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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and
Speaker 1: I am the tech editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he always does on the
Speaker 1: occasions on which I podcast, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: Hey there, so, um, the number seven, the number seven,
Speaker 1: number seven. Don't jump ahead, We've got listener mail to
Speaker 1: deal with. Okay, let's do that. Then this listener mail
Speaker 1: comes from Ted. Ted says, so when are we getting
Speaker 1: the low down on Windows seven? As a user, I'm
Speaker 1: loving the new OS is as better OS than XP
Speaker 1: and Vista, and finally starts to rub off the black
Speaker 1: eye for MS. So when are you going to tackle
Speaker 1: the elephant in the room. M thanks and chat later, Ted, Well,
Speaker 1: we don't tend to tackle elephants. They're very large. Yes,
Speaker 1: they tend to charge. Yes, we can take away their
Speaker 1: credit cards. We will. Someone left a footprint in the
Speaker 1: butter we will. Um. We will, however, tackle Windows seven. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I should point out too that this is a little
Speaker 1: difficult for us, simply because UM, as a group that
Speaker 1: typically does not do product reviews. UM, we don't have
Speaker 1: a review copy of Windows seven in the house, although
Speaker 1: both of us have had the chance to mess around
Speaker 1: with the preview version that Microsoft released last year. We
Speaker 1: have a test machine that we use for stuff like
Speaker 1: that and lenox um, so you know, in a way,
Speaker 1: we have had the chance to mess with it some,
Speaker 1: but we haven't had a chance to really mess with
Speaker 1: the full version. Yeah, and part of that is because
Speaker 1: the office as a whole has not moved Windows seven,
Speaker 1: so we don't have access to it on our work machines,
Speaker 1: and neither Chris nor I have purchased a computer since
Speaker 1: Windows seven went gold and uh, and I'm using a
Speaker 1: Mac at home. So I mean, we just haven't had
Speaker 1: a chance to use it in our personal lives really,
Speaker 1: but there's been a lot out about it, so we
Speaker 1: can talk about it. Uh. First of all, would you
Speaker 1: say that, when based upon what you've read and the
Speaker 1: limited experience you've had, that Windows seven is a huge
Speaker 1: jump over Windows Vista. Well, in doing some research for it,
Speaker 1: I wanted to see what other people were saying, because
Speaker 1: you know, even frankly even if it was we were
Speaker 1: they were asking us just about our own experience. I
Speaker 1: would still want to see UH sort of temper that
Speaker 1: with some of the other reviews that I've read online
Speaker 1: and get a feel for what other bloggers and professionals
Speaker 1: were saying about it too. Um. Based on based on that,
Speaker 1: I would say that people in general seem to agree
Speaker 1: that UH Windows seven is a very good interface. Yes, um.
Speaker 1: I even talked with with our I T professional who's
Speaker 1: in the office. Um. He said in his opinion that
Speaker 1: Window seven is the second best OS that Microsoft has
Speaker 1: ever released. You know, I didn't ask, I was afraid
Speaker 1: to ask. But program Well, the problem is too that
Speaker 1: people Vista still has a very you know, as to
Speaker 1: point out, sort of a black eye, although you know
Speaker 1: by now people don't complain about it nearly as often
Speaker 1: as they used to. Well, it's because it's been some
Speaker 1: time and upgrade it. Well yeah, but it's still not
Speaker 1: I think the bells and whistles, plus a lot of
Speaker 1: the machines on which people were trying to install it
Speaker 1: at first, you know, may not have been able to
Speaker 1: handle it, whereas newer computers with it UH pre installed
Speaker 1: are ready and you know, it wasn't such a big
Speaker 1: deal for people who were on Vista, But most people
Speaker 1: I've seen who have upgraded to Windows seven seemed to
Speaker 1: really like it. I think for people who's stuck with
Speaker 1: the Vista platform and who continued to patch it and
Speaker 1: updated as they became available, probably have come around to
Speaker 1: to thinking that Vista is not really as bad as
Speaker 1: everyone was making it out to be. Now. When it launched,
Speaker 1: it certainly didn't have the support or the the versatility
Speaker 1: that people expected, particularly when it came to things like
Speaker 1: driver issues, drivers for things like video cards and sound cards,
Speaker 1: and and just peripherals. Yeah, people were having problems with
Speaker 1: their computers crashing. They would have all these peripherals that
Speaker 1: worked perfectly when their machine was running Windows XP, but
Speaker 1: when they upgrade Windows Vista, suddenly they would get all
Speaker 1: these notifications that things weren't working correctly or the or
Speaker 1: the computer would crash. Um. And as we said, you know, eventually,
Speaker 1: over time, Microsoft was able to address a lot of
Speaker 1: these problems through patches, but the damage had already been done.
