Today, i had the honor of trying Windows 7, As you probably know by visiting this website i am a Debian lover, i like it allot, Yet i also do in addition to linux development C# (I need to make a living you know), and have been testing with MS operating systems before Windows was even out (DOS days).

To all of you who take sides, It feels as if apple pays you to do this stuff, although i am not microsoft's favorite advocate, and although i love my Lenny RC, i wouldn't say anything like this (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=11410), this lacks objectivity, it is not black and white you know.

Windows Vista and XP are fine systems, they lack plenty, but they have the power underneath to allow developers to rapidly develop applications so they can sell them to you at quite a low price if not free (Sell those applications), this alone gives windows a big advantage, and although i don't approve of microsoft's practices, i'm not sure what i would do if a certain choice meant billions of legal dollars, And i also would like to remind you that some very compitant softwares are not only affordable on Linux, they are FREE most of the time, But that does not make Microsoft bad, it is Just a different business model.

Bottom line, i have never used a modern MAC but know quite a few people that complain, in fact, With both running on intel hardware, i am yet to see any benchmark of either one's dominance.

Again, i am pissed about how everyone is taking sides on the internet, In the comments here, everyone has been accusing me of taking the Linux side, the truth is, i was questioning the value for your money you get with Windows Vista (Knowing that FREE alternatives exist that fulfill the needs of most people), i still do, i am not sure if the OS should cost this much when it sells this much.

I am also not sure microsoft is paying enough attention to how much you should get with every system for your dollar, it makes no sense to have the price of upgrading from vista to 7 close to the price of the upgrade from XP to Vista, but we are yet to see how "the suits" will set the pricing.

Now to Windows Seven .

Microsoft is letting everyone Download, the serial numbers are all over the internet and the download is all over P2P networks, as i write to this blog, Windows Vista 7 is downloadable from the Microsoft Website Just Google (Windows 7 Download), they will also give you one of there magical 10 serial numbers, they will give you a new one with every refresh of that page so obviously, they don't care if you get all the serials.

The serial numbers will work up to August ! that is a nice free ride for a system that has already been tested when it was called Vista !

even more interesting is my finding that the Serial Numbers for Windows 7 are sometimes the same as Windows Vista Beta serial numbers

So what about Windows 7 ?

It is vista with new stuff you didn't pay for yet, although it sounds harsh, i have been inspecting, and i can't see much change in the core, I am not saying (Like everyone else on the internet) that Microsoft should release this as a service pack to Windows Vista, there are allot of new Bells and whistles in this thing that justify making it a windows release, from how i see it, there is more in Windows 7 (Compared to vista) than there was in Windows XP compared to 2K (But not more than what changed between XP and Vista).

So, now i will start writing about this new Windows 7 for you right here on PowerDonkey.

To begin with, here are some changes in Windows 7

AERO is all about 3D acceleration, what about it in Windows 7.

Not much has changed, Minor changes exist, not in the core technology (Of utilizing your 3D card), but to where things are displayed and when, for example, in Vista when you hover over a taskbar entry you see thumbnails, In Windows 7 you see the thumbnails in different sizes and places, not much here either.

We have heard you can boot from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk), is that true, is it easy ?

UAC prompting level ? Does this mean it is no longer on or off ?

Now there are 4 levels of user account control, starting with always notify and ending with Never notify which is equivalent to off, Yup, that's where your scroll will always be.

UAC, why ask me again and again, did they fix that

---If you don't elevate something, you can disable further prompts,

What about the defrag, did they bring back the colored view, I like to see how it works like Auslogics and Perfect Disk

Nop, they claim it is more efficient, but still no clue on what it did, no reports, will not tell you if it consolidated any free space so you can shrink the disk, will not show you what happened to the initially written to the center NTFS FS, so not much to expect on this front, Why did they chose to make a system that gets fragmented, Performance, i would like to see some clarification on why NTFS fragments and yet does not perform better than FS3 or FS4 !

What about WEI, i never understood what it is all about, you say 4.9 but it is slower than my 2.4 ?

I really think WEI has not got enough attention from MS the first time (Or second time with Win Seven), Windows Experience index checks what features are implemented in the Hardware rather than test the hardware itself, So my laptop's 5200RPM gets a 5.7 for having Native command queuing and my desktop gets a 5.2 for not, even though, there is no doubt that the one on my desktop is way faster in every aspect (Unless you tailor a head flight to use NCQ).

So the truth of the matter is, Don't pay 2 much attention for WEI, it is just a list of features like the one you see at the shop next to the computer they are selling, the real deal shows up only when you start using it (Or get proper benchmarking software).

Will i have to go through Driver hell again

Little related change has been done in Windows Seven in this regard it seems, it should not be rocket science to make the Vista drivers always work with Windows 7, and it seems they do work, so driver hell is probably a thing of Vista not Seven.

Green, Like Vista

Greener, but don't start clapping your hands just yet, Most of the magic comes from the hardware, it is Microsoft that didn't implement the software side of it when they should have, and now they say Green... ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) gave them everything at there fingertips, but on there priority Queue it seems it is not very important.

So, some may argue that ACPI gave all the control to the software and therefore it made things harder for Microsoft, this is not true, i have been reading plenty about ACPI and it is a well thought of, well designed standard that really makes things easier for everyone.

But it is not all Microsoft's fault, hardware vendors don't really pay much attention either. Power-up in standby (PUIS) or power management 2 mode (PM2) designed in part by Microsoft has not been very widely implemented in hard drives, So when you have 6 hard drives in a computer case, you hit the power button, and the non compliant hard drives spin regardless of weather needed or not, So, the problem is that although those companies are in California, Global warming is not a big concern to them.

Wireless, Homegroup, What ?

So, it is not nice when your neighbor taps in to your wireless connection at home and messes with your shared folders, But now windows is aware that not every connection is a private one, and therefore, you get a password, and everyone can use that password to prove to Windows 7 that you are friends and not just connected to the same network, Very welcome move !