Wait for it . . .

Right now most of the coverage of Windows 7’s beta has been quite positive, and I have to say I’ve been impressed too (and I LIKE Vista).  But the real Microsoft haters haven’t had their say yet, and when they yowl, they do so for a very long time, with very little provocation, and with very little proof of problems.

But just wait for it, they will begin soon.  Until then, know that there is a lot to recommend this beta to folks, and a lot of good stuff that is in this OS.

A beta for the masses

Microsoft released a public beta of Windows 7 and was immediately swamped with download requests.  They pulled the beta so they could add more “infrastructure” (servers) to the mix, relaunched, and extended the time you have to download it.

Such a large public beta – basically a free though time-limited version of Windows for folks to use.  Why such niceness?

My theory is they did this for two reasons.  By getting it out there in almost finished form so soon, it will build up a large positive audience to overcome the Vista anxiety.  The second reason is to force the manufacturers of hardware the the publishers of software to get on board and get drivers and patches ready.  One of the big complaints about early Vista was that nothing would run on it (wrong, but that was the impression) because many drivers and patches were not available and took months to get to market.  Already in a lot of online forums that I visit I’ve seen folks screaming for Windows 7 drivers and patches for those few things that don’t work like they did under Vista.

Good job Microsoft.  You’re learning.

The link for Windows 7 on Microsoft’s site is:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

It’s a Beta!

As I mentioned, I downloaded the Windows 7 beta last night, and I’m blogging from it today.  As I get more used to it, I’ll mention some of my own observations, highlights and lowlights.  One thing to start with, the desktop background photos that come with the beta are beautiful.

Downloading Windows 7 Beta

As I’m watching Steve Ballmer at the CES keynote, I’m downloading the Windows 7 Beta that is available to Technet subscribers, and posting to my blog.  All using my Acer netbook.

Who says these things are underpowered?

Yes, I am in Nerdvana!

GPS Recommendation for my sister

Here’s the unit I recommend for you.

Metro Ride – Phase II

Image via Wikipedia

I had another chance at a Metro ride on Friday as a couple friends and I got together to make a go at having lunch on Mill Avenue in Tempe.  We started at the same Encanto & Central station that two of us had tried on the first day of operations.

We arrived to purchase the tickets from the kiosks.  We were able to start through the process when suddenly an announcement came that the train was delayed.  Huh?  So we asked a couple of the folks waiting if they knew what that meant.  We were told nothing much, those announcements had been heard before.  So we bravely purchased 3 all-day passes for the three of us and used a credit card.

When the train arrived it was standing room only, but no where near the crowds of the first few days.  I had braved the easterly run before, but my friends had not, so this was a new experience.

One of my friends is an avid mass transit, urban revival fan.  He was full of praise for the system, as he should be.  At this point it is still very clean and smooth in operating.  His only negative comments were about the route chosen in that east bound on Jefferson and Washington are not the most attractive views of the city, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunities for folks to get on the train once you leave the central core.  He was also saying that most of the land along the Jefferson and Washington corridors should be bought up and rebuilt with the kind of development that urban planners drool over.  Not having that kind of money ourselves, I guess that’s for another day.  About halfway through the ride, we were actually able to be seated.

We arrived at Mill Avenue, and wanted to walk around a bit before deciding on lunch.  Most of the folks on the train also got out at Mill Avenue.  It seems to be the one ‘destination’ spot on the circuit.  Mill doesn’t change much.  Stores come and go, but the overall college-town feeling is the same.  One thing my urban planning friend did notice was that the Harkins Theatres are gone, the Borders is closing, and the Fascinations upscale sex store that is now there gives an ominous warning.  “If they don’t watch it, this will be nothing but bars and sex shops” was his remark.  He may be onto something.

We had a pleasant lunch, finished walking around a bit, and got on the train back to Encanto & Central.  We did have to stand the rest of the way back.  The amount of people riding did surprise us and it was encouraging.

Later that evening, around 6:30 p.m. I drove back to my home and had to cross Central at Thomas.  As I waited at the light, the Metro went through the intersection heading north and west.  It was standing room only.

My only concerns are what will it be like to wait on those platforms and ride during the months of 100 degree plus temperatures (April to September), and how will it handle large events along the route.  On the previous Wednesday I attended the Insight Bowl in Tempe.  At the beginning and end of the game when crowds were swarming around the stadium, the train had trouble getting through the people walking on the tracks.  The roads were closed to help traffic get in and out, so folks were not going to marked crossings to cross roads that had no traffic.  Only the train was passing through, and it had to slow down and almost stop several times while sounding its horn to get people to move.

Let’s wait and see.

Why I’m going back to Windows Home Server

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve had an on-again/off-again relationship with Windows Home Server.

I started out with the public beta, went running right out and plunked down some hard earned credit to get the pieces of a decent enough rig to run the beta.  As with all beta software it had some rough spots, but I never did run into the dreaded data corruption bug.

After the beta I went out and spent my own money on the OEM software and did a fresh install on the machine.  As prices dropped I added more and more storage to the system.  The WHS machine saved my bacon a couple times by having a full system backup of a couple different hobby systems I have.  On those I like to change and rearrange things often, installing different OS’s and such.  At the end of it all, I like to go back to a clean and stable OS and software set, and the restore feature of WHS is perfect for that.

However I went on vacation this summer, and when I returned, of all the drives on the WHS to die, it was the system drive.  I went to power up and just got “clunk, clunk, clunk” from the system drive.

Except for my system images, I didn’t have anything that I couldn’t afford to lose on the system, and I thought I wanted a dedicated Vista Media Center system more than I wanted the WHS system.  So I popped in a new system drive, and just reformatted the whole thing over to Vista and convinced myself that I was OK to lose my system images.

I’ve been using it as my main Media Center machine/server since the summer, and it works OK when you get Vista to share things with the other systems.

But the main reason I’m going back?  For the backup of my other systems.  I just want that feature.  Also with the public beta of Windows 7 due soon through my Technet subscription, I want to be able to keep an image of the system I choose to move over to 7 so I can go back when and if I need to go back.

For all the other features of WHS, the one I miss the most is the backup feature.  I know you can get other products to do similar things, but since I already have the WHS software, I’m going to go back.

For my Vista Media Center system?  I’ve got a laptop that my sister dropped and broke the screen on, so it will be perfect to just sit and record TV and move it over to the WHS system.