Reasons why W7 is not 'Vista with SP3'?

Glaucus · 23 Jul 2009 at 14:28

howiepoohs said:
My guess is to fool the Vista haters into buying Windows 7. It seems to have worked as the sales have out stripped Vista already. I can for the life of me actually see what the huge difference is with W7 and Vista apart for a few (fairly useless) gimmicks really. I do love the background fade though, hate the new Virtual pc. Yes it could easily have been similar to XP's sp2 which is sort of what I feel W7 is to Vista, if you see what I mean. I certainly do not feel the urge to part with my cash for it.

since when did MS release major os and add functionality in service packs. It's a new os as it is substantially revised and has lots of added applications and support.

One huge list of new features
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_7

something daft already!! · 23 Jul 2009 at 14:37

neil_g said:
what pauses? if youre seeing those plus reliability issues id check your drivers, there is some underlying issue there.

I thought of that, but it happens on three totally different machines. The pauses are while say, typing an email, scrolling thorough a folder listing or while using Winamp, the playlist scrolling will pause as will the visual effects. This is build 7100. I am sure other must have this issue and its one of the main reasons I went back to Vista.Also when gaming, if I load a new map on COD w@w there is a long pause and blank screen before the game starts. I might try the new ATI drivers tonight to see if this helps any. Oddly my old Acer laptop seems to run it ok without the pauses, yet my new Intel builds have the pauses.

Broken Hope · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:17

Anyone saying that Windows 7 is the same as a service pack to Vista, did you consider XP a service pack to 2000? Since the change is pretty similar.

Elevon · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:32

Lysander said:
But it is a new OS. What is your definition of 'new' OS?

Something completely new like Win 3.11 to 95 or Win7 to Win 8

.

Ninja Please! · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:35

Well considering Win 7 is only about 12gb's and Vista is about 30gb, I don't see how downloading more files like a service pack is going to give you the same thing.

win7 is also more optimized for multi-core cpus

Besides you can't go too crazy with your OS and make it too different because then like apple's OS, PC users will hate it. Seriously though, my dad won't even upgrade to Vista because he barely knows where things are and how they work on XP. You have to make each OS a baby step above the last to prevent users from having to re-learn everything they knew.

The last thing Vista needs is a service pack. The damn thing is already over 30gb. I can't believe anyone would even want that?

Burnsy2023 · 23 Jul 2009 at 15:35

Elevon said:
Something completely new like Win 3.11 to 95 or Win7 to Win 8 .

Not really. A new OS adds features that the previous one didn't have and is the next evolution of Windows. The only exception is XP SP2.

Edinho · 23 Jul 2009 at 17:12

Burnsy2023 said:
Not really. A new OS adds features that the previous one didn't have and is the next evolution of Windows. The only exception is XP SP2.

A new OS adds more than new features otherwise we'd still be DOS.

For me win7 is what XP was to win2000.

'New' OS's were 3.1 > 95 > 2000 > Vista.

I would bet a million dollars that most hardware drivers work on win7 without rewrites from Vista. Try getting drivers before Vista to work on Vista!

Mattus · 23 Jul 2009 at 18:32

Edinho said:
Anyone who thinks win7 is a new OS and is not an overhaul to Vista is either stupid or ignorant or both. Vista's kernel took 5-6 years to develop there is no way on earth that win7 is a 'new' OS.

Sounds like you have a poor understanding of OS development cycles. A major overhaul that makes fundamental changes to the kernel is not something that happens with every new OS version. Why would it be? Having just got all the manufacturers on board with the Vista driver model, why would MS move the goalposts again? What's the point?

MS made the changes they needed to in Vista. XP's core was getting outdated from the point of view of security, graphics, audio... you name it. There's absolutely no reason to make such changes in 7. Doesn't mean it isn't a new OS. Did you also think that XP wasn't a new OS?

(edit)

Edinho said:
For me win7 is what XP was to win2000.

Well... yes, it pretty much is. XP is a much better desktop OS than 2000 though.

OspreyO · 23 Jul 2009 at 23:11

From a games point of view XP was a big change from W2k.

IMO W7 is a leaner leaner Vista. But its still Vista. Still some daft stuff going on.

mame · 24 Jul 2009 at 00:14

I don't see why everyone has all this stress. I enjoyed XP, I have enjoyed using vista since RC1 and now i have pre-ordered Windows 7 for £44.99. Onwards and upwards.

dillingerdan · 24 Jul 2009 at 00:55

Fire Wizard said:
Aero is still enabled when running a game, which means when I switch to the desktop from the game, it's slightly nicer to use. Also, the fact that the taskbar puts everything into groups, which is a nice little addition.

Aero doesn't and shouldn't turn off in Games in Vista. Mine never did. You have to make sure you have done the system evaluation thing though, else it thinks your hardware is a 1.0 rating (Aero needs a 2.0 I think). Needs re-doing after each driver update usually too.

Abd Vista and XP both grouped tasks on the taskbar if you wanted it that way (was default I believe).

