Has anyone tried WinTD on Windows 7 yet? If so, how did it go?
BNASC is using Win 7 laptops with WinTD. (I’m 99% sure it was Win7…) Went fine. I’m sure Mark will be able to chime in with more. (Whereas I, using a Vista laptop, had to reboot one time due to USB port lockup.)
Win 7 also has, so I have been told, both better-than-Vista general XP compatibility and also an available XP-compatible emulator mode that is far superior to Vista. ( microsoft.com/windows/virtua … nload.aspx )
“far superior to Vista” is damning with faint praise.
True enough. “Finally got XP compatibility right,” might be closer to the mark. 
The XP emulator, as I understand it, actually runs a regular copy of XP Service Pack 3. It’s meant more for programs which can only run in XP for whatever reason (I’d imagine enterprise-wide applications which make XP-specific function calls, or require drivers which have only been written in XP.)
Aside from the emulator, though, I beleive Windows 7 also contains better abilities to run programs made for earlier versions of Windows. ( windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind … of-Windows ). Again, it’s hopefully a “we finally got something right” solution.
Now, if I can only find out if WinTD will work in Ubuntu running WINE… 
(ChessBase won’t. Chess Assistant apparently does.)
Edit to add… I just ran the Windows 7 upgrade advisor on my old laptop just to see if it would run. Among other cautions (like no way I can run Aero,) it noted that one needs a minimum of 2GB RAM and an additional 15GB of drive space to run the XP Compatibility Mode (I’m sure that’s the emulator. That would figure, as it would be an additional full install of XP SP3. And I guess the RAM overhead is required to simultaneously run XP overlaid on 7.) Ironically, though, it didn’t say I couldn’t install 7 on this machine, which is rather amazing.
Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes, I’ve heard Win 7 is better than Vista. As for the XP-compatible emulator, one can use that only if one has the “professional” or better version of Win 7. The cheap-o laptop I have my eye on would have the “home” edition. It’s time to replace that laptop I bought reconditioned in 2001. 
Past time, in fact.
Maybe you should keep that older laptop and just use it for tournaments. A several year old laptop is still quite capable for running a chess tournament. I’ve got an older laptop that I plan on doing that with. One advantage my old laptop has over my newer one – if its stolen it won’t be any great loss. 
Nice idea, but not for this laptop. It has become too unreliable, requiring me to reboot in the middle of a 200-player tournament and have to redo my work for an entire round. 
Of course there is the option of getting a real laptop like a MacBook or MacBook Pro and if you’re insistent on running a lesser operating system such as XP, Vista, or Win 7, you can run VMWare Fusion or Parallels to operate a virtual Windows O/S session.
I believe WinTD has a Mac version.
Of all the places to run into a case of Mac snobbery.
I bought a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista in 2007, and I’ve enjoyed more than two uninterrupted years of hassle-free, crashless usage. Whether that’s because I’ve got it set up with the “classic” look and feel of Windows 98 instead of the slick Aero interface, I can’t say. But spare me the nonsense about how Vista is plagued with so many problems that anyone who comes in contact with it will run screaming into the arms of Apple. It isn’t true. The only software I haven’t been able to run without problems was Portal – which was incompatible with my Intel graphics chip, not with Vista. (And, ironically, Microsoft Word. But Word is stupid anyway, whatever OS you run it on. I prefer Word Perfect.)
Plus, there’s one thing that Mac programmers never seem to grasp: Some of us type very, very fast, and for us, keyboard shortcuts are a basic matter of efficiency. We get irritated when we’re forced to reach for the mouse to perform a simple command, especially one we have to perform over and over. Too much Mac software is written by people who don’t think past clicking and dragging. Also, Home = cursor to beginning of line, End = cursor to end of line. What’s so frickin’ hard about that, Mac programmers?
Yes there is…
:mrgreen:
I was brought up in the Windows world myself and only recently actually moved to the Mac world when I started the job I’ve head for the past couple of years. Do I still use Windows? Yup, however I’ll use my Mac whenever I definitely don’t need the PC.
I won’t get into the topics that the underlying software technology of Mac OS is far superior to even Windows 7, especially being a time proven technology base and also the virus issues (yes there are Mac viruses but you’re comparing a trickle with a tsunami of Mac to Windows viruses).
Maybe Mac’s weren’t meant for drones that repeat the same thing over and over again but for free thinkers. Remember the famous Apple commercial?
Sorry couldn’t resist this last comment, no insult intended.
Also at the last delegates meeting at least 1 in 3 laptops that were whipped out, were a Mac.
My only bone to pick with Apple is that they don’t authorize Mac OS on any hardware set, just their own but that’s a product management decision to keep compatibility issues to a bare minimum. Though there are companies now that are doing Mac OS on non-Apple approved hardware.
And yet they still come with space bars. Emancipate~yourselffrom@mentalslavery,~man.
Seriously, if I’m expected to switch to an OS for “freethinkers,” I hardly expect to lose options in the process.
Lose one, gain many. And it might not be a loss actually, it might just be a retooling of the execution. I haven’t looked into it yet honestly.
Oh, when I referred to “options,” I wasn’t talking about WinTD. Actually, I just recently downloaded the demo versions of WinTD and SwissSys, and after playing around with each, I decided I strongly preferred the experience of using SwissSys. So I wouldn’t have any idea what features of WinTD made the jump from Windows to Mac, nor would I care.
Wasn’t talking about WinTD, was talking about apps in general.
Or, better still… Ubuntu!
Sorry - I feel almost contractually obligated to mention Linux whenever I am witnessing an OS micturition contest. If Ubuntu only could run ChessBase and WinTD, I would kiss Windows goodbye forever. And Apple lost my business forever when they killed the Newton in the fashion they did. (Even though my Newton still powered up just fine the last time I plugged it in.) Heck, I felt somewhat dirty buying my wife an iPod instead of any number of other good MP3 players.
Naaaaahhhh…would rather not 1) pay the upcharge for the proprietary hardware and 2) re-buy all my software for a new platform. Not all of us have a corporate IT department to buy us a computer and load it with software for free.
Besides, I’ve done enough work on Macs to know that I don’t like the feel/function of the OS, the Apple mouse (are those people still limping along with one mouse button and no scroll wheel?), and the Apple keyboard.
For me, there is no up side to buying Apple. For others there is. Chacun à son goût.
I’d rather run Swiss-Sys in Parallels on my Mac then get Win-TD for Mac.
Overheard in the Skittles Room.
And in the Enron Board Room.