Windows 7, would you switch?

[npal]

Ok, so apparently it's not a Windows 7 exclusive... I just saw the same thing with MPC-tagged-edges-problem in Vista with CCCP so I take it ATI has (yet again) broke something in their newest drivers... Although karaoke effects work ok in Vista... O_o Puzzling...

offtopic: *sigh* ATI, I want to like you, I really do, but you've been forcing my hand this last year... /offtopic

Edit: Not sure what's the deal with the subs now, but I have to disable prebuffer in MPC to get them to display normally. Not sure what or how it broke. I'm gonna try CCCP instead and see whether it installs correctly and whether it works correctly. It's rather strange how WMP works without anything else with displaying subs correctly and the video without jagged edges ALTHOUGH it seems to work worse than before, since it somehow ends up dropping frames... It might be a codec pack issue but CCCP wasn't working here before so I don't know... I'll try it again and check.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

and I've never really settled on a favorite player in linux....

Just curious, but what's wrong with smplayer? It has a decent GUI and stays current with mplayer SVN changes..

Like Ian, I used Kaffeine (xine-lib) for quite a while, but the Xine development team doesn't seem as active as mplayer's. mplayer may not have been the most stable codebase in the past, but these days even builds from SVN seem pretty flawless.

mplayer's support for ASS makes smplayer the obvious Linux choice for me, unless you want to use one of the many mplayer skins. I haven't seen any I'd prefer over smplayer though. With support for both Linux and Windows, it's my usual recommendation nowadays for both platforms. Being self-contained and not relying on Winidows subsystems like DirectShow makes it an even stronger competitor, especially if these rumors about compatibility with Windows 7 are true.

[KiNA]

Is the memory leak for mplayer been fix? IIRC somebody said that mplayer have a nasty bug where it never returns the memory it uses.. and since smplayer are just a gui front.. it inherit the same bug.

But I still use it

I've tried other players but I keep coming to smplayer time and again in the end

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by KiNA

Is the memory leak for mplayer [fixed]?

I don't see serious leaks on Linux; I don't know about the Windows builds. I just played a randomly-selected 720p/H.264 video and watched memory usage with "top." mplayer ate about 40-50 MB and the smplayer shell another 15-20. When I exited the program, overall memory usage seemed to revert back to the levels they were at before.

I usually build a separate mplayer binary from SVN, taking an "export" file from the mplayer download page. When I've given the Windows version to people, I'll just use the version of mplayer that's bundled with smplayer since I don't have a build environment for Windows. In Linux, I just tell smplayer to use my mplayer binary in /usr/local/bin rather than the distribution's version in /usr/bin.

[npal]

I don't use SMplayer on Windows, tried sometimes but it feels slow and bulky for some strange reason. I only used it for troubleshooting video errors. I do think MPC does an overall better job on Windows (in 7 here, my Catalyst 9.3 somehow refuses to render correctly with Haali Renderer so I have to use something else) so there's no real point having SMPlayer. In Linux it feels more like a one-way though, there's no other player who can play stuff that well and be so easy to configure. Even other mplayer frontends can't work as well, and vlc sucks for every OS imo.

I don't remember whether Smplayer had memory leaks on Vista, but I don't really want to try it on 7

[Hyperion]

Yup, I'll switch. I messed with it for a few days and everything I gave it, it handled just fine. No crashes or slowdowns and drivers for everything worked, except for my Creative sound card and I'm blaming that on Creative's poor driver team.

[IRJustman]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

Yup, I'll switch. I messed with it for a few days and everything I gave it, it handled just fine. No crashes or slowdowns and drivers for everything worked, except for my Creative sound card and I'm blaming that on Creative's poor driver team.

Which card is this? I'm looking at picking up a new card, but unfortunately, it'll have to be a Creative card since I don't know of anything else out there that can go into a slot, especially anything any good.

--Ian.

[Hyperion]

Originally Posted by IRJustman

Which card is this? I'm looking at picking up a new card, but unfortunately, it'll have to be a Creative card since I don't know of anything else out there that can go into a slot, especially anything any good.

--Ian.