Speaker 1: That that the early perception was just that Vista was
Speaker 1: not a strong operating system and that it had too
Speaker 1: much stuff stripped out of it during the development process,
Speaker 1: which is true. There were quite a few features that
Speaker 1: were supposed to be Windows Vista that ended up being
Speaker 1: pulled before it went gold, and so that has prompted
Speaker 1: some folks to say that Windows seven is really what
Speaker 1: Vista should have been the whole time. Well, I will
Speaker 1: give you some more evidence that people like Windows seven. Um.
Speaker 1: Then Windows Vista took about a year to get ten
Speaker 1: percent of the market. Uh, Windows seven did that in
Speaker 1: three months. Apparently so many people were waiting for uh
Speaker 1: an upbring system that wasn't Vista, that they were very
Speaker 1: willing to jump from XP directly to seven. Yeah. Well
Speaker 1: this this was this is based on an article I
Speaker 1: read in All Things d by John Paskowski. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, basically, one in ten computers as of the
Speaker 1: end of January, we're using uh Windows seven. Um. And
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, another article I read and
Speaker 1: seen it um said that Microsoft is, as a result
Speaker 1: of the success of Window seven, enjoying record profits. Um. However,
Speaker 1: that's for people who are actually buying the operating system
Speaker 1: from Microsoft. So people are upgrading to Windows seven, but
Speaker 1: they're not necessarily buying new machines with Windows seven. On
Speaker 1: it because PC manufacturers with Windows seven are not doing
Speaker 1: as well. Um. I think that's a result of the economy.
Speaker 1: Of course, a PC, a brand new PC is much
Speaker 1: more expensive than a copy of an operating system, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people might be looking at netbooks, which
Speaker 1: some netbooks do run Windows seven, kind of stripped down
Speaker 1: version of Windows seven. It's not the same one that
Speaker 1: you're going to find on a fully fledged desktop. But
Speaker 1: you can also find netbooks on running the Linux operating system,
Speaker 1: and um, pretty soon you will see some running the
Speaker 1: Google Chrome OS. But that that means that often the
Speaker 1: Linux ones tend to be priced lower than the Windows ones.
Speaker 1: Not by a whole lot, but every little bit tends
Speaker 1: to help. So I think a lot of people just
Speaker 1: and have have purchased Linux machines instead of Windows machines
Speaker 1: when it comes to the netbook market, although some of
Speaker 1: those same people end up being dissatisfied when they realized
Speaker 1: that the Linux machine doesn't do everything they expected it
Speaker 1: to do. It's no fault of Linux, really, it's more
Speaker 1: of not a lack of education on the part of
Speaker 1: the consumer where they just think, oh, this is a computer,
Speaker 1: that means that this can do blah blah blah, And
Speaker 1: that's not always the case. It is often very dependent
Speaker 1: upon the operating system, the processor, the memory of the computer.
Speaker 1: All that kind of stuff definitely takes a place apart
Speaker 1: and what the computer can and cannot do. But I
Speaker 1: think in the average consumer's mind they just think computer.
Speaker 1: That means I can do this, um, and when they
Speaker 1: get something that can't do that, they get frustrated and
Speaker 1: then go and return it. But at anyway, yes, it's
Speaker 1: true the Windows seven machines that are on the market
Speaker 1: now just haven't been moving very quickly. But again, the
Speaker 1: the economy bright plays a very large factor in that,
Speaker 1: and it's generally if you're if you're interested in and purchasing.
