Wow, bloggers quite like Windows 7

In Tuesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers trying out the Windows 7 beta, with some surprising results. Not to mention Godwin's law applied to Web comics...

Preston Gralla is up to his usual tricks:

Microsoft is betting that Windows 7 will succeed where Windows Vista failed. But there's one group of people who most likely won't like Windows 7 any more than they do Windows Vista --- Windows XP users.
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One of the biggest complaints that XP users had with Windows Vista was its hardware incompatibilities ... Here's the bad news ... Windows 7 uses the same driver model as Windows Vista ... XP users also tend not to be fans of ... Aero and other interface enhancements that they dismiss as so much frou-frou. Guess what --- there's even more frou-frou in Windows 7, such as a new taskbar and a nice new feature called Aero Peek.
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Windows 7 won't make them any more happy. It's different than XP --- and as far as I'm concerned, better as well.

Peter Bright shines a light on Seven's shell:

The basic operation of the taskbar is much the same as it has been in XP. In this regard, the biggest behavioral change is the conflation of running and non-running programs. Personally, I like this.
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A closer look shows that a lot more functionality has been added. Icons on the taskbar are no longer dumb representations of application windows; they now have capabilities of their own. Most of this functionality is exposed through the jump lists ... special context menus shown on the taskbar and Start Menu icons that allow quick access to application-specific functionality.
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The Start Menu has also been refreshed in Windows 7 ... Luddites might be in for a shock, however; while Vista and XP both allowed the use of the "classic" (Windows 95-style) Start Menu in addition to the updated Start Panel, in Windows 7 there's no choice. It's the Start Panel or nothing.

All play and no work makes Matt Buchanan... well, you decide:

There's a lot to check out in Windows 7. Like the new Media Center, which has 10 new features we're really hyped about, like sweet dissolve effects, turboscrolling, virtual channels and remote copying.
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Checking out Microsoft's video tour before you jump might save you some frustration. There's also Aero Shake, which knocks all the clutter off your desktop instantly; Snap, with its instant window resizing; and Peek, which is like turbocharged thumbnail previews.
Oh, and whatever you guys do, don't play your MP3s in Windows Media Player, since it could corrupt them! ... There's a patch out for this issue, here's the 64-bit download and here's the 32-bit.

Adam Pash has this handy-dandy dual-boot step-by-step:

If you're dying to try out Windows 7 but aren't ready to give up your installation of XP or Vista, let's take a look at how to dual boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista.
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Download the Windows 7 Beta and Burn It to a DVD ... Partition Your Hard Drive ... Install Windows 7.
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Congratulations! You should now have a new entry for Windows 7 on your boot screen when you first start up your computer.

aweraw has a question:

So wasn't Windows 7 supposed to be usable on netbooks? If it's got the same requirements as Vista, then how the hell is that going to work exactly?

MBoffin has an answer:

I'm running Windows 7 on my Dell Mini and it runs faster than Windows XP Home ran on this exact same machine.

hob42 agrees, in part:

I know I bought a ... "Vista Capable" ... laptop ... but I still expected a brand new computer to at least be able to let me double-click a folder in explorer without stalling and spinning for tens of seconds ... I ended up rolling back to XP.

I grabbed the 7 beta around midnight Friday, and put it on the same laptop ... While it isn't as fast as XP, it's really quite useable even with all the Aero features on ... it's a non-issue completely ... Lots of things are just "better."

And finally...

• xkcd on 7 [hat tip: a /. Anonymous Coward]

Buffer overflow:

• Vinnie Mirchandani: Is the whole Indian outsourcing market under a cloud?
• Fred Wilson: What If Your Model Is Wrong?
• Rational Survivability: Introducing the Next Generation of Cloud Computing...
• Locutus: Virtually shadow your Linux installation
• Scott Lowe: How to save money by converting your old desktops into terminals
• Stephen Wildstrom: NSA, DHS, Industry Gang Up on Dangerous Software Errors
• John Paczkowski: Oracle Layoffs: Hundreds, Not Thousands

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Douglas Schweitzer: If it's free, it's for me!
• Dan Tynan: If you use StickK will you get StuckK?
• Mark Everett Hall: Clouded thinking
• Shark Tank: Baby, it's cold inside!
• Shark Bait: Transfer to Myself

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Google CO2 claim: a load of hot air?
• Palm previews the Pre and webOS
• Intel profit warning: WiMAX doomed?