The Gamer one......

uh...Xi-fi fatality or something like that.

[npal]

Don't they have Windows 7 drivers for that?

[IRJustman]

Originally Posted by npal

Don't they have Windows 7 drivers for that?

Even if not, the Vista driver SHOULD work.

--Ian.

[npal]

Normally yes, although it does depend from build to build with hardware.

Example : Asus Xonar D2.
Latest Vista drivers (the ones released a week or two ago or something)

Win 7 7000 Build -> Total driver failure, only stereo, missing driver panel options, etc.
Win 7 7068 Build -> Works like it's Vista.

Not sure how Creative does, but seeing as they DID release a Windows 7 beta driver, I suppose their Vista driver was having enough problems to warrant that? Or they are trying hard lately cause of all the locked features uproar some time ago.

[Renegade334]

Originally Posted by npal

Don't they have Windows 7 drivers for that?

Technically, you should be able to install XP or Vista drivers by right-clicking the installer and setting the compatibility mode to either 'XP SP2/SP3' or 'Vista SP1/SP2'. That's how I managed to install a U.S. Robotics wi-fi card that only had drivers for XP and not for Vista. I still had to do a couple minor tweaks such as interrupting the automatic reboot, going to the device manager, uninstalling the device and then forcing the manager to recognize any new pieces of hardware to have the drivers connect with the re-activated card. A simple 'double-click, install and enjoy' just doesn't work.

As for improving builds, I agree on that. 7022 had poor Realtek audio drivers, whereas 7068 plays audio files seamlessly. Compared to Vista, the video drivers seem much better, too - since Aero Glass is activated right from the install, whereas on W7's predecessor, I had to initiate a hardware evaluation to have the OS take a better look at my PC's specs and finally deem it okay to switch Aero on.


EDIT: I most likely won't download it, but Build 7077 (Release Candidate, Escrow Branch) has just been leaked, and reportedly, Build 7105 (Release Candidate, RTM Branch) was completed/compiled four days ago.

Also, I've been lurking around a certain W7-centric site and there are a few tidbits that need to be reposted.
- W7 will allow users to downgrade to Vista...and even XP.
-

Originally Posted by windows7center

As part of an aggressive marketing plan, Microsoft has decided that it will offer Windows 7 Home Premium free to anyone owning a Mac. The offer is set to coincide with the opening of its retail stores in the US.

To be eligible for a free copy of Windows 7, Mac users will need to bring in their Apple desktop or Macbook into Microsoft’s retail store. A Windows technician will then provide a free on-site installation of Windows 7 onto their Macbook. During the installation period, a salesmen will then assist the customer into transitioning to Windows 7 by offering them a free one-on-one teaching session of the operating system’s benefits and new features.

“This Windows 7 development team has worked very hard on the operating system to ensure that it remains competitive in terms of performance and usability. We are confident that this program will finally offer an opportunity for Mac users to find a solution that works for them,” said David Porter, Corporate Vice President of Retail Stores

Microsoft is hoping that offering a free copy of Windows 7 to Mac users will earn them repeat customers over the years and contribute to future sales of Windows 8. Steve Ballmer was also asked to comment on this new marketing intiative:

“At Microsoft, we believe that our logo doesn’t have to come with a $500 price tag. We want others to enjoy the success and experience Windows users have had over the years.”

Chairs will be provided at Microsoft retail stores three nights in advance to accomodate the large number of fans that will be switching over to Windows 7.

- According to the same source, Windows 7 RTM will undergo distribution in September of this year and the current release schedule is as follows:

• April 2009 for the RC escrow
• May 2009 for the public release of Windows 7 RC
• September 2007 for Windows 7 RTM
• No later than January 2010 for Windows 7's full release

- About the so-called third-party codec block...

I didn't include the aforementioned source's url, since it offers downloads for leaked builds, and I don't think the staff would like to see warez links skulking around here. Don't ask me to provide the address either.

And last but not least, since we're talking about leaked builds and inside information...please take the 'unofficial' statements with a truckful of salt.