Speaker 1: So now I mean, I'm sorry, Window seven. Uh, there
Speaker 1: are there. It seems like there was some confusion at
Speaker 1: the very beginning of what versions we're going to come out. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: before before it launched, we had heard that there were
Speaker 1: going to be six versions. Yeah, and I think there
Speaker 1: I think there still are. It's just that o M,
Speaker 1: which is original Equipment manufacturer. They you know, they come
Speaker 1: pre installed on systems like netbooks and other computers. Right,
Speaker 1: that would be like like the netbook would be a
Speaker 1: stripped down version, like I said, but you could get
Speaker 1: Windows seven Premium, or or Windows seven Ultimate or Windows
Speaker 1: seven Professional. I think are those those are the main
Speaker 1: three for if you were if you're looking at upgrading
Speaker 1: a desktop, and I think in most cases, Windows seven
Speaker 1: Professional would be more than what most people would need.
Speaker 1: I don't seem I don't see a whole lot of
Speaker 1: value to Windows seven Ultimate for the average user. I mean,
Speaker 1: for for real power users maybe, but for most people
Speaker 1: myself included, I include myself in this group. I don't
Speaker 1: see any need to go beyond Windows seven Professional. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: the Home Premium is the most stripped down of of
Speaker 1: the three, and it's um and it lacks a lot
Speaker 1: of the features. It's basically just the rudimentary version, you know,
Speaker 1: for the average computer. I guess um it doesn't have
Speaker 1: the XP mode, which that's that's uh, one of those
Speaker 1: modes that a lot of businesses really essentially demanded. I think.
Speaker 1: I think the reason why that mode is in there
Speaker 1: is that's Microsoft's nod to corporate the corporate world. Because
Speaker 1: the XP is one of those proven platforms and a
Speaker 1: lot of businesses still use XP. I can think of
Speaker 1: one that's very close to us right now that still
Speaker 1: uses the XP operating system run many of its computers,
Speaker 1: all of them. We have a few, uh, we have
Speaker 1: a few Mac based computers. There are a couple of
Speaker 1: people with the newer laptops who have Vista. Really. Oh
Speaker 1: and then we also have a one Linux machine. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's true, probably more than more than one, but one
Speaker 1: that went actually so um. But at any rate, yes,
Speaker 1: we we mainly depend upon Windows XP machines. And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of companies out there that have proprietary
Speaker 1: software it was specifically designed with Windows XP in mind. Now,
Speaker 1: these are these are companies. Sometimes they have hundreds of employees,
Speaker 1: each of whom has a computer. That's big business. So
Speaker 1: if Microsoft had not built in some form of XP
Speaker 1: compatibility where you could run in XP mode, uh, they
Speaker 1: might have risked dis you completely counting out that whole
Speaker 1: section of the market. But by building in the XP capability,
Speaker 1: you allow these these companies to come in and say, well,
Speaker 1: we should get we should upgrade two Windows seven. Uh
Speaker 1: that I'll make most of our processes go more smoothly.
Speaker 1: And for the stuff that is proprietary and legacy, that
Speaker 1: has to run XP. We still have XP modes that
Speaker 1: we can still run it now. Um. Yeah, that that's
Speaker 1: the case too, especially for out of large companies, at
Speaker 1: least in my experience, that they get to supporting a
Speaker 1: particular OS, they've got it, they've got it downpad. If
Speaker 1: they need to push out an update system, why they
Speaker 1: can do that without having to worry about who's on what.
Speaker 1: Um And some you know, especially very very large companies,
Speaker 1: are really slow to migrate. UM. I worked for one
Speaker 1: company a few years ago where they were actually two
Speaker 1: os is behind the current just because they had everything.
