OK, OK. A brief moment of seriousness:
Win7 *is* a beta--- unfinished software. Bugs are normal in betas; that's why it's unfinished software. A beta test is designed to see what needs fixing before the final "gold" code is delivered.
And I was trying it not in a careful lab setting but on an daily-use machine (yes, the data was all backed up and safe). I knew the risks, especially of tossing beta software into the maelstrom of full-bore daily use, with third party software and all the bells and whistles going.
My use also included a third-party boot manager; I suspect that the unfinished Win7 installation code fought with the boot manager, or vice versa, and flipped some key and hard-to-unflip bit in a boot or disk ID record. This is an interesting factoid, but not a condemnation of the Win7 software. It's beta!
My larger problem was running three full-scale experiments at once. Separately, the problems were all totally manageable. But having all three blow up at the same time strained my backup and recovery systems to the max.
Still, it qualifies as a self-inflicted injury. My use of the beta verged on abuse; and having three major experiments going at once was, well, tempting fate. Look Ma! No hands! Urk.....
I know it's de rigeur to parrot the same old tired jokes about Microsoft, but Win7 really does look pretty good. The UI, based on Vista, is very polished and slick. Even in beta, parts of the OS were noticeably faster, too.
Jokes aside, Microsoft does its UI homework. It spends more on UI R&D than any other software company in the world, which is one of the reasons why the XP interface is the most-copied UI in the world.
(PS: The Mac UI? Not invented by Apple. The iPod? Not invented by Apple. The guts of OSX? Not invented by Apple. Etc etc etc. Think different!)
Anyway, when Win7's finished, I'll move to it with few qualms. Now that most new hardware and software is Vista-compatible, Win7's roll out, when the software's finished, should have all the benefits of Vista with far fewer of the drawbacks.
I screwed up in my work, and I thought parts of it might make you guys smile. That's all.
I just didn't want to have a humorous post lead to misinformation.
Now excuse me, because I have to get rid of these Gremlin corpses before they start to smell.
Ars Technica has a detailed review of Win7 here:
ReplyDeletehttp://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/windows-7-beta.ars
Slashdot discuss it here:
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F13%2F0033200
Basically it seems to be a tarted-up Vista. (Pig with lipstick).
If you didn't like the Vista UI, you won't like the Win7 UI.
If Vista needed too much hardware, (memory, processor, etc.) for you, then Win7 will be the same.
If a special program or device won't run on Vista, then it won't run on Win7 either. But Win7 has much improved drivers compared with the original Vista debacle.
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But why bother? Moving to Linux has been the best thing I've ever done. The load of continual patching of the OS, continual updating of antivirus and spyware applications, etc. has disappeared from my life.
BillK
Dear dear Fred--why always having a go at Apple/Mac? I was a devoted reader of the Langalist, and then Windows Secrets, but having switched to a Mac this past summer, I find less and less reason to read Secrets (though as I run Windows virtualised for specific programs I feel I need to keep up with the latest SNAFUs in MS world). Every now and then I've seen you defend Microsoft when almost no others would (eg, when discussing flaws in OSes or in browsers). Its not that other browsers or OSes are flawless, its the breathtaking scale that MS pulls it off with. :)
ReplyDeleteSo I was once again disappointed to see the following in your latest entry:
(PS: The Mac UI? Not invented by Apple. The iPod? Not invented by Apple. The guts of OSX? Not invented by Apple. Etc etc etc. Think different!)
All this because you felt the need to say XP's UI is the most copied. By who? The various Linux packages? Not by Apple. At least, no more than Microsoft has borrowed the other direction. And what is the relevance of critiquing whether or not Apple invented the iPod? To go there, the Windows UI wasn't invented by MS either. So what? Both MS and Apple have refined their products over the years substantially.
And as a switcher, and a devoted Windows user for a long time, I'll say this much, Apple does a better job.
Seriously, just because Win7 is beta is no excuse for it frying your boot sector. It's not like its an early beta.
They'll get my XP Pro when they pry it from my cold, dead mini-tower. :-รพ
ReplyDeleteThanks again Fred,
ReplyDeleteI just downloaded Windows7 to try as I just haven't made friends with Vista. I use the third party boot manager you suggested 'boot it' on my main box and thanks to your comment "I suspect that the unfinished Win7 installation code fought with the boot manager, or vice versa, and flipped some key and hard-to-unflip bit in a boot or disk ID record." I will now at least try it on another box as I am not so good at fighting Gremlins. I don't mind using Linux and some of my friends are trying to get me to switch but I have a some needed Window software that neither I or they can get to run in Linux and thanks to your help Win XP delivers.
@Arnie
ReplyDeleteYeh, there's always some program that doesn't have a Linux equivalent. I'm not a Linux-only fanatic myself, even though I spend almost all my PC time in Linux. I dualboot back into Windows when necessary. I do try not to use Windows on the Internet if possible. It's just too risky.
BillK
Just a follow up, Fred, have been reading about the 'refinements' to the Win 7 taskbar. Sure sounds a lot like the dock...
ReplyDelete>>>>
ReplyDelete(PS: The Mac UI? Not invented by Apple. The iPod? Not invented by Apple. The guts of OSX? Not invented by Apple. Etc etc etc. Think different!)
<<<<
This is a real compliment. For so many years Apple had a "not invented here" attitude, as they strove to constantly reinvent the wheel. Remember the Twickie disk drives on the Lisa.
And now they use other people's software and hardware, Open GL and USB for example. It's just that they integrate and package it in such a way that "it just works".
Gowan Clews
London, UK
You aren't the only one who had a boot sector fried Fred. Join the party.
ReplyDeleteBut as you say, it's only beta. I was able to get all my data back when I reinstalled my old Win2K on a different hard drive and used the old drive as a slave. If it were a real invalid partition, like it claimed, I would have had to use some read only/partition recovery tool to get to the data. But I didn't. The data was all there and fine as long as I wasn't trying to boot from that drive.
I am not at all happy that MS didn't make sure about something as basic as the boot sector was right before sending it out the door as a Beta. And why did they have to much with it that badly in the first place?!
Otherwise at least according to my Jim, who went in with a critical eye (being a Linux user), and successfully installed it in Virtual Box, Parallels and twice natively on two machines.
His only complaint was hardware detection for his very standard Intel network card and SoundBlaster Live sound card. However, at least in Virtual Box he was able to use the Addons and then Microsoft had a driver for his Sound Card using an updated AC'97 driver.
BTW: Microsoft hasn't been sitting down on the job regarding hardware drivers for sound and network. My Jim reports that after install an update iso for Parallels and native, and a couple days of Microsoft updates for Win7 Beta, he has sound and network not only in Virtual Box but also Parallels and in his native installs.
ReplyDeleteI hope they figure out what there things went wrong with the boot sector thing.