Windows 7

[Lynden]

I just got into this sort of thing a little while ago and in my opinion 7 is probably the best OS available right now, if one overlooks it's "beta flaws". I would put it above Leopard by a small margin, which itself I would put above Vista by a small margin. I have used XP and Tiger as well as a few of the Linux OS's and never really liked them as much. Not to say that I disliked them.

OSX has a great interface and is really well optimised it helps that to run OSX you need to have hardware it supports letting them write the software which is perfect for the hardware involved, windows needs to work for everyone and all hardware.

OSX can actually be made to run on almost any modern computer, it by no means requires Mac hardware. There are many ways to do so, and it is very easy to do on a computer with an Intel CPU. It isn't exactly legal, being a violation of Apple's EULA, but these things happen...

Furthermore, I would disagree with the idea of Macs being a super-expensive tricycle. I plan to buy a MacBook Pro for university this fall and am doing so not for the OS but for the computer itself, including the durability, lightness, batterylife, performance etc. I have been shopping around for laptops lately and I can say that it is very difficult to find a laptop, similarly configured, that costs significantly less than the MacBook pro, and none with similar performance have batterylife even approaching that of the Mac (a claimed 8-hours for the new 17''). That sort of thing has undeniable usefullness in a university setting.

However I will probably be dual-booting OSX with Vista on that machine, because I do agree that it is a great OS, and that if one knows how to use Vista it rarely experiences problems. I did have a fairly significant problem on my laptop running Vista in which internet connectivity totally ceased, but a re-install fixed that.

 

[saltynay]

99% of times using OSX bootcamp fails and takes 5+ hours to configure so bear that in mind with dual booting.

Why do you want a 17" laptop? Personally my priority would be portability for travelling around campus for watching films in the evening get a 25" tv. A toshiba R series would be better all round I think macbook pros are only worth there value when they have been updated recently which they have been so the tech in them is relatively new. I have a Hp tx1000 its 13" and touchscreen which is perfect for lectures get to scribble down graphs and drawings on the fly and write notes in open office.

OSX is flat out illegal to run on anything but mac hardware there is one exception which is EFI-X but that is in a grey region and quite expensive. OSX only supports hardware that has the same series as a component which has been used on a intel macs previously.

 

[Lynden]

Why do you want a 17" laptop? Personally my priority would be portability for travelling around campus for watching films in the evening get a 25" tv. A toshiba R series would be better all round I think macbook pros are only worth there value when they have been updated recently which they have been so the tech in them is relatively new. I have a Hp tx1000 its 13" and touchscreen which is perfect for lectures get to scribble down graphs and drawings on the fly and write notes in open office.

I want the 17'' MBP because I like the specs... a lot. I also like the design; sleek, strong and durable. It's something I could really get used to. There are also some editing programs for OSX that I really like, especially Aperture, which I would use regularly if my old computer didn't crash whenever it started to edit a picture. Sure, I could install OSX on a non-Mac, but when I can have it legitimately...

Most of the small "ultraportable" laptops are really underpowered, which I do not like. The 17'' MBP is the opposite and still maintains a high degree of portability, and as I said before the batterylife is almost unbeatable, especially for that level of hardware performance.

I was considering a tablet PC but would prefer simply to type to be honest. I would love a tablet PC for drawing, though.

OSX only supports hardware that has the same series as a component which has been used on a intel macs previously.

Actually many of the patched installs can be run on AMD processors, which to my knowledge have not been used in any Mac. Many non-mac motherboards are also supported, albeit through patches.

 

[saltynay]

Please stop spreading that about the MBP's yes they have the longest single battery life in the 17" class but some Dells and lenovo laptops can be configured to have dual batteries which will get you upto 14-16 hours giving them the longest battery life. I am not a mac hater just informing you that buying now would be best, as the apple prices and hardware doesn't often change so its best to buy just after an update which is now!

Adobe lightroom is the Windows equivalent to aperture http/www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/ with photoshop integration its an extremely powerful tool.