Speaker 1: It all worked, and I kind of uh, I mean
Speaker 1: said said is that sort of seems in a way,
Speaker 1: especially if you love the you know, seeing what's on
Speaker 1: the cutting edge, you know, you have to appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Put your shoe feet in the shoes of you know,
Speaker 1: the person you have to manage all that and go
Speaker 1: you know what, if it just works right, why why
Speaker 1: make the risk of moving to a new operating system
Speaker 1: that's both expensive and not guaranteed to work. Yeah, those
Speaker 1: are two big risks there. And uh yeah, so it
Speaker 1: makes sense from a corporate perspective, But going back to consumers, UM,
Speaker 1: that's a lot easier because then you're just dealing with
Speaker 1: with one machine. You know, a handful of machines in
Speaker 1: your house. Yeah, you're not having to convince some some
Speaker 1: person in charge of the entire uh whatever you wanna
Speaker 1: call it, I T department, whatever, whatever particular department oversees
Speaker 1: the the computer purchases for your company. Uh, you don't
Speaker 1: have to sit there and think about that. On a
Speaker 1: scale of this is gonna affect two machines or whatever,
Speaker 1: it's usually going to be two or three at most. Um.
Speaker 1: There's some some nice elements to Windows seven that make
Speaker 1: it attractive to consumers, one of which is that Windows
Speaker 1: seven was optimized for machines that have multi core processors. Yes,
Speaker 1: now that's something that Windows XP does not have. You
Speaker 1: don't it's not, Um, it's not optimized in that way.
Speaker 1: So that means that if you have a machine with
Speaker 1: a multi core processor, uh, the Windows seven operating system
Speaker 1: is built in such a way that it will use
Speaker 1: that to the best of its ability. And that uh,
Speaker 1: just because you have a multi core processor doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's gonna run a particular program better than another computer.
Speaker 1: It has to be the program has to be designed
Speaker 1: to run on a multi court processor. Yes, it does,
Speaker 1: and in this case with Window seven, that means that
Speaker 1: you get things like faster load time. It shuts down
Speaker 1: faster than Vista. Um, and it does have a really
Speaker 1: pretty snappy booting and shutting down sequence compared to uh
Speaker 1: TO specifically compared to Vista. Also compared to my Windows
Speaker 1: X being machine which now approximately takes four days to
Speaker 1: shut down. Yeah. Yeah, I find that the longer you
Speaker 1: use a machine, the more digital crud accumulates, and it's
Speaker 1: bits and bites. Yes. Um, So there are all other
Speaker 1: things that are added into Windows seven. They're the home
Speaker 1: Groups Oh yes, which is a home Groups is a
Speaker 1: a product from from Microsoft that's supposed to make it
Speaker 1: easier to set up a home network. Um. Home networks
Speaker 1: are really not that difficult to set up, but it
Speaker 1: can be a little intimidating for someone who is not
Speaker 1: used to working with computer networks. Well, home Groups takes
Speaker 1: a lot of that out of the equation. It does
Speaker 1: a lot of the thinking for you. There is one
Speaker 1: major downside to home Groups. Yeah, it works with Windows
Speaker 1: seven machines and yeah, so if you are running multiple
Speaker 1: computers on different operating systems, the home Groups option isn't necessary,
Speaker 1: isn't gonna necessarily work for every machine in your house.
Speaker 1: It'll work for anything that's running the Windows seven and
Speaker 1: you can still network the computers. It's not like it
Speaker 1: prevents you from networking. It's just that the the tool
Speaker 1: itself won't be applicable in that case. Um. It's uh. Also,
Speaker 1: it's also better designed with as to work with direct
Speaker 1: x ten UM standards, which is that's mostly used in gaming,
Speaker 1: it's used for video cards and sound cards and uh. Again,
Speaker 1: one of the problems with Vista was that whole driver issue.
Speaker 1: The Microsoft really took a good look at that when
Speaker 1: they were designing Windows seven to try and avoid as
Speaker 1: much of that as possible. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid
Speaker 1: that because you know, unlike Apple, Microsoft is not in
Speaker 1: the business of designing computers from scratch. They don't they
Speaker 1: don't build every single element that goes into a computer.
