(13 votes, average: 3.77 out of 5)
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Bug hunting…
In Mandriva, we could not find a single road-blocking bug. However, Windows was full of them. First, Windows 7 would not recognise any drive volume labels I’d assigned to the disks and showed all of them as “Local Disk”. In Contacts, you can create only those contacts that have birthdays in the future. This bug’s been there since Vista. Then, in Windows Explorer, if you select multiple files, all the icons overlap together and create a hotchpotch in the preview pane.
…and the big bug
This concerns the Windows update feature in Windows 7. Windows, by default, is set to download and install all security updates automatically without notifications (optional updates are not installed automatically). However, while the updates were being downloaded, we found out that we were unable to browse, or for that matter download e-mails to our mail client or stay online on Pidgin (Windows version). It turned out that the update feature was using up all our bandwidth. To circumvent this problem temporarily, we tried to stop the update download process. In the Windows Update control panel applet, we clicked on ‘Stop Downloading’, and immediately, the applet informed us that updating had been cancelled. However, we still could not browse, and the Data Traffic indicator on our router was blinking madly. We could only reach one conclusion: Windows was still downloading updates at its full capacity. We got proof of this when we resumed downloading the updates; we had paused at 85 per cent and it had resumed a full 3 per cent ahead—at 88 per cent.
The usability of the Internet from our computer during the update process was so bad that even DNS queries would not resolve. We could partially improve on this situation by switching to the OpenDNS servers, but even then pages as simple as Google’s homepage were taking two to three minutes to load, and others were giving up with connection timeouts.
We believe that a combination of factors is to blame. Even though this build of Windows 7 is a release candidate, we cannot rule out a bug that makes the WU Applet say that downloading has been stopped, while in reality it is still happening. On the other hand, the fact that updates take up all of the bandwidth is a serious problem for Indian households, which typically have no more than 256 KBps of bandwidth for unlimited usage connections. And if they have limited usage connections at higher speeds, they pay more, because Windows 7’s updates are huge in size (~700 MBs has been downloaded as of now to our computer) as compared to Mandriva’s ~300 MBs. But the biggest flaw we believe is that WU defaults to downloading and installing updates automatically without even notifying the user. Mandriva and most, if not all, major Linux distributions default to informing the user when updates are available, so that the users can download and install them at their own leisure, such as setting them to download overnight before going to sleep.
- Windows does include nVidia Forceware drivers, but it doesn’t include the nVidia Control Centre, making it impossible to tune the GPU by hand to deliver maximum performance. A default installation of the Mdv nVidia Forceware-GLX drivers from the repos does include the Control Centre, but it’s nowhere near as advanced as the Windows version. But hey, settings are OS-specific, except overclocking.
- The Mandriva Installer stuttered on the bootloader. It installed six entries, one for itself, one for no-framebuffer, one for failsafe, two for Windows and one for Fedora. The first Windows entry was chained to boot into sda1 and the second to sdb1. The first worked, it booted into the Windows 7 boot manager where I could choose to boot XP or 7. The second one gave an error: BOOTMGR missing. I’m certain this is a Windows problem. The Fedora menu entry didn’t work as well, as GRUB faulted with a partition type unrecognised. That was rectified by changing the root entry from (hd0,2) to (hd0,1).
- Windows 7 has a feature called subsystem for UNIX applications, somewhat like Cygwin. However, upon enabling the feature, all I found was a folder in my start menu with a URL shortcut to SUA’s download site. And the download is huge.
- Mainstream editions of Windows 7 will have a mode called Windows XP mode, which will provide a paravirtualised Windows XP on 7. This will require a CPU with virtualisation extensions.
- To test an anti-piracy feature, we tested Microsoft Office 2007 with a known non-genuine key found on the Internet. The office-update website detected this non-genuine key and would not let us update. Cut to Windows Update, it downloaded updates for both Windows and Office, including two service packs amounting to well over 300 MB and numerous security patches.
