I has Windows 7

[stray]

Given that this is a gaming forum, I don't think that claiming that Apple OS has the same app robustness as Windows is going to go far.  A lot of the major titles are available for OS 10, yeah.  But a lot aren't.  And a lot of the ones that are come out months after the Windows version, and aren't supported for shit.  I'm thinking ahead to the games that I'm expecting to buy in the next year, Bioshock 2, Borderlands, FFXIV, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, and I don't expect any of them to see an Apple release.

For, y'know, real work, you should be able to find ample applications to run on OS 10.  But it unquestionably lags behind in entertainment.  Both in shoddy support for necessary video hardware and limited availability of games.  It's gotten better, much better in the last decade, but it's not there yet.

Which is sort of sadly ironic, given that the Mac had fucking sweet games way back in the day.  Through the Looking Glass, The Dungeon of Doom, Dark Castle, back when the early mac graphics were considered cutting edge and the use of a mouse a novel and exotic interface.

Yeah, but I would say the days of gaming are really slim on the PC in general. It's not like it's the hallmark of entertainment anymore either. I mean it's cool and all, but it's not like it used to be. The consoles are closing in, and even getting the earlier releases of games now. For awhile now, the only genre that's been untapped is MMO's.. PC's do have that going for them.. Luckily, I personally think MMO's are shit, and do just fine with a console and a Mac.

edit: umm btw, I did just a buy a PC too. It's underpowered for games, so I didn't get it for that. I just felt like working with something mostly everyone else is using.

[schild]

Yeah, but I would say the days of gaming are really slim on the PC in general.

You should book a room with some of the other crazies in these parts at the I'm Saying Bullshit That I Don't Understand Hotel.

[stray]

I understand enough. You gave me this silly ass iMac title, but I've had PC's on and off between 1992 and 2006-ish.  There were some nice peaks around 97 and 2001.. somewhere around there. And it's nothing close to that now. I'm just not tempted in the slightest to be some PC gamer like I used to be. Before, looking at titles was like being in a candy store or something. Now, it's like.. "Hey, this looks cool. Oh it's on the Xbox or PS3? Nice." And if it's not that, it's "Meh." I'm not going to bother with searching sales numbers or anything, but I can't imagine that the sales of PC games are anywhere they used to be.

[Sky]

Stray is circling the drain!

[stray]

Which drain would that be?

edit: goddamn, shows how much i read the rest of this site. what the hell is with all of these threads about circling the drain?

[Prospero]

PC titles must be doing fairly well for EA to put the effort into porting a number of their console titles to the platform. Also pretty much every MMO worth playing is on the PC, not to mention the crazy money casual games market. There are a lot of money hats to be found in the PC games industry.

As time goes on middleware will improve and make it easier to develop for multiple platforms, not harder. I'm not sure why the console vs PC debate always comes down to "There can be only one!" They serve different markets and different needs.

[Big Gulp]

As time goes on middleware will improve and make it easier to develop for multiple platforms, not harder. I'm not sure why the console vs PC debate always comes down to "There can be only one!" They serve different markets and different needs.

I've tried getting into consoles, and I do enjoy my 360, it just comes down to how I like to play, and usually the consoles don't cut it.  I like sitting at my desk playing while the TV is going on at the side rather than sitting on the couch just absorbed in one thing.  Maybe it's ADD, but I don't like just devoting my attention to just a game.

[stray]

PC titles must be doing fairly well for EA to put the effort into porting a number of their console titles to the platform. Also pretty much every MMO worth playing is on the PC, not to mention the crazy money casual games market. There are a lot of money hats to be found in the PC games industry.

As time goes on middleware will improve and make it easier to develop for multiple platforms, not harder. I'm not sure why the console vs PC debate always comes down to "There can be only one!" They serve different markets and different needs.

The last thing I want is a pc - console debate. Seriously. Not my thing. I'm merely saying that things have changed. The PC gaming market is smaller. Or rather, games are less exclusive.

This started as a comment about Macs anyways. The console thing was a side issue. Someone brought up the lack of Mac games. And it's true, the Mac doesn't have a lot of games. My only point in mentioning consoles was that I don't feel so deprived - that the PC doesn't quite have a hold on my interest in games these days. I can fire up plenty of the same games on a console, and still use a Mac for computing. Maybe that's unthinkable to others, but I'm happy.

Now wind back time.. circa 1998. I had a Power Mac around then. I kept that for about 3 or years, and gaming wise, I wasn't always happy. There was some cool shit on the PS1 (it was towards the end of it's lifecycle then), but the PC had plenty of things I wanted. Secondly, the PS2 didn't come out until 2000.. and wasn't all that great right away either. I was pretty with green with envy when I'd check out PC games. During that whole period, I was mooching off of a friend for PC gaming. I missed out a lot of shit though.. I didn't get to play UO, didn't play the Thief or Deus Ex titles until later, etc.. This is getting longer than I meant, but needless to say, it's a different story now.

