Windows 7 Isn’t That Awful After All

Nov 23
2009

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Windows 7 was launched just over a month agoI’m sure you’ve heard, read, seen, and generally experienced all of the hype. I, however, have been pretty much ignoring Windows 7 since the day Microsoft first announced it. Well, I finally got around to paying some attention to it and ended up installing Windows 7 Ultimate on my Mac.

What made me finally give it a shot? Perhaps it was simply morbid curiosity, given what a disappointment Windows Vista was for many people. Or perhaps it was simply a desire to make sure that I wasn’t missing anything on the odd chance that Microsoft had somehow finally created a version of Windows worth owning. Or maybe it was simply the OS addict in me that couldn’t resist the idea of playing with the latest version of Windows any more than it could the latest version of Kubuntu.

I’ve always been a distrohopper when it comes to Linux (more on that next week), so trying out the latest version of Windows fits right into that mindset. Who can resist playing with a new OS? Or at least a new version of one we all know and love? Well, okay, maybe we don’t all love Windows. But it’s impossible to completely ignore it forever.

Now that I’m not ignoring it, I have to admit that it’s not that bad. Frankly, I thought it would be Vista 2: Return of Crap, and it’s not. I’m actually enjoying using Windows 7. It’s not going to pull me away from Mac OS X and my collection of Linux distros, but it doesn’t repel me, either.

Installation I installed Windows 7 onto my 20-inch iMac using VirtualBox. My install took about 20 minutes, there were no burps or hiccups during that time, and I was able to successfully boot into Windows 7 once the installation had completed.

In terms of difficulty, the Windows 7 installer is about on par with that of Ubuntu Linux 9.10which means it’s very easy to install.

Here are the basic stats of the Mac that I put Windows 7 on:

Model Name: iMac Model Identifier: iMac7, 1 Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz Number Of Processors: 1 Total Number Of Cores: 2 L2 Cache: 4 MB Memory: 2 GB Bus Speed: 800 MHz Chipset Model: ATI, RadeonHD2600 Type: GPU Bus: PCIe PCIe Lane Width: x16 VRAM (Total): 256 MB Vendor: ATI (0×1002)

And here is the configuration of my virtual machine in VirtualBox:

General Name: Windows 7 OS Type: Windows 7

System Base Memory: 1,024MB Processor(s): 1 Boot Order: Floppy, CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled Nested Paging: Disabled

Display Video Memory: 128 MB 3D Acceleration: Enabled Remote Display Server:Disabled

Hard Disks IDE Primary Master: Windows 7.vdi (Normal, 20.00 GB)

CD/DVD-ROM Host Drive: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-85J

Floppy Not mounted

Audio Host Driver: CoreAudio Controller: ICH AC97

Network Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (NAT)

I can’t complain too much about Windows 7′s performance in VirtualBox. It runs pretty welland bear in mind that the Mac I installed it on is actually my slow one. My 24-inch iMac has 4GB of RAM, but I wanted to use Windows 7 first on the one with half as much RAM and see how well it performed in VirtualBox.

One thing I did was change the screen resolution to 1152 by 864 so Windows 7 would run properly in a VM window on my Mac OS X desktop. I occasionally expand it to full-screen size but, for the most part, I prefer running it in a window.

Computers-Plus