Is Win7 better (for us amv-editors) than Win XP?

[Pwolf]

vista stuff...

If you want to get technical, vista is windows 7 in a sense. the original Windows 7 was meant to be the successor to XP but while they were trying to work through shit they built vista. i've heard a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. There are many people that use it and don't have a problem with it. I've had nothing but headaches from it and would rather let my users rot in hell then try to fix a problem. An hour after using a fresh install of Windows 7, I was in love. I haven't had to tweak anything and have left most of the settings stock for the last couple of months since i've been using the RC. I work in IT and I try to make my arguments based on that point of view in which case vista is horrible for me. I've spent more time trying to get around vista's UAC and driver problems then actually fixing the problem itself. Granted driver issues are manufacturer dependent it some regards and it has improved over the years. But, it's annoying and it's frustrating. Vista's hardware requirements are also annoying. The organizations i've worked for have a 5 year desktop computer replacement cycle which isn't uncommon. Vista having high hardware reqs doesn't sit well with that. If it can't run on 5 year old hardware, then why the hell should we push it. On top of that, you have to train users on the new interface and layouts. Tweaking the OS takes time and training that would best be spent on helping users with existing issues in XP then getting new ones (and old ones) in Vista. The bottom line is that Vista has real issues that are too cumbersome to deal with. Windows 7 runs great on our older hardware, it runs faster then XP on the newer hardware and it's way more friendly out of the box and we don't have to "tweak" anything. The average users doesn't know how to tweak anything. And as mentioned earlier, for editing I believe its a great OS since you get stability and speed. You can't get that with XP 64bit and at this point, moving to Vista 64bit would be stupid.

[AaronAMV]

vista stuff...

If you want to get technical, vista is windows 7 in a sense. the original Windows 7 was meant to be the successor to XP but while they were trying to work through shit they built vista. i've heard a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. There are many people that use it and don't have a problem with it. I've had nothing but headaches from it and would rather let my users rot in hell then try to fix a problem. An hour after using a fresh install of Windows 7, I was in love. I haven't had to tweak anything and have left most of the settings stock for the last couple of months since i've been using the RC. I work in IT and I try to make my arguments based on that point of view in which case vista is horrible for me. I've spent more time trying to get around vista's UAC and driver problems then actually fixing the problem itself. Granted driver issues are manufacturer dependent it some regards and it has improved over the years. But, it's annoying and it's frustrating. Vista's hardware requirements are also annoying. The organizations i've worked for have a 5 year desktop computer replacement cycle which isn't uncommon. Vista having high hardware reqs doesn't sit well with that. If it can't run on 5 year old hardware, then why the hell should we push it. On top of that, you have to train users on the new interface and layouts. Tweaking the OS takes time and training that would best be spent on helping users with existing issues in XP then getting new ones (and old ones) in Vista. The bottom line is that Vista has real issues that are too cumbersome to deal with. Windows 7 runs great on our older hardware, it runs faster then XP on the newer hardware and it's way more friendly out of the box and we don't have to "tweak" anything. The average users doesn't know how to tweak anything. And as mentioned earlier, for editing I believe its a great OS since you get stability and speed. You can't get that with XP 64bit and at this point, moving to Vista 64bit would be stupid.

this...

[NeoQuixotic]

Well, rolling Vista out on 5 year old hardware in a corporate situation is retarded. Whoever made that decision should be fired. The issues can really come down to a case by case basis, like particular hardware/software. Of course, the same thing can be said about Snow Leopard with some people having massive issues. And the same when XP came out . Anytime a new OS comes out there are going to be headaches upgrading. Of course, this is why I generally don't recommend upgrading immediately. Of course not everyone can afford to buy a new machine, but then again, do they really need the new OS that urgently anyways? I do agree that Vista is a bit more resource heavy than needed, but it did get better. I at first didn't like Vista, just due to it being different. But after using it I grew to like it and found it to perform faster than XP did, in terms of system responsiveness. Of course I'm running a quad core and 4-8Gb of RAM, but if you have recent hardware it runs better than XP.