If your talking about netbooks when saying ultraportable they are designed to run word, play music and browse the internet at the same time which fills the average users needs they are very good if used appropriately and the Msi wind is my favourite out of them for its 6+ hour battery life. The dual core versions of the atom have also been overclocked to 2.3ghz ofcourse hat was using liquid nitrogen.....

What you need to ask yourself is whether you will use this hardware performance? 17" drinks battery life fact! The bigger screen results in a dedicated grahics to power it and more light that has to be emitted over a larger surface area to be able to see it. 15.4" are generally seen as the best balance between high performance and battery life with 12-13" being an inbetween netbook and high powered notebooks is very portable, sleek and a good battery.

I know that many non-mac specific motherboards are supported but thats because of the same NB/SB chipsets being used and without patches sometimes wireless modules and sound chipsets are different resulting in problems. If we go into the patches factor we would be here until the end of time, I am only refferring to vanilla installs with efi-x dependency removed disk

 

[smegforbrains]

Why are Microsoft so obsessed with new OSs?


XP does everything I need it to.

Why should I change to Vista or 7?


I tried Vista and it was the biggest pile of dog doo I have ever come across. I'm therefore more than a little sceptical of 7. I don't need it and I ain't wasting money on it.

 

[Truck]

one of my friends, has the full version of seven on his PC and its great! i cannot state how he got the full version or it could get him in trouble.

 

[saltynay]

Obsessed you should step into the realms of linux namely ubuntu and a new version every six months. XP is 6 years old its time for a change the usual cycle for MS is every 3 years win7 isn't going to be released until the first quarter 2010. You can tell this from vistas release procedure MS has already stated that anyone buying a xp prebuilt computer after july 2009 will have access to a free upgrade to win7, when this offer was available for vista it was 7 months until the official release date. The original timeline stated 2011 so this may all be smoke and mirrors subsidised by pc manufacturers in the low economic climate to encourage pc sales. Vista is like xp was 6 years ago when first released and the same arguments have been brought forward against vista were originally against xp, if you don't want it don't buy it, admittedly this can be a little difficult with prebuilt pcs but selfbuilt market still gives you the option for virtually no premium.

http/weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/


Full version does not yet exist, I know one of the mods on MSDN who among other perks gets the OS's before the public. He had the current beta build 2 weeks before official release and has had the last two beta builds previously that were never released. He doesn't even have the finished build and doubts there is one as there were some serious changes with vista. This is a video of one of the original vista betas

[URL="http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGviN1nFsKI...feature=related"]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGviN1nFsKI...feature=related[/URL]

 

[Lynden]

Please stop spreading that about the MBP's yes they have the longest single battery life in the 17" class but some Dells and lenovo laptops can be configured to have dual batteries which will get you upto 14-16 hours giving them the longest battery life. I am not a mac hater just informing you that buying now would be best, as the apple prices and hardware doesn't often change so its best to buy just after an update which is now!

"Spreading that"?

You act like I'm some sort of agent, "spreading" evil propaganda. I do admit I've come to like Apple over the past few years, but I don't think I'm that far into it yet...

What you need to ask yourself is whether you will use this hardware performance? 17" drinks battery life fact! The bigger screen results in a dedicated grahics to power it and more light that has to be emitted over a larger surface area to be able to see it. 15.4" are generally seen as the best balance between high performance and battery life with 12-13" being an inbetween netbook and high powered notebooks is very portable, sleek and a good battery.

I want a laptop that is well capable of intense photo editing tasks (find myself needing this quite regularly), reasonably fast music and video conversion, and some gaming capability. It needs to also be durable and thin, with a very good battery life, and it needs to have a very high-res monitor, so that pictures show up at their best. I don't want one with only integrated graphics; but one that can switch, like the Macbook Pros can, would be nice.

Do you have any particular models to recommend? I was looking at the Sony VAIOs recently and I very much like the feel of them, and they seem light and durable.

 

[OscarWilde]

one of my friends, has the full version of seven on his PC and its great! i cannot state how he got the full version or it could get him in trouble.

The Full version? What do you mean? It hasnt even RC'd yet let alone RTM'd Even the people writing it dont have the 'Full' version Plus if anyone want the latest build they can just hit a torrent site.

I think your friend has been talking rubbish to you.