- On the interoperability front, it seems that MS has done some homework for a change. The stripped-down word processor in the name of Word Pad that comes bundled with the OS does support ODT files, but informs the user straight up: “Word Pad does not support all the features of this document format. Some formatting information of content might be displayed incorrectly.”
Judgement day
Well, Mandriva any day! Though Windows 7RC looks good, it does nothing else. And at nearly Rs 13,000 for the Ultimate Version (which has all these visual gimmicks; the lesser versions don’t have Aero, don’t have Media Centre and don’t even look good), you’re better off investing that money somewhere else. And with the kind of resource hog Windows 7 is, we’d still recommend Windows XP to any professional gamer, or to people who need some version of Windows at least. For people who can do without Windows, don’t go back to Windows 7, and just switch to Linux. And now that Windows XP is off the retail shelves, you’ll either have to buy Windows Server 2003, or resort to piracy to obtain Windows XP. But don’t, and instead use Linux. And if you need a good version of Linux, use Mandriva. And for people familiar with Linux basics, Fedora is also recommended.
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19 Comments
Many thanks for your useful article, a link of this article has been submitted to http://www.linuxine.com in order to share it with more people.
.-= Edward.H´s last blog ..CentOS 5.3 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend =-.
Nice review.. Though I don't agree with many points. Hope you got my reply forwareded :P
Anyway few pointers.
1. Smplayer is available in FREE DVD, you just can't imagine the software libre it comes with it.. No no.. I am not talking about basic apps with De's .. Just look around the DVD again and you will find it.. It comes with VLC and plethora of other media players
Just add eh DVD as the main medium for repositories in case it failed to do .. Mandriva Control Center -> Manage repo .
2. Artwork in personal opinion but you seems to have chosen the wrong version. Mandriva didn't prioritize pimping the FREE edition. If you want a real test then either One or PWP edition should have been considered ..
Have you tried Bespin style for KDE ? I wonder whats holding mandriva back to create a new refreshing theme . Laora is history now :P
Anyway nice review once again.. Keep up the good work .
P.s : You forgot to mention the stepping of your processor :P
Boudhayan,
Good review. I have to agree with you on almost all points about Mandriva…being a MDV user for almost 5 years now. The Ia Ora theme is dated and they could go with something like Skulpture and/or Bespin as pointed out by one of the earlier posters..
I doubt if the Free versions ships with anything other than any Gstreamer-based video player. Totem's the only one I'm aware of. Smplayer and VLC…I doubt if any of them are in the Free or Powerpack Editions. You might want to visit http://easyurpmi.zarb.org and add the PLF repos to get full-fledged access to all patented stuff. This includes the Cleartype like font rendering which is disabled in the default MDV repos.
Good to see that MDV is getting some press in India..as a MUG (Mandriva User Group) Rep from India, I really really appreciate your effort in putting together this review. Many thanks!!
^^You have used mandriva for 5 years and you still haven't gone through the DVD .. Darn :|
Try checking the DVD again.. /media/cdrom/i586/media/contrib it has vlc and smaplayer both .. It even has elisa, atunes, ardour, audacious, avidemux, and plethora of other stuf..
How come you guys have not noticed it yet :|
Just add the DVD as main repo and once you did, the rpmdrake the add/remove in mandriva will always prioritize installing stuff from DVD instead downloading, just make sure the dvd image is either copied in the system or the dvd is inserted while installing :P
One thing I want to point out is that KDE 4.2.2 can be made to be absolutely jaw dropping. The customization options aren't as good as the 3.5.x series, but it makes Windows customization options look paltry. I just installed Mandriva 2009.1 Free 64 bit and it only took me a couple of minutes to change the Plasma theme, background, etc. to make my desktop to look good, and I'm pretty much a KDE 4 newbie (like KDE 3.5.x better) so I had to find my way around.
