Safe to run windows 7 as main OS?

The question was "is it safe to run windows 7 as main OS".

The answer is no. It is not safe to run W7 as your main OS.

Clearly you agree with me because you openly accept that you might have to format and reinstall at any time. When you said: "If it breaks, then I reinstall."

An OS that may break at any time potentially requiring a reinstall is certainly not classed as "safe". And that's not my opinion.
 
NathanE said:
Give it a few months for the "clean install" to wear off...
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Nowt to do with a clean install. I only had Vista on this laptop for 2 weeks before I put XP MCE back on it.

I'd been running Vista on my desktop from the first public beta til I sold it a couple of months ago. I loved Vista on my desktop and would use it again given the choice, but I couldn't put up with it on my laptop.


We do, however, agree that W7 should only be run if you treat it as it is - an unfinished OS.
 
NathanE said:
Personally I think it is laughable the amount of "omg Windows 7 is soooo fast" comments that are all over the web. It is just the Vista SP1 kernel more or less :D These people should really just give Vista a try already...

Don't read that as me knocking Windows 7. Definately not. I'm just saying that Windows 7 is intended to be a minor point release to Vista. It is not going to have massive sweeping changes to the kernel or anything. This is why it is, actually, version 6.1 of Windows. Where Vista was 6.0.
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I personally totally disagree with everything you said there. Windows 7 is noticably faster than Vista for me, and the gaming performance is just as good, if not better, than XP, which suits me perfectly since I am mainly a gamer. Windows 7 at the moment, is pretty much superior to Vista in every way, except a few stability issues here and there, hence why its beta. I've had Windows Explorer crash a few times, but it simply restarts and everything is back to normal.
 
Loque said:
I personally totally disagree with everything you said there. Windows 7 is noticably faster than Vista for me, and the gaming performance is just as good, if not better, than XP, which suits me perfectly since I am mainly a gamer. Windows 7 at the moment, is pretty much superior to Vista in every way, except a few stability issues here and there, hence why its beta.
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What areas do you notice it to be faster? Are you just using the OS to load a few programs or are you actually running benchmarks?

Apart from the startup speed, I've not noticed it to be faster in any other areas. Well nothing that I would notice anyway.
 
Loque said:
I personally totally disagree with everything you said there. Windows 7 is noticably faster than Vista for me, and the gaming performance is just as good, if not better, than XP, which suits me perfectly since I am mainly a gamer. Windows 7 at the moment, is pretty much superior to Vista in every way, except a few stability issues here and there, hence why its beta. I've had Windows Explorer crash a few times, but it simply restarts and everything is back to normal.
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I'm speaking from a technical standpoint not a subjective "but it feels faster" standpoint.

All I am saying is that there is, technically, very few reasons why W7 would be substantially faster than Vista. Vista itself was already a very fast OS. W7 for sure has some tweaks to go above and beyond the performance of Vista but it is not going to be like night and day like many people over the web are making it out to be.
 
NathanE said:
The question was "is it safe to run windows 7 as main OS".

The answer is no. It is not safe to run W7 as your main OS.

Clearly you agree with me because you openly accept that you might have to format and reinstall at any time. When you said: "If it breaks, then I reinstall."

An OS that may break at any time potentially requiring a reinstall is certainly not classed as "safe". And that's not my opinion.
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You're still wide of the mark. I am using beta software the way that beta software is meant to be used. Just because you're not willing to put up with the inconvenience does not make it unsafe.
 
NathanE said:
No? It is a beta OS. Anyone that feels the need to ask whether it is safe to run Windows 7 as their main OS clearly doesn't understand the forces at play and should steer clear. Same reason you don't invest in the stock market unless you really know what you are doing...
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Agreed :D
 
Burnsy2023 said:
No you're not. Beta Software should only be used in a test environment where loss of data is not and issue. It should not be used on your main workstation.
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As I've said, all my data is on a NAS. If I lose the OS then I lose bookmarks, and installed applications. No personal data whatsoever. I also have the benefit of using all facets of the OS, not just certain areas that my 'other' main workstation doesn't make use of.
 
emailiscrap said:
You're still wide of the mark. I am using beta software the way that beta software is meant to be used. Just because you're not willing to put up with the inconvenience does not make it unsafe.
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OK then. Windows 7 is the first beta OS in all history that is not unsafe.

There, happy now?



