Today the public beta of Windows 7 was released and I decided to download a copy and try it out on a virtual machine. So I configured a machine (Other, 32-bit) with 512 Mb RAM and 16 Gb disk (Windows 7 requires 8.3 Gb). Booting up on the DVD starts the very straight forward setup of the operating system, when it asks for serial number/cd key just continue with a blank one. After a while of copying, unpacking of files and a couple of automatic reboots you’re at the desktop and can begin to look around.
The setup proceedure and OS interface reminds me alot of how Linux is installed with Ubuntu and Fedora, looks and feels very simular. There are probably alot of things to explore, the first thing I noticed was the screen resolution slider that showed available settings and the file structure of “libraries” and also possibility to “stack” files by type for example, which could come in handy if you have alot of files in the same folder.
Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8 (beta) and Media Center. There is a serious bug in Media Center with mp3 corruption that Microsoft now have released a hotfix for.
I haven’t really used Windows Vista alot myself but my impression is that Windows 7 is more lean, clean and probably more stable and optimized. While Windows Vista is more like what Windows Millenium was before Windows XP came. I think that it reminds me alot of when I last installed Linux though (Fedora). I will continue to try some stuff on my virtual Windows 7 machine and see if my first impression last.