“The next screen threw up a surprise: it was meant to ask us whether to upgrade or perform a new installation. Typical of Microsoft confusion-creating terminology, the new installation option is called ‘Custom’. But accompanying it was a common Microsoft Bug—the upgrade option was enabled, and below it was clearly stated, “The Upgrade option is enabled only when you are installing Windows from within an Operating System that can be upgraded to Windows 7.”
This is not good piece of writing, Please moderate the content so that i does not look biased and one sided. This extract sounds ubsurd and the reader feels like the author is imposing his views on him/her.
Please dont make things “obvious” and be neutral in your approach. I am Linux user for more than 7 Years now and feel that a Lot of Indian community finds fun in bashing microsoft rather than improving the the quality of open source software we build.
umm… any writer typically “imposes his/her views” on the readers. It's up to the reader to take what all s/he thinks is worth it. :-) Likewise, its very difficult to write something which is not “biased” and completely neutral. How will you justify biasness? Read the scores of Vista reviews published all over the Web — most will typically compare it with XP, some with other operating systems. The moment you compare it with another OS, and note down flaws of the new system, you're basing your opinion on another system that you're familiar with. That's being biased. If I'm the manufacturer of the product, I can ask you: “Why can't you start getting used to the new way of doing the same thing instead of comparing?”
As for the fun part in bashing MS, well what's wrong with a little bit of fun?
Anyway, it's up to the readers to grasp the pun used in the paragraph you've quoted.
@Shashwat: I personally keep distro hopping and don't stick with one for long. I get VLC from the online repos; never cared to check out the contribs on the DVD. Yeah, I use all the contribs I can get from the online repos. Artwork — after Win7 its a letdown. Looks do sell. Bespin? What the hell is that? I haven't really gotten hands on with KDE4 after this review. Waiting for KDE 4.3 (either an openSUSE DVD or the KDE4 Live CD that's become a regular with LFY). Perhaps you can enlighten us all on more holes that you find? Most appreciated :-)
@Anshul & @LinuxLover: Thanks! This really makes a writer's day! :-D
@Saurabh: Yeah, I may have been a bit too strong there, but Windows 7's Setup did annoy me a lot after Mdv's, if you know what I mean. And well, what's wrong in a bit of fun in bashing Microsoft? ;-)
I don't beleive in inferior propritery versions of any tools which hides their implementations from the developers world. I strongly support Open Source and i beleive the quote “Human Knowledge belongs to world” Mandriva is rocking… Happy Linux Happy Tux.
People Lost their hope in the highway patrol(windows). The annoying WGA and loop holes in the security system and the vulnarabilities in windows pushing the users towards Linux and I am thankful to microsoft to get rid of windows for their loosy security whih pushed me towards linux. Since 1998 I am using linux along with windows and since 2006 i completely moved to Linux.
I don't beleive in inferior propritery versions of any tools which hides their implementations from the developers world. I strongly support Open Source and i beleive the quote “Human Knowledge belongs to world” Mandriva is rocking… Happy Linux Happy Tux.
People Lost their hope in the highway patrol(windows). The annoying WGA and loop holes in the security system and the vulnarabilities in windows pushing the users towards Linux and I am thankful to microsoft to get rid of windows for their loosy security whih pushed me towards linux. Since 1998 I am using linux along with windows and since 2006 i completely moved to Linux.
This is a highly biased review. Why do you think iPhone sells ? – Because it has got looks. Windows 7 beats mandriva hands down. You have rated mandriva higher than windows in multimedia capabilities which is grossly biased. It doesnt even ship with all the codecs and compared to it windows has Windows Media Center and coupled with win 7 codecs pack it easily beats mandriva. Regarding the functionality, windows 7 has a different philosophy and it is designed to be kept minimal. You can easily load windows with the gazillons of quality software – Nero, PowerDVD ships with every DVD player, Office suite – Office 2007 or OpenOffice.org and many others. Regarding the money concerns you can load open source
software you use in linux easily in windows. What matters is the looks and win7 has got it and functionality can be easily extended with open source or proprietary apps.