[Prospero]

No argument from me; things are much less exclusive these days. Thankfully the Mac should end up benefiting from increased platform support. I wouldn't mind rebooting less.

[Yegolev]

All this silliness aside, I can only play games on Windows.  I can replace PhotoShop with GIMP, and MS Office with several things, and TurboTax runs in your browser yo... but I can't play GalCivII on anything else.

That play-a-game-while-watching-TV thing, you might want to have that looked at.

[fuser]

http://www.microsoft.com/business/thenewefficiency/default.aspx

Free copies for an event if you register and an IT developer/professional.

(Now to find the Canadian tour)

[Kitsune]

I'd like to take a minute to rant, here.

To my customers who think you sound computer savvy when you say, 'Oh, well tests showed that XP is faster on the same hardware.':  SHUT THE FUCK UP.  SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.  OF COURSE THE OS WITH MORE FEATURES IS SLOWER, YOU RETARD.  IF THAT MATTERS SO MUCH, GO LOAD MS-DOS, YOU'LL BOOT IN UNDER FIFTEEN SECONDS.

Jesus.

Between the automated spyware scanning, automated defragmenting, search indexing, 3D desktop rendering, desktop gadgets, added security layers, and shadow file backups, it's no wonder that Vista was slower than XP.  In fact, it's almost a miracle that 7 is nearly as fast as XP when you consider how much more 7 is doing in the background.  It makes me want to smack people who are all 'Blur bluh blur, Vista was slow on my Pentium 4 with 512 megs of RAM, it's crap.'  Baby Jesus invented the multi-core processor, cheap 4-gig RAM packs, and SATA drives for a reason, and that reason is to run better crap on one's computer.

(Sidebar: If you're engaging in corporate espionage and downloading porn videos on your work laptop that's running Vista, don't think that deleting the files is going to do the trick.  Surprise!  Vista helpfully backed up the files for you.  And it takes less than a minute to restore them.  True story.  All the customer wanted was the evidence of stolen company files; I restored the porn too for free, in case they needed more ammo at the unemployment hearing.)

I'm starting to resent XP in the same way I used to resent 98/ME.  Every day people bring in computers that are infected to the gills, and XP is just this shambling wreck that I have to duct tape back into working order.  I know it's not really XP's fault, that I used it for years without any infection because gasp I didn't click on every link that was e-mailed to me like a moron, but the sheer vulnerability of the OS is starting to grate on me.  Which, given that I'm making money by fixing it, is a sort of stupid opinion for me to hold, but I'm still annoyed that the shiny Star Trek future isn't here yet.

[Prospero]

Hopefully the future is Star Trek shiny. I'm looking forward to W7, but I'm not hopeful it will be that much more idiot proof than XP. The key problem, the user, is still the same.

[stray]

Isn't XP going to stick around for awhile though.. since it seems to be the preferred OS for netbooks..?


Still haven't used 7, but my overall impression of Vista is that it isn't even that different from XP. And I wonder why they don't just put Vista Basic (sans Aero or some shit?) on netbooks.

edit: oh wait, I'm reading there will be a Win7 starter edition designed for netbooks. nvm

[schild]

http://www.microsoft.com/business/thenewefficiency/default.aspx

Free copies for an event if you register and an IT developer/professional.

(Now to find the Canadian tour)

[strike]Do you think I actually have to SHOW UP to get my copy?[/strike]

Get your free copy of Windows 7 at the event!

Guess so. Thanks for skipping Austin and going to Dallas, fuckos.

[fuser]

Guess so. Thanks for skipping Austin and going to Dallas, fuckos.

I got free copies of XP before from their launch tour, totally missed the Vista one, but I cannot find nothing about a 7 tour.

Oh well guess the tour wasn't recession proof 

[Azazel]

Bill Gates really seems to be a nice guy.

With a trampoline room with 20ft ceilings in his $53m house.

What? He should be eating 2minute noodles and Kraft Mac & Cheese in his 2 bedroom house in Redfern to stay "legit"?

[stray]

Not sure if he does it anymore, but technology wise, he does downplay himself. I remember reading that his main computing device at any given time was always on the mediocre end of power (like when Pentiums came out, he'd still use a 486.. and so forth. His reasoning was to experience what the average user experiences). Also, he drove a Honda Accord or some shit.

[Azazel]

Sure, but like WTF who cares if Gates lives in a big fucking house and buys himself some toys? Good for him. We all do the same thing within whatever our own means are, so it's just a green-eyed bullshit tall-poppy strawman comment.

