Alright, I confess: I’m a closet geek (or at least my husband says so). The latest evidence? Yesterday I installed the release candidate for Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro under Boot Camp.
Ironically it took me as long to install Windows 7 RC1 as it took the plumber
to repair and replace our leaky outside faucet – and that includes the download time and DVD burning. The plumber presented his bill just as I was wrapping up the install.
To be fair, I spent at least as much time researching how crazy this would be before trying it. My risk was limited because I have a dedicated PC for accounting and timekeeping, and won’t upgrade that PC to Windows 7 until the software is commercially released and stable.
Most of the people trying out Windows 7 are professional developers, serious enthusiasts, and committed PC users. (None of those labels applies to me.) This means that the support resources focused on the particular issues confronting Mac users are still pretty thin.
Quick Take
So far, I like it. There have been a few glitches but no showstoppers. No crashers.
Because I’m a proficient Mac user who has been using Vista for 2 years, the switch to Windows 7 has not been as jarring (nor as impressive?) as what I had been led to expect from long-time XP users who are eagerly jumping into these waters.
Not surprisingly, the Mac does a fine job displaying all the translucent graphics and higher-res themes. There’s some luscious eye candy to be seen. The animated, flaring Windows 7 logo is kinda fun at startup…
Boot Camp Impact
And perhaps because there are known compatibility issues with Boot Camp, Windows 7’s vaunted performance gains are not so obvious with RC1 on my MacBook Pro (compared to Vista). Some apps do load faster, but overall I haven’t really noticed much of a performance improvement. (Note that this MacBook Pro features 4GB RAM, a 2.53 Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and a faster-than-usual hard drive, so performance issues are not hardware based.)
I have noticed a significant throughput increase on web downloads compared to Vista: probably the first time I’ve ever seen a download exceed 1MB/sec via my in-home Comcast connection on a PC. (Only my Macs could do that before I installed Windows 7.)
Anti-virus Software Glitches
The anti-virus world still needs some shaking out, based on my experiments yesterday. I uninstalled ESET after the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor warned me it would be incompatible. I installed a trial version of AVG, which appeared to work smoothly, except that it repeatedly ignored my decision to decline the option to insert a a Yahoo! search function within my browser toolbar. I told AVG 4 times, in multiple places within the UI, not to include Yahoo! search – but all were ignored. So I uninstalled AVG, on principle.
Fortunately, Windows 7 notified me there was a solution to the ESET compatibility issue. After some catch-22 issues with links and credentials, I finally got ESET reinstalled, and all appears well on that front.
I haven’t played around with apps enough to have noted where there are incompatibilities or significant performance/functionality benefits. I have seen some glitches with Firefox 3.5 – rendering failures – but I’m seeing them in Mac OS X too, so it’s too soon to blame Windows 7.
The primary issue I’ve experienced so far is a performance penalty when switching operating systems using Boot Camp. And the Windows 7 startup or recovery from sleep isn’t as fast as I’d hoped. Mac OS X is also launching much more slowly than usual. These are issues I expect to be resolved within the next few months, when Apple updates/fixes Boot Camp.
My fingers are crossed that things remain this stable, and glitches easy to work around…
This post was composed using Windows Live Writer via Windows 7. The first bit of “real work” I’ve tried with Windows 7.
