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Comments on: Door shutting on Windows 7 beta

Enthusiasts who want to try out the test version of the next Microsoft operating system have until Thursday to finish downloading the software.

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by The_happy_switcher February 10, 2009 8:08 AM PST

Gosh, it will be missed--NOT. First post?

Like this Reply to this comment


by sanenazok February 10, 2009 8:27 AM PST: Wow first post, are you like new to the Internets and/or 12?; Like this


by Mr. Dee February 10, 2009 8:47 AM PST: Post like those by AppleRocks belongs at Perez Hilton or TMZ. Shows what Mac Users only do on their platform of choice.; Like this


by Vegaman_Dan February 10, 2009 11:06 AM PST: With the strong demand for the product, the only thing that had been missing was a childish tantrum from an immature person with nothing better to do than make imbeciic postings... but then you came along and took care of that.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate and filling in where you're needed.; Like this


by whizkid454 February 10, 2009 2:12 PM PST: The iEye of CNET.; Like this


by xcopy February 10, 2009 2:49 PM PST: Come on guys. Give the little animal a chance..This little iSheep wandered away from the herd and got lost in a PC post. It's all alone, doesn't know how to think for itself and may be frightened now that Stevie isn't telling it what to think, what's good and what's bad, and more importantly, what to buy.

I also think the little animal is right in the respect that not all of us want to play with experimental code. Personally, I only have 4 PCs and feel like I'm still beta testing Vista 64....LOL; Like this


by RRosal February 10, 2009 7:38 PM PST: Wow, and you guys fed into it by posting more inane comments to an already inane comment. What a waste of time.; Like this


by rpupkin February 10, 2009 8:12 AM PST: just followed the link. it gave me a key but says:

"We're sorry, but downloads are no longer available. Here are the Installation Instructions, Release Notes, and FAQ."; Like this Reply to this comment


by carlg113 February 10, 2009 8:30 AM PST: I cant get it either. Looks like is was only available till 12am Tuesday not 11:59pm.

Honest mistake.

My fault for being such a procrastinator.; Like this Reply to this comment

by rglang February 10, 2009 8:36 AM PST

Surprise - but here it is, 8:35AM on February 10, and according to the Windows 7 website, the download is no longer available! First it wasn't available when it was supposed to be, and now it is no longer available when it is supposed to be.

What gives?

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by CrashPad63 February 10, 2009 1:00 PM PST: It officially ended today, some 3 weeks after original shutoff time and millions of downloads over the original 2.5 million that got it on the first day.; Like this

by Inconnux February 10, 2009 9:04 AM PST

As far as I am concerned all Microsoft OS's are beta until at least SP1. With some its SP2.

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by CrashPad63 February 10, 2009 1:01 PM PST: MS through this Beta program is light years ahead of OSX for stability. And linux is perpetually in beta.; Like this


by Yottskry February 11, 2009 5:25 AM PST: How do you figure that linux is permenantly in beta? They even have stable and unstable branches for the kernel, and distributions make up their own mind about whether to include the bleeding edge or stable version of individual programs.

Plus this means you're not waiting 7 years for the vendor to update the OS like you do with windows. Plus you're not paying for the privelege of beta testing.

Anyway, roll on windows 7 - after the abject failure of Vista I'm looking forward to MS shedding yet more market share, and with Obama looking into open source for the US government it won't be long before they drop to being also-rans.; Like this


by CrashPad63 February 11, 2009 5:30 AM PST: Who pays for betas? Not I. Not any of the 2 dozen testers I know. It is free to try.; Like this

by randydmyers February 10, 2009 9:23 AM PST

I installed Windows 7 on a seperate HD. However, it set up the internet service provider and cut off my secondary PC. I tried every trick I knew to change the settings and failed. Since MS wants only one PC at a time working, and I can not do other things, I removed the drive and went back to my LINUX and Windows XP Pro X64 (Windows Server 2003.) As far as I am concerned, Windows 7 is a dead issue. LINUX Is Far Greater!!!

Like this Reply to this comment


by sanenazok February 10, 2009 9:53 AM PST: That's a first! I've never had any OS "cut off" the internet service on a second PC. Were you using the PC with Win7 as a router? Sounds like you may not be in the target audience for the beta.; Like this


by Pauldarian February 10, 2009 10:34 AM PST: Yes but what flavor of linux do YOU use =-p; Like this


by Vegaman_Dan February 10, 2009 11:07 AM PST: Sounds like an end-user caused misconfiguration issue to me.; Like this


by rapier1 February 10, 2009 11:19 AM PST: Umm... You screwed something up. Something badly. Probably in the router - like giving both machines the same IP address. Maybe you need to learn new tricks.; Like this


by heygeo February 11, 2009 1:30 AM PST: Heh... Windows 7 nor Linux can fix stupid; Like this


by 7aji88 February 11, 2009 8:29 PM PST: funny, I thought I was going crazy but sense I installed Win7, my router would go crazy sometimes and cut the internet for other connected devices. :\; Like this

by eudefender February 10, 2009 11:34 AM PST

"Microsoft issued a late reminder on Monday that people had only until midnight Pacific time to start downloading the operating system."

