Next comes the installation of my work applications (Office). That goes pretty smoothly until I launch Outlook. It prompts me for an exchange server and mailbox name. I enter it and it gives another cryptic error and closes. Today I spent about an hour working with our corp IT to get it working.

Again... typical Windows. That hasn't changed.

I try to find drivers for things like my Creative Labs Live! webcam... none are to be found for Windows 7. It feels like Vista all over again.

I tried to install our corporate Cisco VPN client, of course that doesn't work with Widows 7 so I have to download some obscure open source VPN client that hobbles along in W7... but works.

Then I decide to hook up my ColorMunki and calibrate the monitor before I install my photo editing software.

Surprise... it recognizes the ColorMunki, then about halfway through the calibration it decides it can't find it. I reboot, try it again, and now it won't find the ColorMunki at all. I uninstall the software, disconnect the Munki, start over and finally it works... it gave some odd error while starting but I hit cancel and it continued on.

Jesus. What a f'in nightmare. I am so used to not dealing with incompatibilities, cryptic errors and lack of drivers now that I've been using Mac's for a few years that I was ready to punch a hole in the wall.

Then I realized, it's the same crap I dealt with when using Windows 3, 95, 98, XP, Vista and now W7. Little has changed.

I think I will buy that 27" iMac after all. I was delusional thinking that Windows 7 might actually be as well thought out, streamlined and reliable as OSX 10.6... I had high hopes as I was thinking of buying a new Alien Ware system instead of the new 27" iMac. Nope, I'm sticking with Mac.

I will say this, when it's running it's much faster than Vista. Vista killed my Dell, but Windows 7 runs quite quickly.

 

[Overread]

I try to find drivers for things like my Creative Labs Live! webcam... none are to be found for Windows 7. It feels like Vista all over again

As far as I can tell creative turned over and died when vista came out - they still haven't updated their soundcards to be vista compatable (I have one its next to useless as most games won't recognise it)

As for win 7 whilst its compatable with a lot more software upon release (cause windows did this whole betatesting thingy ) it still a new OS and so needs some time for all the 3rdparty software companeis to catch up. AS for the problems to start with -- meh just vista being a pain. Though I should note that if you run with Ultimate editions of windows OS programs you get far better performance overall (as they havn't cut bits out)

 

[rocdoc]

Ha. Sounds like you need periodic reminders why you made the switch. Incidentally, since you mention the new 27" Macs. If it's not in your budget, DO NOT go see them at the store... It took all the will power I could muster not to leave the store with one when I saw them...

 

[bigtwinky]

Like with any new OS, I typically wait a good 6 months until I look into purchasing it, preferably when their is an SP available.

I'm still running Win XP on my machine

 

[IgsEMT]

Recently upgraded to Win7 from Vista. Pretty happy with it

 

[SpeedTrap]

In defense, Win 7 64 bit Pro works great on my machines, and has not let me down at all.
Everything I had still works and in some cases works better in Windows 7. I cannot give up the ability to upgrade my own system and buy an imac.

What happens when you want to upgrade your monitor, or you want to use some legacy software with a iMac, You can't.

I do not want to bash Mac, I think they make a fantastic product, but I have know too many people that were mac fanboys and cried when thier systems broke and cost more to fix than buying a new one. (One Mac was over $1800.00 to repair)

But to have a fair comparison, did you take a 4 year old mac and install the newest Mac OS on it, did it work without a problem? As I Remember the latest Snow Lepard only supports intel chips.

 

[usayit]

But to have a fair comparison, did you take a 4 year old mac and install the newest Mac OS on it, did it work without a problem? As I Remember the latest Snow Lepard only supports intel chips.

Did exactly that when Leopard first came out.... Historically, MAC os x was very diligent with legacy support... much better than Windows. The whole switch from IBM G to Intel chips was a MAJOR architectural change. Comparing legacy hardware support to a MAJOR architectural change that happens once in a blue moon is not a fair comparison.

If you asked the same question just before snow leopard's release, I could say that I have a few machines running the newest MAC os x that are much older than 4 years. Not something that is typical with windows.

 

[Double H]

...
What happens when you want to upgrade your monitor, or you want to use some legacy software with a iMac, You can't.

I do not want to bash Mac, I think they make a fantastic product, but I have know too many people that were mac fanboys and cried when thier systems broke and cost more to fix than buying a new one. (One Mac was over $1800.00 to repair)

But to have a fair comparison, did you take a 4 year old mac and install the newest Mac OS on it, did it work without a problem? As I Remember the latest Snow Lepard only supports intel chips.

I have been a Mac user since learning DOS on a IIc, and I can't remember the last time I needed a Classic app, I hope you are not still playing Oregon Trail.

Too bad your Fanboys didn't get Applecare, would have cost them nothing. After mine ran out on my five-year-old PowerbookG4 and the motherboard died, I found a used (tested) one for $256. Not a bad deal at all.

OS 10.5.8 is the highest you can go on most PowerPC macs, I am running it on my Powerbook G4.

 

[inTempus]

But to have a fair comparison, did you take a 4 year old mac and install the newest Mac OS on it, did it work without a problem? As I Remember the latest Snow Lepard only supports intel chips.

Yes, I installed 10.6 on my wifes Macbook (original Intel Macbook that's at least 4 years old now). No problems what-so-ever. It runs faster under 10.6 than it did under 10.5.

 

[inTempus]

Another interesting difference between the two companies.

Windows 7: $200
OSX 10.6: $29

 

[itznfb]

Nothing you complain about in your post has anything to do with Windows. I mean no offense by this but all your issues are either user error or lack of 3rd party support.

 

[itznfb]

Another interesting difference between the two companies.

Windows 7: $200
OSX 10.6: $29

That $29 for 10.6 is comparable to XP SP3.

So...
OSX 10.6: $29
XP SP3: $0

That's the correct comparison.

 

[inTempus]

Nothing you complain about in your post has anything to do with Windows. I mean no offense by this but all your issues are either user error or lack of 3rd party support.

So Microsoft's support of Office is lacking? That makes perfect sense.

Let's pretend Windows 7 is flawless for a moment. So you want to blame everyone but Microsoft for not making it compatible with popular items such as ColorMunki's?

How is it that the ColorMunki works just fun under the brand spanking new OSX 10.6?

If Windows STILL struggles with support for common products and applications... that's a good reason to avoid it. I went down that dead end road with Vista.

I'm typing this from my Windows 7 machine by the way. I really want to like it. I'll give it a month or two and see if I can get things working smoothly. But what's funny is that when I install OSX I don't have to give it days, weeks, or months to figure it out. It just works.

 

[inTempus]

Another interesting difference between the two companies.

Windows 7: $200
OSX 10.6: $29

That $29 for 10.6 is comparable to XP SP3.

So...
OSX 10.6: $29
XP SP3: $0

That's the correct comparison.

LOL, that's funny.

OSX 10.6 is ahead of Windows 7. XP is like OS9.

 

[c.cloudwalker]