The SystemMax PC arrived on Friday. This PC was a special deal from TigerDirect.com - a refurbished unit at a discounted price, and with no operating system. The PC has an Intel Pentium dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, and 160GB DASD. It has a spacious case, with room for six of seven additional disks. (The CPU card has two open SATA ports, so anything beyond two additional disks would require an adapter.)
The "no operating system" aspect did not bother me -- in fact, I found it appealing. My plan was to install Windows 7 (the Release Candidate, or RC, version) and I didn't want to throw away a good operating system. A PC without an operating system is better for me.
I installed Windows 7RC with no problems. Microsoft has improved their install program. I am used to the old DOS-mode, white-characters-on-blue-screen setup programs for Windows. Windows 7 uses a nice, graphics mode (just like Linux installs), asks a few questions up front and not one at a time during the install (just like Linux), and needs no interaction during the install (just like Linux).
Windows found drivers for my video card and network card, a pleasant surprise. I am used to the MSDN OEM installs for Windows XP, which include drivers for 640x480 and nothing for networks. Those installs required the hunting of drivers and then the acrobatics to copy them onto a computer without a network interface.
I like Windows 7 more than Windows Vista. Microsoft has learned from the experience of Windows Vista and fixed things that were problems. For me, the most noticeable change is in the wallpaper: Vista had visually noisy pictures (the mountain lake was particularly annoying) and Windows 7 has quieter, soothing images. Also, the screen widgets do not come up by default. (I dislike the screen widgets, especially the clock with it's constantly-moving second hand.)
Microsoft has also tuned UAC (User Access Control). Dialogs for access to critical areas are still displayed, but only when necessary. In this, Microsoft has matched the experience of Linux distros such as SuSE and Ubuntu.
I downloaded some additional packages: Word viewer, Excel viewer, and Visual Studio Express for C# and Web Development. I have yet to work with them.
All in all, Microsoft has made changes to the Windows experience that I consider improvements. They are on par with Linux for the user interface. This might be a problem for Microsoft, since while they are no worse than Linux, they are no better.
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