Not enough downloads available? ;-)

Like this Reply to this comment


by CrashPad63 February 10, 2009 1:09 PM PST: Hardley the original number was 2.5 miollion, they extended this "party" for a full 3 weeks, with no numerical limit. Do you know of any Apple OS that the same has been done to a beta? Do you know any Apple beta releases?; Like this


by stringarray February 10, 2009 4:03 PM PST: The MS OS's need to be tested more as they are designed to support a vast amount of hardware. Apple does not need to do this nearly as much as they don't support a fraction of the hardware MS does. Given this it should be quite obvious why we don't see beta's like this from Apple.; Like this


by CrashPad63 February 11, 2009 5:34 AM PST: Oh we see Betas from Apple. Tiger, Leopard, and now Snow Leopard soon. All have had huge "compatibility", "driver" and just plain poor coding problems since release. Leopard was patched many more times than Vista, or even XP this last year. Nothing like beta testing your OS on the Public calling it a final release. Oh lest we forget the hardware line too. Ipod, Iphone1.0 and 2.0 IMac and Mac Book; Like this


by Mvan87 February 11, 2009 10:39 AM PST: CrashPad.

Other than MobileMe, the 2.0 software update, and the 3G iphone. No I cant think of anything; Like this

by JEG2006 February 10, 2009 12:09 PM PST

Alternatively you could download the code from a torrent anytime between now and the official release date in 2010. But seriously...why would you want to?

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by Swimatm February 11, 2009 9:27 PM PST: There is no official release date yet. But it almost certainly will be this year.; Like this

by trimeta February 10, 2009 1:02 PM PST

For those of us who've already downloaded and installed it, at what time does the operating system self-destruct? I mean, I'm sure it does, to prevent us from just using it indefinitely.

Like this Reply to this comment


by rhsc February 10, 2009 5:24 PM PST: the beta stops working on august 10th, i think; Like this

by kpgrelling February 10, 2009 1:09 PM PST

Windows 7 Beta 64 Bit downloaded last Friday, Dell D820 Laptop (Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB HD free space on separate partition). No peripherals attached at all. No software loaded beyond Windows 7 DVD.

I had heard all this great stuff that Windows 7 is good enough to ship (Windows Weekly podcast - Paul Thurrott & Leo Laporte). Wanted to see for myself.

3 BSODs in the first hour. 5 in the first day. Seriously. I swear to God.

'Nuff said.

Like this Reply to this comment


by Mark_Anderson February 10, 2009 1:11 PM PST: Good to ship?

It's a frackin' Beta. What are you, retarded?; Like this


by CrashPad63 February 10, 2009 1:16 PM PST: Youve got something wrong in the hardware. Mine was the GC had to install generic driver until I read more into it. Then got the original XP driver to work. BSOD come from a bad driver 95% of the time really look into it.; Like this


by kpgrelling February 10, 2009 1:39 PM PST: Mr. Anderson: Yes. I am retarded.

CrashPad: Thanks. I'm pretty sure my issue is with the laptop's 350 internal bluetooth card's drivers. Anyway, I know its a Beta, but the online experts were jumping up and down about it, I thought it would require less of my time so that I could test drive the software itself, not continuously wait for restarts. Oh well. (I have skipped Vista and probably would have found these same issues with it and my hardware even though my laptop was "Vista Ready".); Like this


by lbytesxk February 10, 2009 3:57 PM PST: That's because you have no idea what you're doing. Good luck with that.; Like this


by heygeo February 11, 2009 1:35 AM PST: I've installed Win 7 32bit on a Lenovo X61 Tablet and on a acer netbook, Win 7 64bit on Lenovo T61p, and my homegrown Intel Bonetrail 2 mainboard based rig with ATI 4870x2... all are flawless so far.
make sure if you have older hardware to update the bios so that its vista ready..; Like this


by bruceslog February 11, 2009 5:24 AM PST: Sorry Win7 kept Blu screening your laptop...
I hope you were able to send feedback or post the issue with your laptop's specs to the developers, so they can get it fixed before final.
Your Dell laptop is probably in many homes and businesses out there.
It'd be great if MS got your crash reports and were able to work on it before they start selling Win 7 to all of us. :); Like this


by jessiethe3rd February 12, 2009 5:34 PM PST: Not a SINGLE BSOD here on old and new hardware... On Mac PB Pro on Lenovo T61p on Thinkpad X41... on Toshiba Tablet... etc etc... sorry dude but that's just wierd.; Like this


by CrashPad63 February 10, 2009 1:13 PM PST: Just to stir this up here. Try this one. This is the "only" beta of this release. There will be only one RC. 7 is solid, feels complete. Ive sent in 3 bugs in the 3 weeks Ive tested mine. 5 year old Dell lappy with a 1.67 processesor 1gb memory, even got the prop Dell media software from 03 to work on it.
Solid and functional.; Like this Reply to this comment

by obvio-capitao February 11, 2009 4:54 AM PST

Windows7 Beta downloads are off... Linux downloads are on!

