#704475 by RichardMannion
12 Jan 2009, 11:05
quote:Originally posted by mitchja
[quote]Originally posted by RichardMannion
By moving the mail program out of the OS, it doesn't tie updates to the OS release/refresh cycle. Also removes components that not everyone will want/need - if they do need them, they are free to download. So reduces footprint of the OS.


I hope that means a reduction in the final retail cost of Windows 7 then. There's no way I'm would be willing to pay the full price for Windows 7 if it's going to cost the same as what Vista costs minus things like email software etc.

Again we have MS telling users what they do and dont need in an O/S. If mail stays under the 'Live' branding many users will have the same webmail thought as I had before you explained it.

Just had my first BSOD too here [:w]

Regards


James, I'm a bit lost at your reasoning here. The stuff that has been taken out into Live Essentials is free, and is just a download away. So there is no less value; there is also that small thing called inflation (not that I'm saying what the new price points will be for Windows 7)[;)]. So basically Mail, and some of the other stuff that used to come with Vista has been moved to the free Windows Live Essentials suite, which we are planning on updating on a more regualr basis given that its no longer locked into the OS release cycle. Did I mention it was free too?

You have to remember we have 250m + users, and it's hard to please them all. By doing the above, users have a choice of if they want to use the Live Essentials suite. Think how many people use Outlook or Lotus Notes, and therefore don't need the Mail app that has shipped with Windows for some time. If people want the free mail app, then it's a download away.

Do you know what the BSOD was? Have you got any further details and I can look into it or debug it for you.
#704478 by mitchja
12 Jan 2009, 11:36
I see email as a core part of any O/S so I shouldn't have to go and download it before I can send/receive email regardless of if it's free or not.

I dont have details of the BSOD but all I was doing was browsing the web at the time.

Regards
#704481 by Decker
12 Jan 2009, 11:51
I'm with MS - EMail is an app. Sorry.
#709894 by Howard Long
12 Mar 2009, 11:54
I may live to eat my words regarding the benefits of W7. Last night I became a late early adopter of Windows 7 if there is such a thing. The only reason to give it a go for me was the new Media Center functionality supporting DVB-S high definitiion simultaneously with DVB-S & T standard def without having to jump in and out of half a dozen different apps.

I am really pleasantly surprised at how little effort it was to install: I remember the days of being an early adopter on Windows 2000 and the whole process was really painful, with days of fruitless effort reinstalling tweaking different things. A few driver issues were resolved rapidly using the original vendor disks, with one insignificant Away Mode driver issue remaining. All done, it took a couple of hours to install. Most of my media center hardware is late 2006 technology, and certainly not state of the art at all - P4 3.8GHz HT, 4GB DDR400, 500GB PATA.

Terrestrial and satellite DVB SD and HD playback is excellent even at 1920x1080 full 1080p: frame rates are up to set top box standard with no juddering.

The only thing obvious missing from the OS thus far is Blu-ray playback. I installed PowerDVD 9 Ultra for that, although it had some trouble integrating into Media Center. Now the really neat thing was being able to mount an ISO image of a Blu-ray (using Slysoft Clone Disk) and play that back. Sweet! All that's needed now is a SAN to store all that Blu-ray disk media...

I had the PS3 accessing the music library, and also the iphone over both WiFi and 3G (although that latter bit required 3rd party software).

I'm impressed: although I'll prolly be less so when the full version comes out and I have to reinstall everything again!

Cheers, Howard
#710583 by Howard Long
20 Mar 2009, 13:08
OK, so two weeks later and I now remember why having a Windows Media Center takes over your entire life, but not becuase you can sit there happily ripping and watching your entire DVD and CD collection. No, it's because anything that is mildly bleeding edge will make you work. Hard. Take for example Blu-ray disks, or indeed whatever HD you're banking (sic) on investing in being the long-term future. (That is, until 3D makes it mainstream three months later).

So I get myself a 100 Media Center Extender so I can play my HD content in the bedroom without having to invest in another Blu-ray player, HD Freesat set top box and satellite dish. Except the Extender won't show HD broadcasts, won't play Blu-rays disks from your Media Center's drive, and it takes 40 hours and a PhD in rocket science and extreme patience to rip your Blu-rays.

Then I saw this and I realise that the Microsoft way is not unique.

H
#713971 by Howard Long
04 May 2009, 09:51
Had a couple of days playing with the latest official Windows 7 RC build 7100: lots of fixes, and even fewer UAC warnings (those irritating message boxes that say 'Do you want to do this?' followed by another 'Are you really sure you want to do this?' etc etc).

Even Explorer is easily and obviously accessible, not hidden away anywhere.

A few pregnant pauses during the install, but otherwise a very impressive beta.

H
#714168 by mitchja
06 May 2009, 12:08
Installed Windows7 RC1 here too.

Tried the x64 version this time. I was a bit apprehensive about installing a 64bit O/S having read horror stories about no hardware drivers been available but so far everything works. Well apart from the MS fingerprint reader which MS have said they are not providing x64 drivers for.

It's a poor do when MS dont even support their own hardware [V]

Anti-virus software was always a problem with x64 but finally vendors are waking up to the fact x64 is becoming more mainstream in home computing (using Kaspersky 8.0 beta for Windows7 here which is both 32 & 64bit compatible).

So far it's pretty good (well better than Vista anyway [:w]). Still no email client included though. You have to download your own.

The new version on the log-on screen is a bit 'girlie' too [;)]

Still too many re-boots needed though after installing software.

Regards
#714328 by Howard Long
07 May 2009, 11:56
quote:Originally posted by mitchja
Installed Windows7 RC1 here too.

Tried the x64 version this time.


I've been concentrating on the x64 version, and have been pleasantly surprised about how much hardware is supported. In fact the only thing I've found unsupported is the flourescent display used for Media Center.

The Library functionality is nasty when there's any significant volume to deal with, for example if you have more than a trivial number of mp3/wma files to deal with.

I had my first BSOD on RC1 when Decker came round the other night:

[img]http://www.howardlong.com/images/P1000826sm.JPG[/img]

Always dramatic to have a BSOD in full HD. Whether this was caused by operator error (we'd had a few Bolly '99s by this point and were about to embark on a Warre's '63, but that's a whole other story).

H
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