Comments on: Windows 7 Review

By: thinkMoult » Blog Archive » Windows 7 “feature”: let’s include XP!

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:12:31 +0000

[...] readers of my blog, it’s like running an operating system on an operating system, a bit like what I did when I reviewed Windows 7, except instead of Linux, you’re running XP on Windows 7. I wrote about how the majority of [...]

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:34:48 +0000

Actually, windows can mount partitions onto an existing NTFS filesystem since windows-XP (it’s under control panel -> administration->computer management -> disc management -> change drive letter and path)

Played with the Windows 7 beta a bit, got the impression that it was windows vista with a little more gloss, a little bit faster and less resource hungry, but pretty much more of the same. I quite liked the consistency of the visual style, but it’s nothing super special, certainly not as impressive as the most basic compiz desktop.

Will be sticking with WinXP for my windows needs (games only these days!) and gentoo for everything else.

By: Dion Moult

Dion Moult — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:02:35 +0000

Well, actually KDE’s new trend are names _without_ a K in it :) Quassel, Dolphin, Plasma, Phonon, Gwenview, Arora…etc.

I’m not sure if Win 7 is capable of mounting like that yet, as like I said I was running this under a virtualbox, and to create another partition and put Linux on there just to test mounting was just too much hassle.

However what I have heard is that the hardware devices support for Windows 7 is currently the lowest in all of the operating systems. Hence everybody worried about compatibility issues with … their favourite camera or something.

By: Hessiess

Hessiess — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:06:58 +0000

I agree that The window borders waste too much screen space, it is bad enough in Vista with this ribbon rubbish, and 7 only looks worse. The complete absence of virtual desktops in Windows is another pain in the ass, it makes everything very hard to organise, which would only be worsened by the lack of text on the icons in the window list.
Personally I can get away with this by using a tiling WM, the window list and title bars are redundant because you can always see where everything is.

I do wish that they would drop the stupid `my’ rubbish with the folder naming, its about as bad as KDE calling everything `K’ something. And forcing a specific folder layut is very annoying for people who actually know what they are doing, and normally have there own way of organising things.

Is win7 actually capable f mounting a partition inside the file tree of another partition yet?

By: Dion Moult

Dion Moult — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:28:45 +0000

@Nathan: definitely! The thick window borders are a huge space waster, and it acts as a separation between the border and the content (due to the huge difference in colour). This loses the integrated feel of the OS.

…and yes, Linux understands what shortcuts are too ;)

Ah well, Windows doesn’t have much of a future in my opinion.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:30:05 +0000

Good review.

I’ve only used Windows 7 for a few hours, but just a quick glance is enough to make me uneasy about it. Like you mentioned, the windows are extremely bulky. Each window you have open seems to have a 10 pixel boarder on the bottom, left, and right which is a waste of valuable screen space. And at the top it’s like 50 pixels not counting any of the program’s navigation bars. So I’m really disappointed they have changed that from Vista.

It also makes me mad that they’re copying Mac OS X and Linux but are getting away with it as “original” ideas. And a screen capturing program? They still haven’t learned what short-cuts are? This is probably the same with Linux, but on OS X all you do is hit 2 keystrokes and you have a screenshot on your desktop ready – 3 keystrokes and it’s cropped with a drop shadow.