Windows 7 RC

Sorry for another rant, but I must. I've been using Windows 7, Microsoft's successor to the failure that was Vista, since build 7000 (which was one of the first public betas). Yesterday Release Candidate version was released, available to TechNet/MSDN subscribers ( and everybody else). Keys for this version are freely available everywhere, both for 32 an 64 bit versions.

So what are my experiences? In short, it is a real relief after the terribly slow buggy Vista. Elaborating:

• Amazingly responsive (on par with XP) - how this was achieved is still a mystery to me, MS claims new testing/tracing technologies helped identify bottlenecks
  
• Low memory footprint (something like 200MB for the OS with Aero, down from almost 500Mb in Vista)
  
• Usable, usability improvements in almost all system components - control panel, task bar, command line, system software, media libraries are actually usable now, and so on
  
• Many improvements in the OS core and new functions like VHD (virtualization built-in which is a must in modern OS)
  
• UI feels "nice" - almost like Macintosh but without proprietary interfaces and software absence problems of Apple (try Win-Left/Right combo)
  
• All software which worked on XP/Vista works here, I did not need compatibility mode for anything yet
  
• Driver coverage: everything was supported on the three computers that I installed it on, so it's been 100% for me with no manufacturer disks (YMMV)
  
• The fact that Microsoft gives you over one year of free evaluation is pretty nice, too (expiration for this RC is June 2010)
  

Would I immediately upgrade from Vista? Without doubt, even if this new OS would've crashed with BSOD every other day :) From XP? Yes, if only for the new taskbar. Some tips on Windows 7 installation:

• Upgrading from previous builds: unpack downloaded ISO and edit sources/cversion.ini file in notepad - where it says "MinClient=7077.0" lower the version to any number below your currently installed build.
  
  
• Installing on Asus EEE PC: just did a test install and with some services/control panel tweaks it runs pretty well on Asus's netbook. To install you would need a bootable USB flash, 4GB in size (you need exactly 4GB, which now costs something like 15$). Copy all the files from inside Windows 7 ISO (7zip can unpack ISOs) to the bootable USB flash, tweak EEE bios to boot from removable devices first, and then during EEE startup press ESC to bring up the boot selector menu, done.
  
  
• There are many services and scheduled tasks which send usage stats of this RC to MS. You can either opt-out during installation, or, to be double sure (although ingrate), disable all services and scheduled tasks related to customer experience.
  
  
• Silly tip, but as the 'Run' start menu item has been removed by default, you will have to use Win-R combo (you are probably using it already).
  
  

Everything else is pretty obvious, this is Windows afterall, so enjoy. Windows 7 looks like it very well might be MS's answer to the superiority of apples and penguins on desktops and netbooks which was becoming increasingly obvious with dated XP still being the only really used MS OS. We'll have to see how well businesses adopt this new system.

Multiple Computer Sync - DropBox and alternatives

Life has become mobile. Even office workers have at least two locations - work and home - that they need to keep in sync if they want to be productive and have control over all their electronic appliances. More so if you also have notebook(s), smartphones, summer house computers, media station computers and so on. Each of these often requires access to your personal data like work projects, passwords, texts, keys, setting XMLs, summer pictures and so on. Sometimes you need access to these at the most inappropriate time and place, so web access is a huge plus.

There are many solutions to this common problem, I personally used FolderShare for a couple of years, which allowed me to sync everything between any number of computers running Windows. No Linux/Mac though was a large downside. Another downside was that the service was heavily unreliable, failing often (hey, it's Microsoft after all). Things were getting worse until one day it just died and refused to sync for a month (last I checked, it still crashes at the simplest operation with a cryptic MS error).

So I switched to PowerFolder, an opensource Java attempt to do the same with some openness - working on any OS, what a promising idea! Well, it did not work, since the program is extremely lacking in all areas, usually it just loses connection or crashes, syncs only if you are very lucky. Even worse, some glue-sniffin management of theirs decided they are ready for primetime, removed the free version, and started charging money for this. Here goes another wasted day of setting things up.

Surely, I also tried traditional methods like USB flash, mobile HDD with Allway Sync N Go, etc etc but all of these solutions turned out to be unacceptable - they require you to remember about them, and that quickly turns out to be too intrusive. Not mentioning that the media itself is highly unreliable.

Non-traditional approaches like rsync work, but that's only good for Unix boxes, configuring it on other OSes is a pain and that is a pure peer-to-peer, means you have to enable connectivity between machines - which is not always possible.

Long story short, I have just found a beta of what looks to be the solution to this. Solution that I always thought of doing myself (but the need to develop clients stopped me :) ). Which I also think would be purchased by Google in the very near future (maybe after switching storage backend from Amazon S3 to Google's own cloud), because it does fit in their overall idea for a complete set of SOAS.

So check DropBox out for sure, and have fun in the process!
Very simple to set up and use on any OS (native rich clients developed). 2GB for free, 50GB for 9.99$/month.

Update: DropBox now runs a limited time promotion, too, giving 250 extra MB for every sign-up to both new user & me. So go while it lasts, you'll thank me later :)