Speaker 1: They're designing an operating system. That's it. It's it's the
Speaker 1: platform that exists between the hardware and all the applications
Speaker 1: you want to run. Um. They're not the ones building
Speaker 1: the video cards, sound cards, all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and they don't dictate what goes into a computer they
Speaker 1: have you know, they might work with developers to make
Speaker 1: sure it works properly, but they don't. They don't demand
Speaker 1: that you use a specific video card or sound card,
Speaker 1: whereas a different there's another company that's taking a very
Speaker 1: different approach. Yes, you're you're thinking of Apple Cane, And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that one approach is better or worse
Speaker 1: than the other, by the way. No, Actually they both
Speaker 1: have their good points and their bad points. Um. You
Speaker 1: know there's that diversity that the diversity of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the PC, the traditional you know, Windows Slash Linux, not
Speaker 1: a Mac PC that has you know, you can you
Speaker 1: can build your own you know, put your own case together,
Speaker 1: throw whatever graphics card you want to in there with
Speaker 1: a motherboard and you know, put it, put all the
Speaker 1: guts together. The thing is, you know, while that it
Speaker 1: can be inexpensive, very inexpensive. You have to get all
Speaker 1: the drivers for that. Sometimes they don't support it. For example,
Speaker 1: actually on our test machine here's an example. Um I
Speaker 1: install installed the newest version of a Buntu Linux and
Speaker 1: Windows seven the test release we got last year, neither
Speaker 1: of which had a driver for the sound card on
Speaker 1: that um sound does not work on that machine gradually updating.
Speaker 1: Actually the one who did recognize the sound card and
Speaker 1: I'd given up trying. I had, as of this podcast,
Speaker 1: tried the Windows seven to see if they've actually uh
Speaker 1: done this is this is an old Dell machine actually
Speaker 1: probably a couple of years old now, um, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you figure it was recent enough where they
Speaker 1: would do it, but they had, you know, they just
Speaker 1: hadn't gotten around to releasing the driver as part of
Speaker 1: the main software. And of course they're a third party
Speaker 1: people who will write, especially with the Linux community. They
Speaker 1: are all sorts of developers who are working with that UM,
Speaker 1: who may or may not be interested in putting something together. UM,
Speaker 1: but from Microsoft. In a lot of cases, you know,
Speaker 1: it's either from them or one of the major like
Speaker 1: the sound card manufacturer, who's interested in in writing those drivers. Right.
Speaker 1: And And to get back to the argument of of
Speaker 1: controlling everything versus versus just taking a hands off approach. UM.
Speaker 1: One of the pros of the hands off approaches that
Speaker 1: you get machines in a variety of price ranges, so
Speaker 1: you could buy a computer running the same operating system.
Speaker 1: You can look at a selection of them, all running
Speaker 1: Windows seven the same version of Windows seven at different
Speaker 1: price points and different capabilities, and you're gonna see that,
Speaker 1: you know, a very wide range. You might see something
Speaker 1: that around the four dollar level, and there may be
Speaker 1: others that are two thousand or more depending upon the specs. Uh.
Speaker 1: The other approach, the Apple approach, you're going to have
Speaker 1: fewer choices. You're gonna it's usually a tiered choice and
Speaker 1: you may have three or four options, but it's uh,
Speaker 1: you're not going to find a cheaper version of the
Speaker 1: same kind of machine from someone else. It's all through
Speaker 1: one company. But on the flip side of that, it's
Speaker 1: pretty much guaranteed to all work together because it was
Speaker 1: designed that way. Yeah. So because the developer of the
Speaker 1: operating system is also the manufacturer of Hartwell their contract
Speaker 1: the manufacturer of the hardware. So it's one of these
Speaker 1: five chips, it's one of these seven hard drives. You know,
Speaker 1: we're pretty much sure that we have a driver for that.
Speaker 1: So back to Windows seven. Yeah, one of the cool
Speaker 1: features is the home media stuff, which it incorporates very well.
Speaker 1: So if you wanted to use your computer as a
Speaker 1: media PC, um whether or that means to you just
Speaker 1: watching media on your PC directly or even networking it
Speaker 1: with your television. UH so hooking your your PC up
Speaker 1: to your TV so that your PC becomes kind of
Speaker 1: a a media server. Really, the Window seven comes with
Speaker 1: that capability built in. UM, if you I think it's
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if Premium has it. I know the
Speaker 1: professional does. But if you if you just run the software,
Speaker 1: you can do things like connect kind of like a DVR.