If you have a net connection installation of software is a cakewalk in Linux, but if you don't
life can be a dependency hell.
Regarding win7 being a memory hog, it doesnt matter. With prices of RAM falling every day, in 2-3 years memory usage of windows will look paltry. How about windows occupying
1 GB of total 12 GB ?.
Windows 7 is a beta product and it is supposed to have bugs. GNU/Linux doesnt have bugs but KDE 4 is full of them.
Final Judgement – GNU/Linux is superb – i am in love with it and i use it regularly. I am a tech enthusiast and you need a bit of it to be able to flirt with Linux. But the desktop environments leave much to be desired. KDE/GNOME don't really match up to windows 7.
I don't use windows but for those who just play games, watch movies, surf the net, edit with office and looks do matter and dont want the hassles associated with linux windows 7 is the best available option now and i recommend the investment in it.
But every geek worth his salt must definitely use Linux.
You can run windows 7 on a pentium III comp with 96 MB of RAM and 1MB of video memory. Don't believe me check out the this link http://www.tinyurl.com/win7low
This is a highly biased review. Why do you think iPhone sells ? – Because it has got looks. Windows 7 beats mandriva hands down. You have rated mandriva higher than windows in multimedia capabilities which is grossly biased. It doesnt even ship with all the codecs and compared to it windows has Windows Media Center and coupled with win 7 codecs pack it easily beats mandriva. Regarding the functionality, windows 7 has a different philosophy and it is designed to be kept minimal. You can easily load windows with the gazillons of quality software – Nero, PowerDVD ships with every DVD player, Office suite – Office 2007 or OpenOffice.org and many others. Regarding the money concerns you can load open source
software you use in linux easily in windows. What matters is the looks and win7 has got it and functionality can be easily extended with open source or proprietary apps.
If you have a net connection installation of software is a cakewalk in Linux, but if you don't
life can be a dependency hell.
Regarding win7 being a memory hog, it doesnt matter. With prices of RAM falling every day, in 2-3 years memory usage of windows will look paltry. How about windows occupying
1 GB of total 12 GB ?.
Windows 7 is a beta product and it is supposed to have bugs. GNU/Linux doesnt have bugs but KDE 4 is full of them.
Final Judgement – GNU/Linux is superb – i am in love with it and i use it regularly. I am a tech enthusiast and you need a bit of it to be able to flirt with Linux. But the desktop environments leave much to be desired. KDE/GNOME don't really match up to windows 7.
I don't use windows but for those who just play games, watch movies, surf the net, edit with office and looks do matter and dont want the hassles associated with linux windows 7 is the best available option now and i recommend the investment in it.
But every geek worth his salt must definitely use Linux.
You can run windows 7 on a pentium III comp with 96 MB of RAM and 1MB of video memory. Don't believe me check out the this link http://www.tinyurl.com/win7low
“Pentium III-based system at a low 17 continuous hours. And the boot time? 17 minutes.”
Yeah right!
You can still run Linux on a 80386 with 4MB of RAM and 512K Video Memory. It's not a question of how low you can go, its a question of what's the minimum specs at which it is usable.
For me, no review is over till it discusses the gaming angle.
Linux loses out big time there :(
And thats why I like Windows…
I'd like to thank you for the very extensive analysis but there is one very basic matter which should be considered which is that a release candidate is one of many toned-down versions of an operating system. Thus comparing ANY RC of Windows with a full-fledged release oflinux is like playing rummy against someone with only 4 cards instead of the whole hand.
What is surprising is that the RC took a long time to install considering its RC nature.
Thus it would be safe to predict some problems with Win7 similar to Vista inline with the disk hogging it may do.
Wish I had more to contribute since I haven't been able to DL my own RC of Win7.
All in all good job but the article should have been postponed to Dec i.e. post the Oct 22 release of Win7 in full bloom.
yeah, but can you run kde 4.3 on the same hardware
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