Jimiz.net – Jim Becher on the web

It seems like just yesterday I upgraded to Vista x64.  It was a pain in the rear, display drivers did not work, things were a little difficult to get intalled (sharepoint development environment). Some of the main software I used did not work, like screen (screen capture app), pdfprinter, and even simple things like Cisco VPN.    It took some time but the x64 vista was worth it.  I had a machine with 6 gigs of ram and I could use it.  I was not hampered with using XP and limited to 3.something for RAM.

Today I was reading a quick link on twitter regarding x64 and the steam network. It seems that for windows users x64 has taken over 32bit.  Here is a link to their hardware survey that shows 40% of windows users being x64

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

That is pretty good.  Since Windows 7 has only been out for a short time.   My feeling is that most new computers are now coming with Win 7 x64.  In fact, I have not seen an add that did have 32bit any more.   Why would you, it limits the RAM usage to 3 gigs.

64 bit has gone a long way since I first switched.  I now use 8 gigs of ram and many virtual machines…  I would never want to switch back.

I was reading my daily RSS feeds and came across this headline.

“More than 10% of all PCs worldwide now on Windows 7″. (http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2010/04/22/more-than-10-of-all-pcs-worldwide-now-on-windows-7.aspx)

It stood out and made me interested. That is pretty amazing, since Windows 7 has only been out for a few months. Considering the volume of users that have a PC that is huge number and to get to 10% this quick is just outstanding. I have been lucky enough to use 7 for quite a while at home, but still use XP at the office.

I am continually amazed at how people upgrade and update their home PC’s. Not many of the people I know who are not technical would even be able to tell you how to upgrade their OS. In fact, most of the people I end up helping with their tech problems just purchase a new PC rather than upgrade the OS.

I wonder how many of the sales are tied to a new PC? I would even love to know what the numbers were of people upgrading from XP or Vista?

I think that microsoft is finally doing something right with their Beta system. Even though there were issues the Windows 7 Beta seems to be a success. People who wanted to test it could download and install (maybe not the first 2 days due to capacity of the servers) .

I am currently in the Azure beta (limited beta) and that is also going well. Overall, it seems like Microsoft is catching on by letting people (the public) be part of their beta programs and doing it well. Realizing that the Microsoft Beta is different than the Google Beta (Think Gmail, which just got out of beta).

Here is an article that talks about the Windows 7 beta being extended (Windows 7 Extended till Feb 12)

I rarely post on things such as MAC vs PC vs Linux. This is because I’m kind of in the middle. As far as I am concerned, they are just an OS. I use Linux at home (typing this out on Ubuntu) and Windows at work. When I read this article I had to include it for reference. In this case the authors (Gizmodo) think that Windows 7 has done something right.

I’m currently running Windows 7 on my work machine. I figure why not go all the way and use the new technology. The feature I’m still getting used to is the Task bar. This post is calling the new task bar better than OSX. I don’t know if I fully agree yet, but it’s growing on me.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5131933/giz-explains-why-the-windows-7-taskbar-beats-mac-os-xs-dock

So install Win 7 yourself and leave me a message. I for one, will always vote for a Terminal window or slick run for command line launches. I’m still bitter that Vista took (START | RUN) away by default.