Microsoft's Resurrection?

Should you Consider Downloading the Windows 7 Beta?

Microsoft has been under the gun for a couple of years. With disappointing products like Vista, Zune, Office 2007 and others, it's been a while since Microsoft has really impressed with a product release. They have turned things around with Windows 7. This is a pre-release version, but I have not seen beta product so far superior to a prior release of the product. This beta release is faster and more stable than the final public release of Vista 2 years ago!

Admittedly Microsoft has been able to learn from the Vista experience, and Windows 7 is not nearly as big a change from Vista as Vista was from XP. So it might be expected that this was would a more polished beta, and it is.

I have it installed on an underpowered laptop (1GB shared RAM, AMD Sempron 2400+, 60GB hard drive) that I thought was going to be pretty weak, but it is as fast or faster than XP! It is a pleasure to use. Of course drivers were a bit of a challenge, but that is to be expected with a beta release on an old computer.

Please do not install the Windows 7 beta unless you are prepared to wrestle a little bit, and are experienced at troubleshooting driver issues. You'll also need to remove it or buy it after the release of the product. But if you like fiddling, and want to get a pleasing preview of the OS that you'll be using in 2010, check it out...