Converted to Windows 7. Nearly.

Over the past decade I have played with any number of operating systems in various states of completeness.  Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac and even once Solaris (I was really bored).  In very few cases I was surprised.  In most cases – especially with Betas – I was left with the realisation that several hours of work had resulted in a useless PC.

One golden rule that I had enforced throughout was that I would never perform any of these bash’n’crash installations on my principal computer.  This is a rule that I followed solemnly until the 5th May 2009 when I installed Windows 7 RC on my stalwart Dell laptop.

This was not an off-the-cuff decision.  I had been running Windows 7 Beta on another machine for some time, and unlike Vista on my Dell, it hadn’t crashed no matter what I threw at it.  Furthermore, I had gotten increasingly frustrated with Windows Vista, an operating system I had previously liked.  Dire file copying performance , intermittent video driver issues and an overall lack of general responsiveness had left me with two options: reinstall Vista or do something else.  Do Something Else won.

Installation was a doddle, with all the drivers being automatically installed bar one.  It even found a video driver that was better than the nVidia one I had previously been using.

Two weeks in, and Windows 7 has behaved flawlessly.  It is fluid, fast and above all stable.  No video problems.  Files move to and from my servers without any issues.

Now I know that I am currently in the honeymoon period.  Sooner or later, the inevitable WinRot will set in (where Windows progressively gums itself up)  but Windows 7 is currently ticking all the right boxes.  It has taken Microsoft far too long, but they appear to finally have produced a version of Windows for the 21st Century.

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