Speaker 1: You can pull content from the web and uh and
Speaker 1: stream it to your television. UM. It does require that
Speaker 1: you hook your computer up to your TV, which is
Speaker 1: a step that some people find intimidating. It's getting easier
Speaker 1: and easier, especially when you find a machine that has
Speaker 1: h d M I boorts and all you really need
Speaker 1: is an HDMI cable and the right software and then
Speaker 1: you're ready to go. UM it's getting so easy now
Speaker 1: that I think that the average consumer could very easily
Speaker 1: set up a media PC and his or her own
Speaker 1: home with uh, you know, just just by buying the
Speaker 1: right machine. Back in the day, it meant that you
Speaker 1: had to know your way around different codex and uh,
Speaker 1: different networking solutions. UM it's much easier now. So that's
Speaker 1: one I mean that and that we we started to
Speaker 1: see that in Windows Vista. They incorporate a lot of
Speaker 1: the home media stuff and Windows Vista. But again it
Speaker 1: just when upon launch was not the most stable or
Speaker 1: reliable service. Yeah. Yeah, um, and the interface has changed
Speaker 1: pretty substantially too. I mean there are there are a
Speaker 1: lot of benefits to using Windows seven over some of
Speaker 1: the earlier versions. One of the things, as a person
Speaker 1: who's probably been using a lot of guests, Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: been using a Mac longer than I have Windows, although
Speaker 1: I've used both for many many years now. Um, I
Speaker 1: really like the fact that UH, as opposed to the
Speaker 1: XP machine that I use every day, Windows seven basically
Speaker 1: has one instance of a particular program in the task bar. Now,
Speaker 1: when you mouse over that, you can see a preview
Speaker 1: of all the different UH windows that you have open
Speaker 1: in that. So if you have for for word documents open,
Speaker 1: it's basically one instance of word and you can you know,
Speaker 1: easily find it just by mousing over that. And which
Speaker 1: I think, Uh, you know, I've had I've had laptops
Speaker 1: with small screens and when you have multiple documents open
Speaker 1: and they're they're all you can you can barely tell
Speaker 1: what it is at the bottom that always frustrates. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but this is far more elegant and a lot more streamlined,
Speaker 1: although you know, there is that trade off when you
Speaker 1: can see which what is in you know the name
Speaker 1: of whatever it is that you have opened, and you
Speaker 1: can go, okay, well that's the one I want to
Speaker 1: click on, just when it gets so out of hand
Speaker 1: on some of the earlier versions. But I really, I
Speaker 1: really like that. That's one of those things that I
Speaker 1: just found easy and it's um, you know, just using
Speaker 1: the operating system on a day to day basis, you know,
Speaker 1: editing articles, doing research podcasts and things like that. UM,
Speaker 1: I've noticed that, you know, it's easier to find preferences. UH,
Speaker 1: different menus are make make a lot more sense to
Speaker 1: me than they did in earlier versions. So it's obvious
Speaker 1: that they've taken a lot of user interface UM information
Speaker 1: research into uh, into the design process of trying to
Speaker 1: come up with this. And I also should point out
Speaker 1: too that on the test machine that we've tried Office
Speaker 1: which is UM, actually there I think a final release
Speaker 1: candidate as of the recording of this, so that it's
Speaker 1: probably going to hit the shelves before too awfully long, um,
Speaker 1: but it also shows a lot of maturity since the
Speaker 1: previous version of Office. I know this was the Windows
Speaker 1: seven thing, but the two of them worked together very
Speaker 1: very well. And uh, I'm impressed by the new Office
Speaker 1: as well. And the less said about Office two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: the better. Yeah, I kind of um might have wanted
Speaker 1: to skip that, although the uh, there are some things
Speaker 1: they changed. That little bubble in the upper left window.
