talkmagic.co.uk

by **kolm** » Jan 8th, '09, 18:14

A heads up to all the geeks out there, Windows 7 is due out for public beta tomorrow!

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

by **Robbie** » Jan 9th, '09, 17:22

The Telegraph reviewer seemed positively impressed by it. Looks better than Vista, at any rate.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandte ... -2009.html

by **kolm** » Jan 9th, '09, 17:45

I hear good things about it. I'm gonna review it when I get hold of it; MS are taking their sweet time with the release :p

by **Jordan C** » Jan 10th, '09, 15:58

Sounds very good but is there any point without a touchscreen monitor

by **Tomo** » Jan 10th, '09, 16:21

Jordan C wrote:Sounds very good but is there any point without a touchscreen monitor

Without a what now? :shock:

I don't understand why Microsoft is hell bent on complicating computing any more than it has to be. It's just another thing to go wrong. Whatever happened to the K.I.S.S principle?

by **Jordan C** » Jan 10th, '09, 16:31

The new ways of dealing with information, meanwhile, mean that touchscreens are much better supported – in the future they will need to be – and that forthcoming applications based around combining television and the internet will slot in neatly, too...

The icons here are bigger, too, but they don’t look patronising. The idea is that fat fingers should be as useful as the tiny pointer of a mouse. Shaking individual windows can be used to activate certain features, as well, which could be a natural move with a finger on a touchscreen, but not with the mouse.

by **Tomo** » Jan 10th, '09, 16:57

Isn't this just re-inventing the keyboard, though? I mean, I want a new browser window. I hold control and hit T with my portly digits. Hey, my keyboard's a touch interface! How cool is that?

by **Jordan C** » Jan 10th, '09, 17:01

I think it's down to the vision of a microsoft controlled home

The idea of a media centre pc at the centre of every home is their vision and they are hoping this will drive the idea forward. The problem is though that if this is desired - touch screen interactivity with media around your home - then they are a bit early trying to push it. Not until we have 42" touchscreens at a reasonable cost will it ever become the homes core system!! Or even stand a chance of being so!

{EDIT} Whilst I agree about no need to ditch the mouse and keyboard I can see why this would appeal to the majority of home users once we reach the point of having touch screens as commonplace as plasma's/lcd's

by **Mandrake** » Jan 12th, '09, 11:27

Sounds very irritating, can you image the shouts of 'Oi, get yer 'ead out of the screen' when one person is fiddling about with the icons and the others in the room are trying to vew? Anyway I always thought getting too close to a screen/monitor was bad for the eyesight. I foresee a market for old TTs on long sticks.....

by **Jordan C** » Jan 12th, '09, 12:06

Ha ha!! Recent research revealed that the too close to tv thing is a myth!!

Well being microsoft they bumbled the release of the beta due to HUGE demand!! I think they've been a bit taken aback by the amount of people wanting to ditch the much unloved Vista to take on a BETA of all things!! And one that expires in August!!

Guess it show's the strength of feeling against Vista. Seems Windows 7 is how Vista SHOULD HAVE BEEN!!

by **Jordan C** » Jan 18th, '09, 22:54

downloading it now as I'm due a reformat and reinstall of windows anyway so thought I'd give this a go!!

by **kolm** » Jan 25th, '09, 17:12

And if anybody is interested I've written a review, which can be found here

by **Tomo** » Jan 25th, '09, 17:43

Nice review, Claire.

I'm currently having an absolute ball playing with Ubuntu 8.10. Everything is VERY fast and stable. The full software repository still leaves me boggling. I've found some excellent open source electronics software.

by **Dominic Rougier** » Jan 25th, '09, 18:15

Ubuntu's lovely, but I'm losing the faith slightly... I've run into two or three things (mainly minor hardware issues) which prevent me being 100% happy.

I might end up dual-booting or just ditching it eventually

I want to believe!

by **Tomo** » Jan 25th, '09, 18:21

Dominic Rougier wrote:Ubuntu's lovely, but I'm losing the faith slightly... I've run into two or three things (mainly minor hardware issues) which prevent me being 100% happy.

I might end up dual-booting or just ditching it eventually

I want to believe!

I can't really ever see there being no problems with any operating system. For me, Ubuntu has so many applications (mostly software development and electronics simulation) that I'd have to buy if I were to only use Windows. It makes sense for me to to keep a Ubuntu server under my desk on the KVM switch and using my Windows shares. Plus, I'm writing about it again.

And it's so fast!

talkmagic.co.uk

Windows 7

Windows 7

Who is online