The great Windows 7 news site windows7news.com has a very interesting article this weekend. In looking at an article from PC World they discovered something about Win 7 benchmarks:

PC World have released Worldbench 6 benchmark results comparing the Windows 7 Release Candidate to Windows Vista Ultimate. Benchmark tests were performed on two desktop computer systems and one laptop. The general result of the benchmarks were that Windows 7 was beating Windows Vista in all tests but not by a margin expected by most users.

The largest difference was 4 points–102 for Vista versus 106 for Windows 7 on an HP Pavillion a6710t desktop. Our other two test machines showed similarly minor performance improvements: A Maingear M4A79T Deluxe desktop improved by 1 point (from 138 on Vista to 139 on Windows 7), and a Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop improved by 2 points, from 97 on Vista to 99 on Windows 7.

The test runs a series of ten commonly used applications including Microsoft Office, the Firefox web browser, Winzip, Nero Burning Rom and Adobe Photoshop on the computer system. The testers do acknowledge that they did not test areas like the boot time of the computer system where Windows 7 is clearly showing a much better performance than Windows Vista.

So what does this mean?  Is it that Vista was fast enough and isn’t going to be improved on much in Win 7.  Or does this mean that Microsoft is unable to get their benchmarks up no matter what?  Ok, I’m kidding.  But, seriously, you have to scratch your head at this a bit.  I’ve played with Win 7.  It’s a great improvement.  But what do you all think of this?

Just when you thought it was safe to love the new Windows 7 beta here comes some news to kill the buzz.  Philip Elmer-DeWitt posts for CNN Money.com that the upgrade path for business may not be a bed of roses with Windows 7.

Part of the problem is that you can’t install Windows 7 beta directly from Windows XP. Instead, you have to upgrade to Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later before attempting an install — a process the Channel Web team found to be non-trivial.

Among the scariest quotes in their report:

• “While Microsoft has assured the world that if the hardware works with Windows Vista it will work with Windows 7, the reality is that is misleading at best.”
• “We’ve almost lost count of the number of blue screens we’ve seen in the CRN Test Center during the Windows 7 evaluation process.”
• “We tried to do the upgrade on an Acer TravelMate, but were stopped in our tracks by Bluetooth driver incompatibilities.”
• “On a series of 3-and-a-half year old ThinkPad T43s, an IBM security processor refused to let the notebooks boot up with Windows 7. We needed to crack open a couple of four-year old desktops … to add memory just to try to get a system image.”
• “Across the XP-Vista-Windows 7 landscape, Microsoft has fostered an ecosystem that now holds out the prospect of a mind-numbing number of incompatible drivers, unsupported devices, unsupported applications, unsupported data, patches, updates, upgrades, “known issues” and unknown issues.”

Now here is something I don’t quite understand.  If I own a PowerMac G5 and I am running say…Panther, which is two versions of OSX ago, and I want to upgrade to Leopard….no problem.  I buy the $129 upgrade and all is well.  But if I’m a business, and I run XP I have to go THROUGH Vista. Wow, just wow.
I welcome your thoughts.

Here are a couple of articles we will be talking about on this weeks show…

From Computerworld:

February 8, 2009 (Computerworld) A federal judge last week ruled that Psystar Corp. can continue its countersuit against Apple Inc., giving the Mac clone maker a rare win in its seven-month-old battle with Apple.

He also hinted that if Psystar proves its allegations, others may then be free to sell computers with Mac OS X already installed.

In an order signed on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup gave Psystar the go-ahead to amend its lawsuit against Apple. According to Alsup, Psystar may change that countersuit, which originally accused Apple of breaking antitrust laws, to instead ague that Apple has stretched copyright laws by tying the Mac operating system to its hardware.

From PC Pro:

Microsoft’s decision to limit Windows 7 Starter Edition to running only three concurrent applications could force up the price of netbooks in the UK. The company announced last week that it was launching Windows 7 Starter Edition as a low-cost option designed specifically for netbooks.

However, the company’s decision to impose a three-app limit could force many manufacturers to opt for the more expensive Home Premium.

Next Episode this Thursday…Don’t miss it!

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We welcome special guest Richard Hay from windowsobserver.com. We discuss many things windows including Vista, Windows 7 versions, and pricing.

Episode #78

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windows7news.com reports that there will not be a beta 2 for Windows 7 and that the next version will be the release candidate.

To put it short: Steven Sinofsky confirmed that there will be no Windows 7 Beta 2 which means that the next official release will be the Windows 7 Release Candidate. Rumors that have been came to light yesterday suggest a release in early April for the Windows 7 Release Candidate.

The RTM release of Windows 7 is expected in the third quarter of 2009, most suggesting a release in early October which would indicate a public availability in the fourth quarter of 2009.

So, with this news, what and when are we going to see from Snow Leopard and Apple?  Do you Mac friends out there get the feeling that Windows is about to get back some of that market share that the Mac stole in the last few months?  Time will tell.

We welcome your comments.

I haven’t downloaded and used Windows 7 yet.  I hope to get to it this week.  But if you are in that same boat as I am you may want to know that 7 does add some new keyboard shortcuts for windows management.  According to windows7news.com the list is as follows:

[Windows Up] – Maximize window
[Windows Down] – Minimize windows / Restore
[Windows Left] – Dock window to the left side
[Windows Right] – Dock window to the right side
[Windows Shift Up] – Maximize vertical size of window
[Windows Shift Down] – Restore vertical size
[Windows Shift Left] – Move window to left monitor
[Windows Shift Right] – Move window to right monitor

Hope this news helps those who have downloaded it and haven’t come accross these as well.

windows7news.com reports that the first release candidate for Windows 7 may be released by April.  They are also reporting that it may be the only release candidate that will be offered:

The first and only release candidate of Windows 7 is expected to be released in April 2009 according to a news post on wzor.net which are citing Microsoft sources. The OEM of Windows 7 is aiming for an autumn release while the final retail release is expected to be available at the beginning of the Christmas season.

The latest known official builds of windows 7 are build 7015 and 7016 that have been created on 4.1.2009 and 12.1.2009. Build strings for those releases are 7015.fbl_multimedia_media.090104-1750 and 7016.0.090105-1500.”

So, does this mean that we may see an earlier release of Windows 7?  We welcome your thoughts.

Microsoft market share is below 90% for the first time in 15 years!  OMG!  Is this trouble in paradise for Redmond?  We try to find out in an all out CAGEMATCH!!!

Episode #68

According to a report by Windows7news.com,  Microsoft’s next operating system should improve memory consumption accross open windows.  They report:

“Windows memory consumption was improved in Windows 7 by making it independent of the number of open windows.Microsoft was demonstrating the effect of opening lots of windows on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows Vista began to throw error messages after reaching a certain amount of open windows while Windows 7 was able to handle them without difficulties.”
Hard to believe they let this slide in Vista.  Your comments are welcome.

Cal

Hello all.  Tonight we resurrect the CAGEMATCH format where we pick one topic, then Rachel and Cal get two minutes to declare their side of the argument.  Afterward, our guests on the show will evaluate our arguments.  Think of it as a high paced, bite sized version of the Smackdown!

For tonight we would all like you to view the following as this is what we are going to talk about tonight.  Enjoy: