Win7 RC and 2008 R2 RC1 are out to the public

[Marshmallowman]

hehe my old dual opteron sytems seems to have gained a nice boost with win 7.

Previously with xp pro64 (tweaked for numa) I had to manualy tweak certain games/programs to only use cpu cores on a numa node basis.

eg for single threaded and dual thread games I would set the affinity mask to the last 2 cores to get them running sweetly.

Now with win7 it has set up numa with out any OS tweaks, and games etc apps seem to do the right thing..eg no threads hopping to different numa nodes.

An of course the old opties have all VT stuff to get winxp compatabilty mode working at full speed

Though it does till have the annonying, logitech bluetooth mouse failing asleep intermittently if the cpu's go into a lower power state.(same as xp pro 64)

[dZeus]

Which logitech bluetooth mouse is that? I use one (V470) on my thinkpad and never notice such problems. Or is this an AMD thing?

[Marshmallowman]

its mx5500 desktop combo

During normal desktop use its ok, doing something intensive like play a game and the mouse will(and probably the keyboard) will disconnect and the reconnect a few seconds later.
(eg the little "safely remove hardware" icon shows a disconnect/reconnect in the task bar.

Setting the power scheme to always on eliminates the problem, it may be an AMD power scheme issue but I prefer to blame logitech.

[dZeus]

safely remove hardware? I never see that icon for my bluetooth mouse nor for my bluetooth adapter. Are you sure it's related to the bluetooth devices (mouse/keyboard), and not some issue with the bluetooth adapter in your pc and deep sleep CPU states?

[Marshmallowman]

its related to the logitech bluetooth adapter that came with the mouse and keyboard, its a single package.

[VJ]

I did a fresh install (didn't have that many programs installed), as it seemed the best option.

It runs even smoother than the beta on my computer; furthermore before I needed to boot with the F8 button and disable driver signature enforcement, whereas this is no longer needed!

I like it so much that I'm pondering of installing it on my tablet PC, even though it might be close to the minimum hardware needed (Pentium M 1.2, 1 GB RAM).


Jörg

[Jammrock]

I finally got XP Mode working with GoToMeeting (i.e. Citrix). Finally, no more USB drops and basic schemes when I'm in an online meeting

[Nicram]

I wonder, is the XP-mode seamless? ("XP apps" windows behaving and looking as if run nativelly)

Also, there are some opinions in the wild that Win7 "slowed down" in RC in comparison to betas...any signs of that?

True, beta version have turned off or even not implemented services and some other parts of operating system. And i think it was released to make hype that it is faster than Vista or XP. The RC is closer to the final version, and that means they turn on all those things and added some other features that just didn;t work in beta at all. So RC slow down, and final release i think will slow down even more. Well it;s really Vista SPX, with new desktop shell, nothing more.

[Marshmallowman]

Media Portal 1.02 works with win 7 x64, streaming dvb-t channels from 32bit xp tv server

[Jammrock]

Well it;s really Vista SPX, with new desktop shell, nothing more.

Not 100% true, but close. They did make some kernel and "under the hood" changes that will not end up in any of the Vista service packs. It is what Vista should have been.

As for performance, RC runs really nice on my machine. But my machine is rather beefy...

[Nowhere]

Jammrock, but one can't help but wonder...

Straight from MS:

* Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 share the same kernel/etc. - they are desktop/server releases of of the same OS just like Windows 2000 had Pro and Server back in the day. With Vista the server equivalent is Server 2008.

* Windows 7 is a major rework of Vista, hence the new name, full product release, etc.


...huh? :>

Basically, it all boils down to marketing. Now, Vista (and hence Win7 to some degree) does have "issues"...the same kind of issues that were present in every major Windows release. The problem for MS...previous Windows release was basically good enough this time. But "Vista SPX" polished, with 3 years newer hardware, and much better PR...

[Jammrock]

Jammrock, but one can't help but wonder...

Straight from MS:

* Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 share the same kernel/etc. - they are desktop/server releases of of the same OS just like Windows 2000 had Pro and Server back in the day. With Vista the server equivalent is Server 2008.

* Windows 7 is a major rework of Vista, hence the new name, full product release, etc.


...huh? :>

Vista and Server 2008 share the same kernel/etc. as well. That's why 2008 RTM is listed at SP1 when you go to the properties of the OS, even though there was never an SP1 for 2008. They do this to make it easier for driver writers, programmers and hardware makers. Make one version and it works for both OSs (in most cases, there are some expections for networking). This is kernel 6.0.xxxx. Later this year SP2 will come out for Vista/2008, but it will NOT have the kernel changes made to 7/08R2. The kernel version will still be 6.0.xxxx, and the SP will just be bug fixes and some minor tweaks to add stability and some small features.

Unlike 2003 R2, which just added some features to the existing 2003 load, Server 2008 R2 is an OS revision and a different product, in the same way 2000 Server (kernel 5.0.xxxx) and Server 2003 (kernel 5.1.xxxx or 5.2.xxxx) are, and in the same way OS X versions update every year or two. Trust me, I spent a week at TechEd last week going over the differences at both a high and low level and there are many. In the same way Vista/2008 share the same kernel, Win7/2008R2 will share the same revised kernel, version 6.1.xxxx. So think of Win7 as the XP version of Vista, much like XP (kernel 5.1.xxxx, 5.2 for 64-bit) is the fixed version of Windows 2000 (5.0.xxxx).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows#Product_progression

Basically, it all boils down to marketing.

Doesn't everything boil down to marketing these days?

Now, Vista (and hence Win7 to some degree) does have "issues"...

All operating systems have issues. Always have, always will. Not all of them are the operating system's fault, though people like to blame the OS for all their woes. Vista did have a lot of OS faults, though. Vista RTM blew chewy chucks of broken bits! Vista SP1 has been rock solid for me with 98% of what I do (GoToMeeting being the one exception). But Vista RTM left such a bad taste in people's mouth that they refuse to believe SP1 could have fixed it all and assume it's just as bad...which is definitely is not.

the same kind of issues that were present in every major Windows release. The problem for MS...previous Windows release was basically good enough this time. But "Vista SPX" polished, with 3 years newer hardware, and much better PR...

While I would have agreed with the "Vista SPx" comment earlier this year, after playing with Win7 and going to the low-level classes with the OS architects I would disagree. While they share the same basic kernel the Win7/2008R2 kernel is much improved. At least in my expereince. There are still issues, but a lot of them are because people have not, or will not, code for 64-bit, or have not completed their code for Win7 because it's still technically in Beta.

Take for example my Citrix/GotToMeeting issue. g2m works great as long as you are running 32-bit. Run g2m in Windows anything 64-bit and it screws up Windows. But it's not really Windows fault in this case, but lazy programmers that refuse to keep update or recompile their code. Which is a problem with many programs, like Adobe (see Flash), and an issue that all 64-bit operating systems have, but to a lesser extent Mac OS X ... because developers for OS X are fanatical and have no choice in the matter anyway. You do as your Apple overlords say, or you don't do it at all. But even the Apple overlords can't get Adobe to make a working 64-bit flash plug-in.

[Marshmallowman]

All the programmers fault, yeah when it takes a month of testing just to test a "recompile" we don't all have monoply funding to do full vaildation testing on an unreleased(unvalidated) product. layoff the MS coolaid

[Jammrock]

All the programmers fault, yeah when it takes a month of testing just to test a "recompile" we don't all have monoply funding to do full vaildation testing on an unreleased(unvalidated) product. layoff the MS coolaid

LOL ... technically it is all the programmer's fault since programmers made both the OS and the application running on top of it. Though I NEVER said all of Vista's woes are 3rd party programmer's fault. Don't know where you pull that one from.

I freely admit Vista RTM blew chewy chunks. SP1 is solid. Win7 has been solid for me as well, with some exceptions of certain large companies that haven't realized 64-bit is here whether they like it or not. Small time programmers/apps I can understand, but when you're Citrix and Adobe and have an R&D budget in the millions you have no excuse.

[Marshmallowman]

For large commercial stuff ,most of they time the design elements may by suggestted by programmers, but really it is designed by system architects(and sales/marketing) and agreed on by the managers and then shovelled out to the code monkeys to implement.

Never had much time for adobe, but remember instead of supporting outgoing xp and incomning vista and vista 64, they have the 2 new win 7 os's to support as well.

Thats 5 flavours of consumer OS, instead of 3 or even 2 if they went 64bit only there new OS.

MS have made a lot more work for developers in that respect and, I think they are going to get a taste of what linux fragmented market is like, except they own all the pieces.