Windows 7 free for 13 months

[ErosOlmi]

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9132397%20target=
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Microsoft gives users Windows 7 free for 13 months

[kryton9]

I installed the free W7 beta and I must say I like it so far. The install was a breeze and being able to access most tweaking options is pretty easy to figure out. Mainly right clicking on various parts of the interface gets you to most places quickly.

My Nephew who bought a notebook with Vista last year, he installed Windows 7 and says it is so much faster and more responsive than his Vista that he is really thrilled by the difference.

I installed the new Visual Studio 2010 Beta also.
F# is part of the package now, so it is an official language. I also saw a C# sharp example where code is written in C# and Python and the Python code is called with a new script command. I wonder if this means thinBasic could be called this way. It might be worth checking out Eros, Roberto and Charles.

Here is what the code looks like:


using System;
using IronPython.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Scripting.Hosting;

namespace PythonSample
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Loading helloworld.py...");

ScriptRuntime py = Python.CreateRuntime();
dynamic helloworld = py.UseFile("helloworld.py");

Console.WriteLine("helloworld.py loaded!");

for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(helloworld.welcome("Employee #{0}"), i);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

[kryton9]

This is a problem with Windows 7 I am sure and not anything in thinBasic or new Peg game.
I installed the new thinBasic beta and also the new PegSolitaire today, but it is not running smoothly at all.
I had a similar problem with IL2-1946, I switched from opengl to directx in the setup and it works fine now.

When I find a fix online for this opengl problem I will post a link here.

Congrats to the team for such a great feature as online scoring, I think a wonderful addition!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Kent,

this is normal I guess, the system is not finished, and drivers might be little weak.
Did you installed graphic drivers at all?

Could you please run script OpenGL_GetInfo from here (http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=668.msg3885#msg3885) and let me know the results?
I remember we experienced the same problems with TopDown/Vista, and the reason was just and only ... default drivers :)


Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

i am sure that they try to cripple opengl just like they tried it with vista.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Mike,

I am optimist. In the end, the software support for OpenGL in Vista is theoretically better in XP ( Vista - OGL 1.4, XP - OGL 1.1, but who uses software path anyway :D ).
In both you have to install ICD to get to full speed, I am sure it will be the same in W7.


Petr

[kryton9]

Mike, that was my thought too when this happened. I am sure there is something they are doing to make it harder to work as it should. And like in my case this weekend, I switched the games to use DirectX in settings instead of openGL and went on playing.

Petr your test is very nice. I forgot about it. It says it is software GDI emulation for opengl.
I did read that Microsoft update writes over the video drivers installed. I have to disable the video auto update to keep this from happening.

I will work on it this weekend and get some scores up then :)
Thanks again!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Kent,

that is interesting information for me. Microsoft providing graphic drivers by default in Windows Update? That sounds scary ... it would sound great if they would distribute directly ForceWare / Catalysts as we know them... I think this situation is not good even for DX, I remember test comparison of DX performance with default/ICD drivers on Vista and although not as terrible as for OpenGL, it was not good for D3D too. We will see...


Petr

[kryton9]

I installed the latest 64 bit drivers, will see if it gets over written again. All is working fine now.

[Petr Schreiber]

I am happy to hear that!,

I did not know you are running 64bit version, that can make difference too.

[kryton9]

Although I use web mail only, I wanted to setup Outlook Express to consolidate some of the email sites. Windows 7 Beta, has no Outlook Express.
You have to download and install Windows Live Mail, I guess it is the new replacement for Outlook Express. It threw me for a loop, so wanted to let
others know about this in case you try Windows 7.

[kryton9]

Another Windows 7 discovery, there is no Debug command anymore :(

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Kent,

do you mean that Debug button appearing when program crashes?
I must admit I never realised how this or DrWatson worked :) Did it help you in some situations?

[kryton9]

Petr, sorry for the confustion, it is not in the Visual Development Environment Debugger, that is still there. But the Debug that was in the DOS world and later in the Command Console.

I found this cool video, it is about debugging via the virtual machine. I think for all you hardcore language and module developers this could prove to be quite useful.
Basically, the vm environment records everything and then you replay the the recording while debugging to trace down very difficult problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMlihjqlhY

[kryton9]

This week with Windows7-64bit I ran into some issues. First, it seems under IE, Firefox or Chrome-- Java WebStart Applications will not run. Also, Google's 3D API, O3D will not currently work in Win7.
I wanted to tinker more with these things in the coming weeks and so I decided to take my Win7 off. I installed XP 32 bit and wow it took forever to install compared to a Win7 install. Also once installed, it just seemed so slow compared to what i was used to in Win7. So I installed Vista 32, knowing it would be slow, but just to see and sure enough it was, but the install time on Vista is also much nicer than XP. So I installed Win7 back on and am a happy camper again. I decided the daily speed I got used to in using it-- outweighed any desire to play with these technologies on this computer. Luckily I have XP on my netbooks, so I will tinker with these things on them and not this desktop.

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks for this observation, I am happy to see Win7 feels fast.

But I am little worried about the problems you mentioned, I would think things like that should be solved already as the system is comming soon.

O3D runs on top of Direct3D on Windows, so I am confused it does not work. Which version does dxDiag report, is it 11 already?

[Michael Hartlef]

Today I installed Windows 7 too. Installation was easy. Just that I can't replace the opengl32.dll in the system32 folder bothers me. But so far it works good. ThinBasic runs well on it. At least the TBGL stuff I tested. And I can confirm, it feels faster then Vista or XP.

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks for the info Mike,

that is good news.
Regarding replacing opengl32.dll, I think ICD drivers somehow bypass this - all declarations in GL headers are related to OpenGL32.DLL, but when driver is installed, it should be redirected somehow (else we would observe software emulation of 1.1 commands on XP). Don't know how is it on 7, must check.

[Michael Hartlef]

Hi Petr,

Its not about video drivers from manufacturers. Running in VmWare i have to use their vesa driver. But VmWare only supports Directx via hardware and i want to use GlDirect for OpenGl support. But to replace the opengl32,dll i need admin rights, which i run as. That is why i hate vista. It locks to much from the user.

Michael

[kryton9]

Mike, welcome aboard the win7 express. Some quirks as you noticed and also with Java, especially webstart programs and executable jar files. Even with the path and environment variables set for Java, win7 will cause problems.

On the executable jar files however, you can run them via the command console via:
java -jar filename.jar

For Webstart programs, download the .jnlp file and then double click on the download. This seems to work on most .jnlp files, I still get some that won't run.

[Michael Hartlef]

I might add to my post above that even while running under admin rights, Windows 7 doesn't let me replace that DLL. Don't know why.