Speaker 1: If You've used Office two thousand seven, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, that's gone away. They have a file
Speaker 1: menu over there now in Office, which makes it it's
Speaker 1: it actually makes a little sense. It's actually more intuitive,
Speaker 1: and yeah, builds on what was before. I don't get
Speaker 1: the the nest the feeling of necessity to when you,
Speaker 1: whenever you come out with a new version to totally
Speaker 1: change the user interface that you have built up over
Speaker 1: the past versions, unless it was just so unwieldy that
Speaker 1: it just didn't make sense to keep on building on
Speaker 1: that and just you want to start over. Uh. So
Speaker 1: many programs do that, where they'll the next version will
Speaker 1: be a complete change, and it means that you have
Speaker 1: to take the time to learn the system that you
Speaker 1: theoretically should already know. Um, I hate that this is
Speaker 1: a personal pet peeve, but I was gonna also mention
Speaker 1: Radar or tech Radar, which is a UK site, did
Speaker 1: a test running Windows seven. Actually they had this was
Speaker 1: back in the beta days, so it was a Windows
Speaker 1: seven beta versus Windows Vista versus XP okay benchmark, Yeah,
Speaker 1: bitchmarking test between the three and discovered that Windows seven
Speaker 1: was the best whenever you were copying several files up
Speaker 1: to a megabyton size or up to a gigabye, it's
Speaker 1: faster than then both XP and Windows Vista. It was
Speaker 1: also faster for network copying files of up to a
Speaker 1: gigabyt and size, it was faster than than together to However, um, interestingly, uh,
Speaker 1: the the if you were to network copy one megabyte files,
Speaker 1: XP was actually faster. That happens. I mean they found
Speaker 1: that with macOS ten snow Leopard as well. Um, there
Speaker 1: are certain things that it does better, and there are
Speaker 1: certain things the previous virsion of the Osterich I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny. Well, what's interesting is in their
Speaker 1: benchmark tests, under all the benchmarks that they did, Windows
Speaker 1: Vista performed, Uh didn't. It was never first ever in
Speaker 1: any of the benchmarks. Uh. That didn't mean they came
Speaker 1: in last every time, but they were never first. It
Speaker 1: was either XP or Windows seven, which means that Vista
Speaker 1: just wasn't the best at anything. That's kind of sad. Um.
Speaker 1: And granted this was the beta, so it wasn't the
Speaker 1: same as the necessarily the same program that that came
Speaker 1: out available to everybody. Uh. I actually have a word
Speaker 1: to say about that if you're somebody like if you're
Speaker 1: somebody like us who downloaded uh, the free version of
Speaker 1: the operating system, which I gotta say, Uh, excellent move
Speaker 1: on Microsoft's part to give people an opportunity. It's for
Speaker 1: marketing reasons and for um, for consumers to actually have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to get their hands on an early version
Speaker 1: of the operating system. It was the best move Microsoft
Speaker 1: could make considering the pr they had to be dealing
Speaker 1: with with. But you can also you can also upgrade
Speaker 1: uh your operating system online too, which is an also
Speaker 1: a good move where you want to necessarily buy the disc.
Speaker 1: But if you did, excuse me, download a a copy
Speaker 1: of that early preview release, there's something you need to know,
Speaker 1: at least depending on when you listen to this. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: if it's afterwards, you're gonna go, why is my computer
Speaker 1: shutting down? Well, Microsoft is going to shut your computer down. Um,
Speaker 1: let's see I misplaced the date on that. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be like this is gonna be like a inspector gadget
Speaker 1: thing where after thirty seconds the message explodes. Okay, so yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're using the Windows seven preview, uh, you have
Speaker 1: to upgrade to the full version. A full version. I
Speaker 1: assume it doesn't necessarily matter which one for March one,
Speaker 1: because at that point Microsoft is going to let you
Speaker 1: use the operating system for two hours, and then your
Speaker 1: computer will shut down and it will not save your work.
Speaker 1: And if you try to open it up again, Microsoft
Speaker 1: will send Clippy out after you, and then Clippy will
Speaker 1: ask you over and over, I see you're trying to
Speaker 1: operate a defunct operating system. Can I help? Well, actually,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's a little bit more serious than that.