[chikorita157]

Windows 7 RC comes out on May 5 to the public

A page over at Microsoft Partners has been updated to show that Windows 7 RC will be publically released on May 5, and should be available for MSDN and Technet subscribers now. However, clicking through the download link will only get you the beta, right now.

This would seem to jive with an earlier leak on a Microsoft page saying that the RC would be available in May, but that was taken down soon after it was reported.

Well see how long this page stays updated with the Windows 7 RC information, or how long it'll take before RC does actually hit MSDN and Technet.

Source

[SeijiSensei]

To be eligible for a free copy of Windows 7, Mac users will need to bring in their Apple desktop or Macbook into Microsoft’s retail store. A Windows technician will then provide a free on-site installation of Windows 7 onto their Macbook.

I don't suppose they'll be installing this in a method that enables dual-booting. It sounds more like, "bring in your Mac, and we'll wipe OS X off it for you for free."

Wonder if I came in with a Mac running OS X and a VM program like VirtualBox. Suppose I could get them to install it in a VM? Probably not. BTW, Win7 runs fine in a VirtualBox VM on top of Ubuntu. Even when I gave it only 512M of memory (the machine only has 1 GB), it seemed pretty peppy.

[Xanas]

I only use Windows for games, and I won't pay for it for that purpose since that's an arbitrary restriction by virtue of Microsoft's proliferation of proprietary APIs.

At such point that Windows 7 is needed to play games at all, I may get it but I'd prefer to support Microsoft as little as possible. It's bad enough that I use it at all honestly, since by purchasing games for it I encourage it's proliferation. I really despise Microsoft, especially after the garbage with Tom-Tom and the lawsuit about extensions to FAT.

[chikorita157]

Originally Posted by Xanas

I only use Windows for games, and I won't pay for it for that purpose since that's an arbitrary restriction by virtue of Microsoft's proliferation of proprietary APIs.

At such point that Windows 7 is needed to play games at all, I may get it but I'd prefer to support Microsoft as little as possible. It's bad enough that I use it at all honestly, since by purchasing games for it I encourage it's proliferation. I really despise Microsoft, especially after the garbage with Tom-Tom and the lawsuit about extensions to FAT.

I also use Windows for games, but I get a copy of Windows Vista provided by my university for free (included in my tuition)... otherwise, I won't justify paying $299 bucks just to pay games or run a few windows only programs on my Macbook Pro... since I use Mac OS X as my main operating system and also Linux because it's free and also has the benefits of OS X on not having alot of malware and also have a stable system.

[Vexx]

MSDN subscribers now have access to the Release Candidate for Windows 7. The rest of the monkey pack can get their mitts on it 5MAY2009 from the Windows Download public section of the Microsoft site.

There is a report that the Release Candidate will have a one-year trial key --- after which if you're used to it /like it/ all you have to do is buy a regular key so you don't have to re-install.

[npal]

Yeah, and the crappy part is I'll be away for a conference next week >_<. Oh well, I guess I'll download and install it next weekend and FINALLY, I was kinda tired living with a more recent leaked beta. I'll see whether I'll remove Vista completely now and stay with 7 RC, if all goes well.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

MSDN subscribers now have access to the Release Candidate for Windows 7. The rest of the monkey pack can get their mitts on it 5MAY2009 from the Windows Download public section of the Microsoft site.

I didn't read the reports carefully enough to answer this, but are they giving away only the Limited Edition that permits a maximum of three applications at a time? This stripped-down edition was designed to keep competitors like Linux off netbooks and for sales to developing countries in hopes of forestalling piracy. In contrast, the leaked builds let you choose any edition at installation.

I can't imagine they'd be giving away "Ultimate" or any of the business-oriented editions that enable you to join an MS "domain." But I could certainly be wrong!

[chikorita157]

I'm going to install Windows 7 RC1 on my old Dell once it comes out which dual boot with OpenSolaris to check it out, but I doubt I'm going to buy a copy of Windows 7 since Vista Service Pack 2 x64 RTM provided improved performance on my Unibody Macbook Pro, which won't make much difference besides the smaller footprint (and also upgrading will cost alot of money because I need a Professional license since I'm running Vista Business.)

I only going to use it for gaming anyways.