[LINK] Win XP to Win 7

[Greg Taylor]

On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:15:07 GMT, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> It appears that the end of the dominance of Microsoft Windows, in
> favour of OS source operating systems, may date from October the
> 22nd this year.
>
> --
> Windows XP to Windows 7 Upgrade Could Be Trouble
>
> By WALTER S. MOSSBERG, The Wall Street Journal.
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204900904574304283334746
> 634. html
> ....

I think this article exaggerates the conversion issues. I'm no Microsoft fan by any means. I run Windows because I need it to run several applications that don't run on Linux or Mac.

I recently installed Windows 7 RC (32-bit) on a spare partition (I'm also running XP and Ubuntu on the same machine). Sure you have to re-install application software but Win7 is a dramatic improvement over XP and it managed to find drivers for everything (and I have a lot of peripheral equipment). The installation itself is simple, straightforward and painless.

As for data files (photos, videos, music, documents etc.) surely most users would have those on separate partitions/drives anyway. The days of storing everything (even programs) on C drive are long gone. 

Besides, if anyone is running XP that was installed more than a couple of years ago, a fresh install is a good idea anyway. Converting to Win7 from XP may be too much hassle for an uninformed user, but there's no presssure to change anyway. They can just wait till they get a new machine.

Microsoft made a complete hash of Vista, but I think they've got it right this time. 

Greg