Speaker 1: They're going to change. You won't be able to have
Speaker 1: custom wallpaper anymore. It will be a solid black background
Speaker 1: with a persistent message I'm actually quoting from the Microsoft side,
Speaker 1: with a persistent message on your desktop. You'll also get
Speaker 1: periodic notifications that Windows isn't genuine. That means your PC
Speaker 1: may no longer be able to obtain optional updates or
Speaker 1: downloads require in genuine Windows validation. I think if they
Speaker 1: have I think if they have Clippy deliver that message,
Speaker 1: it would be more effective. Yes, exactly, I guarantee it
Speaker 1: would be more effective. I mean, granted, if your operating
Speaker 1: system is no longer working and it's telling you why
Speaker 1: it's no longer working, that should be effective enough. If
Speaker 1: Clippy is doing it, Yeah, it just adds a little
Speaker 1: expediency to the matter in my opinion. Well, I am
Speaker 1: sure that there are people working on ways to keep
Speaker 1: the preview release going. Um, those are are probably who
Speaker 1: I say probably, I mean most definitely not legal. Um,
Speaker 1: not that I'm sure that they're gonna necessarily know that
Speaker 1: you're doing it, but I wouldn't recommend it anyway. Um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's ah and I guess in somemation, since
Speaker 1: we're sort of winding down at this point, I think
Speaker 1: it's a good release. Um, I've been very impressed with it.
Speaker 1: It has been you know, I haven't done any scientific
Speaker 1: benchmarking or anything like that, but it's been uh, it's
Speaker 1: been faster, it's been smoother, um, and I do like
Speaker 1: it better than next pum on four sly as of
Speaker 1: March one, I will probably not be able to trust it,
Speaker 1: you know, get a whole blog post written and then
Speaker 1: suddenly it will shut down without saving my work, and
Speaker 1: that would be kind of a bummer. Yeah, but I do,
Speaker 1: but I do like it quite. It's nice. Um, it'll
Speaker 1: be um and of course before we we sign off
Speaker 1: and we should wrap up here. But currently there are
Speaker 1: now rumors that Windows eight is already in the uh
Speaker 1: not not just in development, because that's not a surprise
Speaker 1: when a when an operating system hits the market, you
Speaker 1: can get you can bet that the company has been
Speaker 1: working on the successor to that operating system already before
Speaker 1: it even hits the store shelves. But the rumor now
Speaker 1: is that we may see Windows eight before the end
Speaker 1: of two thousand eleven. Just not really that shocking. I mean,
Speaker 1: all Bring systems used to come out every couple of years.
Speaker 1: It's just it feels like for something as Major's not
Speaker 1: Brings system, it just feels kind of weird, like, wow,
Speaker 1: you don't even get two years out of it. But
Speaker 1: maybe it's because everyone's been using XP for so long
Speaker 1: and they just skipped this to and now they're thinking,
Speaker 1: oh and not brings system is supposed to last X
Speaker 1: number of years. Yeah, well I think uh, I think too.
Speaker 1: It sort of benefits tech companies to continue that go
Speaker 1: go go cycle because you know, if they could keep
Speaker 1: people buying a hundred and release for their operating system
Speaker 1: every two to three years, you know that that keeps
Speaker 1: the cycle up, It makes them seem like they're more innovative.
Speaker 1: Got to pay those shareholders. Yeah, and that I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's like people buying you know, new phones or
Speaker 1: new MP three players or whatever. You know, it's less
Speaker 1: than two years stocks. Yeah, I'm not touching that, but
Speaker 1: why that's why I replace them, right, Okay, then all right,
Speaker 1: well that wraps up this discussion on Windows seven. Keep
Speaker 1: keep your ears tuned to tech stuff. We are doing
Speaker 1: lots of different spotlights on on various programs over the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks, probably um no fourmal reviews, but
Speaker 1: you know, yeah just over there right right stuff so
Speaker 1: that you guys can kind of get a little more
Speaker 1: information about these these different uh products that are out
Speaker 1: there on the market and Ted, I hope that uh,
Speaker 1: that suffices for our elephant in the room discussion. If
Speaker 1: any of you have any questions, suggestions, criticisms, things like that,
Speaker 1: write us our email addresses tex stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Remember, check out our blogs, check out
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Speaker 1: the articles on that wacky website we call how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com because it's awesome and Chris and I
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