I got a new laptop last week (took the desktop back for a refund – it wasn’t a negative-cashflow acquisition). In case you’re interested, it’s the HP HDX 16 – the 1255ee version with the backlit keyboard, Blueray player, 4GB of RAM and 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo. It’s a bit of a monster, but I was aiming for more of a desktop replacement than an ultra-mobile, so the size and weight was not a negative factor in the selection. FWIW, I did consider a Macbook Pro 17″, which is definitely lighter and sleeker with similar specs. However it was twice the price; and with software factors thrown in, just wasn’t worth it for me this time around. Maybe next upgrade – but I’ve been saying that for years.
I’ve been on Vista for a while now. It’s the first MS OS I’ve ever bothered to pay for. Despite negative criticism of it in the media, it is terrific in many ways, and lays the foundation for Windows 7, for which media criticism is positive. With a blank slate to play with, I figured to give Windows 7 a try to see what all the fuss is about. I also wanted to have a clean install (avoiding trialware and software I wouldn’t use), but my retail Vista DVD wouldn’t work with the Laptop’s OEM Product Key (this is apparently something you can resolve by calling Microsoft and paying a small “upgrade” fee to correct).
I ran 7 for about a day, then decided to switch back to Vista. Here’s why…
Windows 7 doesn’t ship with Windows Movie Maker. They’re intending to bring “Live” Movie Maker out of Beta before 7 ships, but I can’t wait for this, and the current Beta is severely lacking. I have a load of DV footage I want to edit, so I needed Vista’s included Windows Movie Maker.
There are also some HP drivers and utils which don’t work under 7, such as the thing that parks the hard drive if you drop the machine, and runs the soft buttons above the keyboard. Not a deal-breaker, but better to wait until they come out with 7-compatible versions
And I quickly hit a bug which reminded me why I prefer to stay with production software instead of betas and release candidates. After disconnecting an external monitor (HDMI), and locking the computer so I would have to enter my password to resume, the screen resolution of the laptop suddenly changed to what I assume was the same resolution as the external monitor, and the login process wouldn’t work. This prevented me from saving any work or shutting down cleanly, and was ultimately the straw the broke the camel’s back.
So I went back to the OEM Vista. The restore only took an hour, and I simply uninstalled the software and trialware from the factory image which I didn’t want to use. I also setup a dual boot with Ubuntu 9.04 x64 just for kicks.
I’m extremely happy with this machine and with Vista (also the x64 variant), but was really impressed with Windows 7. In my 24-hours with Windows 7, I discovered the new taskbar, “Libraries”, far less UAC annoyance, and speed improvements; four things that impressed me to the point of wanting to pay for another Windows OS. Of course, I’ll try to take advantage of their $50 upgrade programme, but won’t be too bothered if I don’t qualify.
Apropos re: Windows Live Movie Maker: http://bit.ly/MNf6V
By: Mike D on July 13, 2009
at 10:55 pm
?
By: SLM Wagner on September 20, 2009
at 3:22 am
I’ve been running 7 on my laptop (x64) for the last two builds; on a netbook (Dell Mini 9); an HP TouchSmart device and most anything I can throw at it.
Sometimes to ‘coax’ the vista x64 driver to load in 7, you need to skip the installer and get the OS to look in the directory by pointing it to the .INF file.
The 7 kernel is basically the same as the Vista kernel. To me vista -> 7 is the same basic transition from 2000 -> XP where they introduced a new kernel (2000, Vista) and so had a bunch of core driver/compatibility issues but the next rev most of the drivers were ready or an easy port and they spent their time tweaking performance and the UI.
As for animation studios, my understanding it is Linux for the rendering (cheap commodity hardware) and then Windows for the end-users. IRIX would probably be the way to go if they didn’t get crushed by the commodity market.
There is Premiere Elements (also comes in a bundle with Photoshop Elements). I believe the bundle was around $100 when I got it. I wasn’t doing too much video stuff so YMMV. Oh yeah at one point in time you could download a demo. Not sure if that still exists.