For everyone else... please ignore this post as it contains FUD.
 
NathanE said:
OK then. Windows 7 is the first beta OS in all history that is not unsafe.

There, happy now?



For everyone else... please ignore this post as it contains FUD.
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Alternatively, explain why it is 'unsafe'? Inconvenient? Yes. Buggy? Yes.
Unsafe? I don't think so.
 
It is unsafe because it is a beta OS. As an example it may have a bug in an I/O driver which introduces corruption to files that just happen to be written to at a specific reoccuring point in time. Then, without you realising, your oh-so-magic NAS backup solution automatically backs up these corrupt files. Then when eventually your W7 beta install dies you decide to reinstall it and restore from your backups. Except you realise that your backups are corrupt because the beta OS that "isn't unsafe" unwittingly corrupted your files without you knowing.

See? That is just a hypothetical scenario of how an unsafe beta OS in the wrong hands can really ruin someones day/week/month/year.

I find it scary that there are people out there, like you, running this OS on the basis that you think it is "safe". I just hope there aren't any major major bad bugs in there like my example above.

PS: This scenario actually happened during the Vista betas. It was just lucky that the I/O driver affected was for some obscure I/O controller chip and it only affected a very small number of users. Thankfully none of them were using the OS as their main OS at the time though ;) So no tears ended up being shed...
 
Your example above is irrelevant. I'm not backing up to a NAS, I'm opening files on the NAS then closing them afterwards. The NAS is also backed up weekly so even if the particular file is corrupted, I have lost a tiny amount of data.
I'm not using this computer for production, it is for recreation. Any data loss experienced on this laptop is insignificant. This is why I'm using a beta OS on it.
I'm actually trying to find bugs here, not use an OS and expect it to be perfect. Bugs doesn't equate to unsafe no matter how many times you say it does.
 
Would have to agree totally with NathenE - There is no AV product, no Spy/Malware product yet optimized for Window7- also running IE8 (beta). Go ahead, if you feel that its a secure OS, surf away, access sites, access your BANK Accounts......
 
I'd agree with the "no" crowd on this one, at least from a business perspective.

From a home user perspective, yeah sure do what you want, if you **** things up you only have yourself to blame :)

Nathan has some very good points especially with regards to the MS disclaimers and the potential HYPOTHETICAL issues that could arrise from using a BETA OS. It would therefore not be wise to use this as your "main" one.

I personally will be testing it at some point this week, on a VM which will initially be isolated from any important data, network and so on. I'm hoping that it will perform as well as some people have reported!
 
emailiscrap said:
Your example above is irrelevant. I'm not backing up to a NAS, I'm opening files on the NAS then closing them afterwards. The NAS is also backed up weekly so even if the particular file is corrupted, I have lost a tiny amount of data.
I'm not using this computer for production, it is for recreation. Any data loss experienced on this laptop is insignificant. This is why I'm using a beta OS on it.
I'm actually trying to find bugs here, not use an OS and expect it to be perfect. Bugs doesn't equate to unsafe no matter how many times you say it does.
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Bugs in a beta OS may or may not equate to unsafe. It would depend on the particular bug.

Obviously having all your data on a NAS is one way to mitigate the risk for yourself. But data corruption was just one example of why it may be unsafe.
 
Lysander said:
Alternatively, explain why you are so keen to use W7 as your main OS. Vista works perfectly and has done for two years. Just wait till the RTM.
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As I've said, I'm actively searching for bugs to report. Unless I use it as my main OS, I'll never find them by skim using it in a VM as most people do.
 
NathanE said:
Bugs in a beta OS may or may not equate to unsafe. It would depend on the particular bug.

Obviously having all your data on a NAS is one way to mitigate the risk for yourself. But data corruption was just one example of why it may be unsafe.
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Agreed. I think that so long as the user is aware of the risks and makes allowances in the way he/she uses the software, moat risks or losses can be mitigated. That was my point.
 
emailiscrap said:
As I've said, I'm actively searching for bugs to report. Unless I use it as my main OS, I'll never find them by skim using it in a VM as most people do.
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Sorry, I fail to see the point about using it in a VM and you using it as your "main OS". Many people have virtual desktops and could have it running as their main OS?

I do agree with the testing conditions though. If you don't try and use it fully all the time you won't find anything that others haven't already and by running it, installing a few apps and saying "its all fine" doesn't really get much done :)
 
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