[stray]

I don't hold it against him, but his behavior definitely gives him points in my book (especially the charity things). Same could be said for Warren Buffett. I don't resent the wealthy, but they're definitely cooler the more generous or down to earth they are. Hell, most of the time, any self-made wealthy person is like this. It's only inheritors/kids that are assholes.

[Azazel]

I'm pretty much agreeing with you all the way here. It wasn't your post I took issue with anyway. It was the trampoline room + expensive house = bad person insinuation Tale made.

[rattran]

It's been a tradition for a long, long time to be an evil money grubbing asshole for most of your life, then once you have more money than you can possibly spend, give lots away for charity. Who remembers Carnegie as the evil fucker behind the Johnstown Flood, or the Homestead Strike. No, giving away money washes your slate clean.

Doesn't make them less evil to me. Just means they want a good legacy / to go to heaven.

Windows7 is pretty sweet though. I'm quite happy with it.

[Teleku]

Err, but when has Bill Gates ever really been like that though?  He's a nerd who made Billions, and never really changed from that.  He's always been giving out large amounts of his money from the beginning, and, at least to MY knowledge, never had the national guard shoot his employees.

[Big Gulp]

Err, but when has Bill Gates ever really been like that though?  He's a nerd who made Billions, and never really changed from that.  He's always been giving out large amounts of his money from the beginning, and, at least to MY knowledge, never had the national guard shoot his employees.

They were mean to Netscape!  Don't you get it, man???

[Yegolev]

Does anyone remember DR-DOS?  No?

[stray]

I remember it, but I don't know what you're referring to exactly. It was just another DOS that Microsoft (fairly) competed with, I thought. Or are you referring to QDOS.. the original DOS Gates bought for $50k? That was a fair deal too, even though the creator later threw a fit later and claimed he only sold it cheaply because he didn't know Gates was working with IBM and their new PC's (why that's Bill Gates' fault, I don't know).

I've never been impressed with Microsoft's lack of originality and acquisitive practices, but there's nothing actually wrong with it. They didn't steal DOS.. and even more silly, they didn't "steal" the Mac OS either. There was a second there where I was trying to see things from the other side once -- during the antitrust shit, with Internet Explorer. It was until I saw the whole panel of their opponents, like McNeally or that old far from Netscape. Sandy vaginas all around.

[Trippy]

I think he was referring to Microsoft's aborted attempt to keep DR-DOS from working with one vesrion of Windows.

[stray]

Oh, I didn't know about that.


In other news, this recently acquired laptop I got was given to my old man. Meh. I don't know.. I'm getting all picky and shit now in what I want in a laptop. Plus, maybe I should wait until after Win 7 is out for a bit. Can't really guarantee it, but maybe a bunch of cooler machines will be out come Christmas.

On a sidenote (not that I'm particularly interested), but I read that any netbook atm won't be able to upgrade to Win 7 (the stripped netbook version). It will only be available/preinstalled to newer netbooks. Sounds like a raw deal to be stuck with the same software.

[Ozzu]

I think he was referring to Microsoft's aborted attempt to keep DR-DOS from working with one vesrion of Windows.

Ah yes. The AARD code. At least it was only in the beta version I guess. 

[Yegolev]

I'm sure everyone can think of an example where MicroSoft made things somewhat difficult to do things in a fashion that they did not own.  I'm not saying that other people have not done so, such as with Netscape-specific HTML tags, but there's a track record of squeezing out competitors in a field in which law was relatively new.  Still is to a degree, I guess; that whole thing about not warranting a software program to do any particular thing always gets me.  Someone makes a iron that burns your shirt when used as intended and it's the manufacturer's fault, but if you use a program "as directed" and it deletes your data OOPS.

I know I'm derailing.  I'm in one of those moods.

[fuser]

Blog posting from Microsoft has produced this image of your upgrade path

Pretty much all the customs are a clean reinstall of windows which they recommend using Easy Transfer to migrate/backup your windows settings.

Summary, format/reinstall is the upgrade path.

[Hindenburg]

I'm guessing that if I'm using w7 rc, I can't just replace my serial and be done with it?

[Viin]

I'm guessing that if I'm using w7 rc, I can't just replace my serial and be done with it?

Nope. I wish.

[Kitsune]

Yeah, word on the grapevine for months was that the open beta copies wouldn't get an easy upgrade to the final release.  I saw occasional blog posts from people who hacked the hell out of the files on the install CD to force it to do an in-place upgrade install, but that's enough of a pain in the ass that it's almost worse than simply doing a clean install.

What you can do is use the Windows Easy Transfer program to save your user info and documents on an external drive, do a clean install, then use the transfer program to pull your crap back off the external drive.  It's a mild pain in the ass, but straightforward.

[Yegolev]

If you are talking about upgrading from Beta to RC, it was very easy.  Maybe you are talking about RC to RTM, which I have not investigated.