By: Walter Wong on July 2, 2009
at 6:22 pm
[...] Laptop and Ubuntu 9.04 x64 As mentioned in a recent post, I am trying a dual boot configuration on a new laptop, where the secondary OS is Ubuntu 9.04 [...]
By: New Laptop and Ubuntu 9.04 x64 « BOINK on June 30, 2009
at 9:46 pm
Thanks Reid,
I’d agree that the production studios are heavy lifters of the OS – nice analogy by the way. Also I’m slightly surprised that they use Windows at all. I thought all the rendering used to be done on SGI farms running IRIX?
I also had almost no issue with Vista x64 drivers on Windows 7. The only one that I could really call a driver was the hard-drive-inertia-detector-and-parker (called cleverly: ProtectSmart Hard Drive). There were also several media-related utilities that wouldn’t install because they did not recognise 7’s version of MCE.
As for Mac OS-X, yes, I agree with you. iLife is acclaimed to be a phenomenal piece of software (I’ve never used it but defer to the unanimous deluge of positive media coverage). It would still have been a 2x investment, turning a null-cash-flow purchase to a negative one.
Add in that I already own 2 retail copies of Vista – plus the laptop comes with a third – which includes the editting software I considered “good enough” to begin with. I really have nothing against WMM – except for the fact that it’s not included in Windows 7.
By: Mike D on June 28, 2009
at 6:19 pm
I’ve been using Windows 7 64 at work and use Vista 64 drivers with no issue so far.
When it comes to heavy lifting, nobody uses Vista because of stability problems. All the movie productions houses (Disney, Pixar, ILM, Dreamworks) are staying on XP-64 until Win7 is released.
If you want an OS with built-in decent media editing, there’s always Mac OS X.
Reid
By: Reid on June 28, 2009
at 3:52 pm
Well to start with, WMM on Vista is way better than WMM on XP. Night-and-day difference in stability and usability. It seemed the link you provided leads to many complaints with screenshots of the XP version. Not all, but some, and granted the Vista version isn’t going to meet everybody’s expectations or requirements.
For the tasks I use it for, it’s always been drop-dead simple to use and never given me any problems. I don’t do any heavy work, so anything more expensive doesn’t make sense. I might pay $100 if there was something out there that blew me away. The latest Premiere is $600, which isn’t worth it to me.
From the link you provided, alot of comments seem to suggest Sony Vegas. They have 4 editions, and any of three the lower end ones would probably suit me fine – and they’re all less than $115. I might have to try a demo.
I think MS is at least acknowledging that people need this stuff included with the OS to make it useful – however they have a long way to go. Photo Gallery and Live Photo Gallery are fantastic, IMO. So is WMP (though I think the camp is heavily divided on that one). Even though I find WMM “good enough for me”, I by no means consider it to be “good”, let alone “fantastic”. They’ve really got to put in way more effort to make it appealing to the masses.
Anyway, back to the point – in Windows 7, what would I have used (without knowing about Sony Vegas of course)? Live WMM, it its current beta state, is positively useless, even for me. So unfortunately, it weighed in a bit heavier than it otherwise would have.
BTW, thanks for reading and for the great comment…
By: Mike D on June 27, 2009
at 4:30 pm
I’ve had Win 7 RC (x86) installed since it came out and I love it! Speed, UI (I never really used Vista), usability, stability and a lot more. Though I wouldn’t recommend an RC to someone for use on their main computer.
I find it strange that you put some weight on the lack of Windows Movie Maker. It’s a very limited application – http://bit.ly/PX51q
On drivers, as long as video and audio work…well, that’s it. I did have to find a better sound driver than the one Windows provided; it kept going silent after waking up from Sleep. My soft buttons for sound work fine. The others have been useless since the day I bought the laptop because I wiped the HP drive they point to.
I see how that bug would be annoying, might be a 64-bit issue. But that’s part of the fun in trying out pre-production software
Isn’t it?
By: Mohamed J on June 27, 2009
at 2:27 pm