I like Linux, but from a GUI standpoint, KDE and Gnome both have too many issues and feel too "fake" (ok, "fake" is not the word I'm looking for...but close enough), I guess mainly because there are no real standards that everyone follows. I've always hated clicking a launcher icon and get the bouncing cursor, but then nothing...no message stating the program failed to launch, or it launches a few minutes later....even though the "busy" cursor is no longer active.

There are some things I am frustrated about with Windows 7, but so far...I kinda like it. It seems to be using the same code as Vista, yet some of the drivers that worked on Vista do not work in Windows 7. Strangely enough...my HP all-in-one printer does not work correctly. Pretty amazing as it's like forever old and every OS I've tried supports it one way or another. One of the biggest things for me was on my desktop I had to manually install the network driver from my Windows XP drive, as the installer program from the manufacturer dies every time under Windows 7. Pretty fun that Windows wants to look online for a solution (considering it should know I was not able to connect to the net ) I had some issues with my desktop computer during install...got the machine check blue screen of death on install. Nothing I'm not used to, as Vista did the same thing. It was because of the SATA controller...Vista doesn't like how my system handles the IDE/RAID part of the SATA controller. Nothing major, but for an inexperienced user, they would probably return the computer thinking something was wrong. I would think it would be far more important to have drivers for almost every SATA/IDE drive controller and network card...at least with those, the user could install the OS and then at least look online for updates/drivers for the rest of the system. Windows 7 does start a LOT faster. So much so, that I actually use the shutdown button now instead of the hibernate button. It's almost as fast on my system...seriously. Just can't WAIT to see the big ass sticker price the big $M will put on this. It's good, but I don't think it's worth the $300 that I'm sure it'll cost. One thing that still really pisses me off (Vista and Windows 7), is that the power save shit sucks ass! I set the CPU to use no more that 50% power (so I expect the system to never go above 1GHz), well...no dice. It's like it just says fuck what you say, I'm doing whatever. At least under XP I could use SpeedSwitchXP and could limit my CPU to 800MHz, 1600MHz, or full speed and it would never go above that.

Kinda what I thought...the Ultimate version (with which we are all using in the evaluation version) will be at least $300. Not enough meat there for me to justify that sticker price. If I buy a computer preloaded with Windows 7, then so be it...if not, then I will survive as well. Even though I doubt I'll buy a computer preloaded with Windows 7, as I build all of my own systems (with the exception of laptops, of course). Does anyone know if Microsoft will allow us to purchase a valid product key closer to the end of the evaluation that will allow us to continue using this version of Windows 7, or do we need to wipe and install a fresh copy?

I do sometimes wish there was somewhere you could send corrections for those funny little manuals you get with imported electronics from south-east Asia. I guess printed documents are a lot easier than programs though, as the exact context for every phrase that is used is immediately visible.

Funny. I've heard the exact opposite from people. Usually the language isnt even covered by MS, but if it is, they find translations from projects like KDE to be far superior to any MS translations.

I'm sure the Selkup speakers (all 1500 of them) are thrilled to have KDE translated to their language.

I can only speak for finnish translations, but apart from the Win9x swap file becoming the 'throw-exchange-file' in translation, MS had a very good track record until Vista came along with its typos and and sloppy compounds. Or maybe Vista translation was outsourced to a company in Lappeen ranta.^[1]

I don't know about translations, but in my experience so far, localization in Linux is a complete train wreck.

You're funny!

Well, I use my computer on mac, windows, and linux in french. Windows always seems to think I'm in english anyways and it doesn't even seem to me like half the apps they do run in any localization. With open source, everything is always run in my local but the command line is probably the least "french". GCC is only half translated at best and most others are english only. Otherwise, with mac and open source, I just set my local to french and all programs seem to recognize it (even websites).

edit: and mac wins for dealing with unicode input œ, æ i can't seem to get windows to produce those characters (at least not in a standard way).

Back to Windows 7. Is it still recommended to go for the 32 bit version on a 64 bit computer as with Vista, or will my 64bit laptop now get better mileage on Windows 7 64bit? I assume 32/64 issues/problems are driver related and not software/application related? I know there's a 64bit geforce 8600 driver...

I'm thinking of upgrading tonight

Ah, you can't upgrade from 32bit to 64bit so I'm stuck with 32bit w7.

If you're talking about me Tommo, then I've got a MSDN licence

Well, I upgraded last night and I got a BSOD on startup! however I traced it to superantispyware so now I'm up and running and like the immediate changes to the desktop and task bar.

One thing though, the fonts at allegro.cc have changed completely to a horrible serif font and I don't like it, they are all a lot thinner and the kerning is much closer. I assume it's Windows cleartype goings on or they've changed time roman or whatever it is that is at the this site.

Does it do any more than that? You could already do that with every version of Windows Calculator I've ever used.

Windows 7 Calculator