As for the tweaking, the only thing I ever tweaked was putting UAC in silent mode (which takes a few seconds and a reboot). I did the same to UAC on Windows 7 because its still over zealous even on its minimal setting. Other than that, I can't really think of anything else major I changed. The rest would be customization, which everyone does with whatever OS they use. Now I don't know if deploying and managing Vista in a corporate situation is a lot more difficult that XP was (like updates, profiles, etc). Yeah, training a whole ton of people on it sucks. Office 2007 also is a headache because of it being so different. But then again, I like to point out that anytime something new and very different comes out, it poses an issue with upgrading. This is a definite issue for large deployments, but we're talking about a single home user.

I'm mainly sick of the people who bash Vista without having used it once. And the people who bash it because they don't like the look of it (oh no, change makes me scared LOL). If someone doesn't like Vista due to it being different, then apparently they're going to be afraid of Windows 7 too. I'm fine if someone doesn't like it because they have issues with it. I agree that there can be issues with it. But if someone hasn't even used it, then please shut up. Now I won't recommend Vista with Windows 7 out, but I personally would rather use Vista over XP if those were my two choices. XP just looks and feels antiquated now.

And I'm not a Microsoft fanboy; I like Macs just as much. In case anyone was wondering.

[CodeZTM]

I could sing of my Windows 7 love forever....

If you have XP, there's really no need to upgrade, because with exceptions to interface and a few minor things, Windows 7 IS XP. If you have vista, upgrade to Windows 7, because Windows 7 is such a safe haven compared to vista, and because pretty much everything is going to become Windows 7 compatible and leave Vista/XP in the dust.

But hey, my machine at work still has XP, and I have ZERO intention of upgrading it until I absolutely have to or my technical adviser makes me. Same with office suite. 2007 can rot in hell for changing a good thing that was office 2003. And I DO know how to use 2007 before I get the haet raeg mail in. I took a summer seminar that my boss paid for since I work at a newspaper, and we had to get training.

[Bauzi]

Basically, since computers get faster, why not add more features and functionality with the new power available?

Do I need more? Do I need harddisc encryption? No I'm pleased as it is.

For me: A good OS works more efficient with less hardware needs or stays on a good level. 1GB RAM for the OS only isn't reasonable.

I'm aware that Win 7 is more or less an update (just like .NET 3.0) and how Vista should have been in the first place. My hardware is fine. My laptop is just half a year old and has good hardware specs.


I believe it's just time to switch. Vista was a pain in the ass for me. It even made me forgive the bluescreens and various annoying errors in XP x64. My itention to upgrade is to get a better x64 OS and DirectX10/11. There are no x64 applications of Premiere Pro and After Effects for XP. Call me stupid, but... I have a dual core, I want x64 and I want x64-applications even if the gains are not that big.


tweaks... I bet the first things I disable are UAC and the grafic fx. I don't really need the eye-candy and would like to stick to my visual style. It's simpel, but sexy :3


I dislike Office 2007 for it's design and being different (ever programmed stuff for Office 2007 in c#? I just say: namespaces lolololol). I love OpenOffice for being a very good freeware alternative.

[LantisEscudo]

There are no x64 applications of Premiere Pro and After Effects for XP.

For the record, there are currently no x64 applications of Premiere Pro and After Effects at all. Adobe claims that the CS4 versions are "architected and optimized for 64-bit OSes," but they are still 32-bit applications. The only Adobe app that has a native 64-bit version is Photoshop, though the CS5 versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects will be 64-bit only.

[mirkosp]

though the CS5 versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects will be 64-bit only.

Guess I'll be getting a new pc when CS5 will get out...

[Bauzi]

Thx Lantis for explaning!

though the CS5 versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects will be 64-bit only.

Guess I'll be getting a new pc when CS5 will get out...

Oh shi... Now this seams to be really mean. They should better hurry to release the x64 flash plug in first >_<

[NeoQuixotic]

With 64-bit only, I wonder if they will figure out a way for 32-bit codecs to work. Not everyone is going to make 64-bit codecs immediately, but I guess this is yet another nudge to force them. Heck, Windows 7 initially was going to be 64-bit only.

[mirkosp]

With 64-bit only, I wonder if they will figure out a way for 32-bit codecs to work. Not everyone is going to make 64-bit codecs immediately, but I guess this is yet another nudge to force them. Heck, Windows 7 initially was going to be 64-bit only.

Well, the codec issue was just with the preview. In order to export all the codecs were freely available, so my guess is that if they handle the codecs for the preview like they handle the codecs for the export, it should be fine.