Confessions of an Old Fogey
Well I thought it was cute :).
PingBack from http://www.codedstyle.com/xkcd-tries-windows-7-and-loves-it/
It keeps rolling back installation for me (without telling me what the error is or putting anything beyond the generic error msg in the dump files), so from my perspective, it's actually worse than Vista (although I had a similar experience with Vista SP1 before the WU mess got cleaned up, so it's a close call)
Information is good.
If you're having problems with Win7, please file bugs.
Larry,
Isn't the ability to file bugs restricted to invited beta testers (I got my copy off MSDN to test some apps on it)? Only site I know of to file bugs with MS is Connect, but Win7 isn't listed.
Larry: I believe that you all in the Windows team are doing a really great job in Windows 7.
Note that also some sites with a tendency against Microsoft (like Slashdot) wrote recently good things about Win7 (and it is just a beta, imagine the definitive version!).
I have great expectation for this OS; working on it must give you an high sense of satisfaction.
Thanks.
Where's the tool tip text? <g/>
If the install is rolling back, you can always ImageX the wim install file to the HD and reboot. It'll load into the "setting up windows for the first time" screen. But then again...having it rollback usually means something is interfering with the install...so therefore the stability couldn't be ensured (aside from the fact that its a beta).
Just a thought though...
That's what I was going to ask! The tooltip is as important as the strip (sometimes even more :))
Yes, as BCS pointed out, with xkcd you want that alt text from the comic image -- there's usually another joke. :)
Took a few attempts, but I finally did *something* to get Win7 up and running. While I'm still tweaking it to get things "right", I gotta say, I'm VERY pleased with the performance. Everything is much, much snappier - so much so that I'll probably even start using Flip3D. Still can't find Hitler, but even in beta, it's blowing Vista away IMO.
Haha, love the cartoon.
You can give Windows7 feedback with the "Send feedback" link that's in almost every window, to the top right.
Gotta say I'm impressed so far, especially the new task bar. Lots of network settings are easier to find and it takes just one click to remove notifications-- great!
The "now playing" thing is less confusing in Media Player. But Media Player still has play lists and library lists, which confuses the hell out of me. On the right track tho, they might catch up with Winamp v1's usability in the next version! :D
Larry:
I am curious (if it does not violate any NDA, of course): what C++ compiler do you use to build Windows 7? Do you use the VC8 (VS2005) or VC9 (VS2008)? Or an /ad hoc/ compiler?
And do you use particularly modern C++ features in Win7, like tr1::shared_ptr, or something from Boost library?
Sys64738: I believe we're using a preliminary version of the VC10 compiler, but I'm not sure (the build tools team works closely with the compiler team to figure out the best compiler for the product, but I'm not sure which they're using).
And my team doesn't use any of the modern features of C++ because they almost all require the use of C++ exceptions to propogate errors, and our code doesn't use C++ exceptions (for VERY strong technical reasons, not religious ones).
Thanks for the answer.
I thought that a "mature" stable version of the compiler was used to build an OS, but probably using the latest compiler version (i.e. VC10) to build a huge software system like Windows is a *very good* test for the quality of the compiler.
BTW: The very strong technical reasons to avoid C++ exceptions are something that interest me very much; this could be a topic you may explain us in another post. There is always something new to learn here!! :) Thanks.
So I'm curious now, do you read XKCD regularly or did somebody just point this out to you? :)
Also, I'll second Sys's request for an article about why you avoid C++ exceptions. Sounds very interesting.
Guessing from some feedback I've seen with problems installing the DDK (oops... I mean WDK), I'd say Windows 7 is built using VC9. (The problem were related to some VC9 runtime library missing when copying the WDK to other machines, IIRC.)
"Sys64738: I believe we're using a preliminary version of the VC10 compiler, but I'm not sure (the build tools team works closely with the compiler team to figure out the best compiler for the product, but I'm not sure which they're using)."
XP and Server 2003 was I think built using VC7 and Server 2003 SP1 was I think built using VC8.
BTW, the VC7 compiler had a undocumented /Zvc6 compiler switch and /debugtype:vc6 linker switch that generate PDBs compatible with the VC6 debugger, which was used during the build process of XP pre-SP2 and Server 2003 pre-SP1.
