Wombat Diet

On paper we should be good candidates for Windows 7:

• My desktop PC (Vista Ultimate)
• My laptop PC (Vista Business)
• Wife’s laptop (Vista Home Premium)
• Daughter’s laptop (Vista Home Premium)
• Media Center PC (Vista Ultimate)

(In addition, I run some Ubuntu on some machines — a netbook, a server and a desktop.)

The upgrade pricing, especially for anyone using Vista Ultimate, is unconscionable.

I resolved a while ago not to give Microsoft any more money, and apart from buying Office 2007 at a student price, I haven’t. The upgrade prices for Windows 7 are not tempting, with two exceptions:

• The student price for Home Premium or Professional (£30)
• The family pack: 3 Home Premium upgrade licenses (typically £129.95)  — supposedly available while stocks last

The first of these is not available at the moment because Microsoft’s preferred delivery method, a digital download of an .exe file instead of an ISO file (DVD image) has turned out to have problems and it has been pulled from the Internet for now (Microsoft blames the customers; more here).

I succumbed to temptation and picked up a family pack.

Be default one is stuck with upgrading Vista versions to corresponding or higher versions of Windows 7. Downgrading from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium is not an option — without a clean install (Paul Thurrot describes how to do a clean install with upgrade media).

I decided to try a clean install on the Windows Media PC because it had very little software installed on it — it’s mainly used for Vista Media Center — and because I wanted to see Windows 7 Media Center (reviewed here). I don’t mind paying £40 for an upgrade if this significantly better, but the £160 upgrade price Microsoft asks for Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate would go a long way toward a personal video recorder (PVR) box.

First, I backed up. Twice. Once with Acronis TrueImage, then with Windows Backup (to an external USB drive).

You aren’t tempted to wait for the first Service Pack?

said a friend of mine when I announced my intention.

How bad could it be? The reviews seemed to be almost unanimous in suggesting that Microsoft had finally got a decent operating system out the door.

The media center PC is simplicity itself:

• Abit Fatal1ty F190-HD motherboard with HDMI ouptut to a Sony Bravia HD TV (1080p)
• Microsoft wireless keyboard, Microsoft wireless mouse, Logitech wireless air mouse
• Zalman HD160 media center case with IR remote control
• Netgear WN111 wireless network adapter
• Nova-T PCI tuner

Very little additional software besides Vista was installed.*

When Windows 7 Home Premium was installed as a clean installation, fetching updates from the web before running, the result was

• No Internet connectivity: the wireless adapter wasn’t found and driver software wasn’t installed
• No sound
• A large black border on the screen, even at what was supposedly full HD resolution
• No driver software installed for the tuner
• No driver installed for the IR remote
• The existing media library was “forgotten”

In short, the upgrade converted the computer to a brick.

Doubtless all of the problems are solvable if one has time to spend scouring the Internet for drivers and installing them. Of course they could possibly be sidestepped entirely buy paying Microsoft the ransom required for an in situ upgrade from Vista Ultimate to Windows Ultimate.

I reverted to Vista Ultimate.

I may try again when the first service pack ships.

Or Maybe Not

Last Saturday I was having trouble with intermittent wireless in my laptop after a Vista update. I rebooted to Ubuntu (9.04) and the problem disappeared. A year ago it was the other way around, with Ubuntu wireless being troublesome. Ubuntu 9.10 is due on Thursday and I’m looking forward to what promises to be the best release yet as Ubuntu steadily erodes the value proposition for Windows.

Using Windows it takes a significant effort to keep software and drivers up to date, including 3rd party software. With Ubuntu it’s effortless.

Ubuntu lacks the slick design of Windows 7 or Apple OSX and this will be the focus of the next iteration, Ubuntu 10.04, due in April next year. What it lacks in visual polish, however, it makes up for in lack of hassle now, and the promise of a new online application store.

Microsoft’s latest quarterly revenue figures show a 14% decline in revenue and a 17% fall in net income. Very likely the peak has now been surpassed and its downhill slowly from here on. Apple’s ads making fun of Microsoft are as sharp as ever and are worth a look.

At best I expect two PCs at home to be running Windows 7 by then, those running Home Premium, and possibly my laptop (already dual booting with Ubuntu).

Microsoft will have a passable Christmas I suspect but will be discounting to retain OS market share within 6 months, and they still have to raise their game.

First Service!

as they say in tennis.

____

*Acronis TrueImage, BBC iPlayer, DVDidle Pro, Microsoft Security Essentials, UltraVNC server, VersionTrackerPro, WebGuide,, Superflexible File Synchronizer and Scootersoftware’s Beyond Compare 3.

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