I just made this interesting experience: created a virtual machine with just 256 Mb RAM and installed XUbuntu -- a lightweight desktop system.

When I turned on the machine, the operating system would use just 130 Mb of memory. Here's a screenshot:

http://i40.tinypic.com/vfj9k3.png

Then I turned on Firefox, and memory was still below 180Mb.

That's why Linux will dominate the low-end ($200) netbook market: not only because it is free, reducing the software cost by $30-$60, but also because it requires less hardware, reducing the overall cost by other $30-$60.

If you consider software AND hardware, Linux is what will make it possible to sell netbooks for $200, while Windows netbooks will start at $300. (Windows at $200 will be a non-starter.)

If you want to repeat this experiment, try XUbuntu:

http://www.xubuntu.org/

Like this Reply to this comment


by CrashPad63 February 11, 2009 5:43 AM PST: Ah XP has already dispelled this anamoly. Linux for a while was grabbing the marketshare, then a funny thing happened. Consumers did not get it. They could not use Linux out of the box and returned them for the Windows install. No the market has swung to what 80% for Windows and climbing rapidly. And 7 is so ready for netbooks.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx; Like this


by Radioguy506 February 11, 2009 9:47 AM PST: I installed Windows 7 on a Dell Dimension 4500 (Pentium 4, 2GB RAM and 256MB Video Card) and it's runs much better than the beta of Vista did. That said, my system doesn't have enough horsepower to do anything serious with Windows 7 (video or sound editing). Recording in Adobe Audition 3.0 just couldn't keep up. For browsing, surfing and checking e-mail though, it ran fine. It's a 6 year old system, so I didn't have expectations it would be able to do heavy-duty stuff. Still, I'm impressed it installed and ran as well as it did. No blue screens...and that's always a plus. Since it's on a separate hard drive, I'll play with it from time to time to provide some feed back. When I'm in the market for a new PC, I'll want it to have Windows 7.; Like this Reply to this comment

by The_happy_switcher February 11, 2009 1:32 PM PST

You guys crack me with all your talk about how fast WIN7 is. It's fast, like all new window installs, until the user starts dumping dlls on the hard drive and programs starting bumping up against each other in the registry, on boot up, etc, etc.

Like this Reply to this comment


by CrashPad63 February 12, 2009 12:13 PM PST: Stop the S### talk. You havent used it, you dont know is capabilities. So shutup.; Like this


by Seaspray0 February 12, 2009 3:01 PM PST: Applerocks, stop being such a crybaby. The mud slinging campaign isn't working. Read what EVERYONE is saying about you and take the hint. The only thing you are making look really really bad is yourself.; Like this

by jcomputm February 11, 2009 9:05 PM PST

All this thing about Win 7 is making me crazy! I've planned on downloading the beta for this operating system. But it looks like i needed a DVD for this--It said so online

Like this Reply to this comment


by Swimatm February 11, 2009 9:29 PM PST: That's true, yes.; Like this


by jaycustom February 11, 2009 10:04 PM PST: IDK what is up with all you idiots on here...Win 7 runs awesome on my PC,no probs whatsoever,no BSODs,no need to dl drivers.At least for me.I installed it twice,never had one problem,and YES it is already better and faster than vista. JCOMPUTm..you do not need a dvd.Get a copy of the iso and get Daemon tools(virtual disc) While you are in your XP or Vista,mount the Win 7 iso onto the virtual disc and click "setup" and 25 mins later you're golden.I assume you know to partition your drive) To the rest of ya that say it sux,or you can't DL it anymore..*** have you been??!!Its only been available for 2 months. Try it or ****..and suck me.; Like this Reply to this comment


by veilx February 14, 2009 11:05 AM PST: DAMN!!... just when i downgraded to xp so i can have dual Operating systems!!.... i still have the Windows7 "windows" folder, what can i do with that?...

PLEASE HELP!!; Like this Reply to this comment


by jaycustom February 14, 2009 12:17 PM PST: Velix...what do you mean? If you still need help,reply here and I'll help you.; Like this Reply to this comment

(51 Comments)

About Beyond Binary

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft.

Beyond Binary is a look at how technology is changing our lives and the people behind all that life-changing stuff, with an extra emphasis on that which emanates from Redmond, Wash.