Matteysan · 24 Jul 2009 at 01:00

Ninja Please! said:
The last thing Vista needs is a service pack. The damn thing is already over 30gb. I can't believe anyone would even want that?

er what?

Vista took up about 12gb on my machine when I had it installed.

Anyhow Vista & Win7 are both very good OS' but personally I prefer the look of Windows 7

Also to add, Vista always turned Aero off for me too when in games.

Fire Wizard · 24 Jul 2009 at 01:26

dillingerdan said:
Aero doesn't and shouldn't turn off in Games in Vista. Mine never did. You have to make sure you have done the system evaluation thing though, else it thinks your hardware is a 1.0 rating (Aero needs a 2.0 I think). Needs re-doing after each driver update usually too.

The Windows Experience rating has already been set. It actually isn't very consistent, when running a game and then when I alt tab back to the desktop, sometimes aero is still enabled and other times it isn't.

Abd Vista and XP both grouped tasks on the taskbar if you wanted it that way (was default I believe).

Sorry, maybe I wasn't very clear on what I meant regarding the taskbar grouping items. Though, the following images should give you an idea on what I mean.

Windows Vista:

Windows 7:

Some people are also reporting Windows 7 takes up less storage space than Windows Vista and memory usage is lower as well. I can't say this is the case with my system. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are within, around 1GB of each other in terms of the amount of hard disk space the operating systems are taking up. This is with the exact same amount of programs installed. Regarding memory usage, there is no significant difference between Windows Vista and Windows 7 either.

Features like User Account Control, since it's been mentioned in the thread, the customizable settings for UAC doesn't really affect me since I use a separate standard user account and then fast user switch when necessary.

The change from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is an extremely small upgrade for me personally. Though, since I will probably have a solid state drive when Windows 7 is released, the TRIM command will obviously be very welcome. I'm just currently waiting for the Intel X25-M G2 Solid State Drives now. Windows Vista / Windows 7 on one of those will be lush.

Chris1712 · 24 Jul 2009 at 01:38

Taskbar grouping is always turned off for me, just slows things down. I really dont like the new popup location when you right click on taskbar buttons aswell, you cant speediyl right-click left-click close anymore. Why are all the animations so slow and smooth, looks nice but just slows my productivity down.

Give me some reasons not to go back to Vista guys.

Dolph · 24 Jul 2009 at 08:20

Why was windows XP not a Win 2K service pack?

There are sufficient changes to UI and changes/improvements to the way things are handled in the background to justify a new release, service packs provide bug fixes, they rarely provide additional features unless they are really security issues or bug fixes (such as the additional of the firewall and new security features in XP SP2).

XP's lifecycle was not the standard, it was an abnormal blip in MS' normal release cycle which would see major and minor releases on a 2-3 year cycle.

gbradders123 · 27 Jul 2009 at 01:29

using win7 rc1, have noticed higher frame rates in games, ( well live for speed as the frame rate is always showing).

win7 is where ms where aimign for with vista, but ended up as a halfway house on the road to win7.

D D Danneh · 27 Jul 2009 at 02:07

I only went for W7 over Vista because the RC is free. I've now preordered W7 at £50, and not only have I saved £30 from what I would have spent (vista OEM), but I have a retail copy of a slightly better OS.

razer1978 · 27 Jul 2009 at 22:48

Lysander said:
No they haven't. W7's initial presales overtook Vista's seventeen week presales within eight hours. This is not the same as overall sales, especially if you count OEMs.

tell me about it, i tried to preorder win7 HP @ 01:30 in the morning on the day the preorders started :eek:

craig3000 · 27 Jul 2009 at 22:48

mame said:
I don't see why everyone has all this stress. I enjoyed XP, I have enjoyed using vista since RC1 and now i have pre-ordered Windows 7 for £44.99. Onwards and upwards.

LOL agree XP was fine, Vista was fine, W7 will be fine

Mattus · 27 Jul 2009 at 23:03

Chris1712 said:
Taskbar grouping is always turned off for me, just slows things down. I really dont like the new popup location when you right click on taskbar buttons aswell, you cant speediyl right-click left-click close anymore. Why are all the animations so slow and smooth, looks nice but just slows my productivity down.

Give me some reasons not to go back to Vista guys.

I'm playing with Win7 64-bit tonight... the taskbar animation annoyed me too, so I just turned it off. Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Performance > Visual effects > deselect 'animations in the taskbar and start menu'

I found a taskbar layout which I really like.

Previously on Vista I had a RocketDock on the right with my most-used programs. By moving the taskbar to the right I've killed two birds with one stone. It also makes it more intuitive for me and helps me get used to it because having it on the right breaks the mental link with the old-style taskbar and makes me use it more like the dock. Bonus is that I get more vertical space.

Loving the OS in general as well. Can't believe this is pre-release software... stable, streamlined and very fast. Can't remember another MS OS that was close to this good before SP1. When release day comes I'm gonna get an SSD - will make it even better.