There is a lot of "feel" going on here. The human mind is easily deceived and Win 7 does have a fast feel. It doesn't test quite so well as it feels. But despite this, speed isn't the issue really because unlike vista, 7 is no longer a slug. Its also unlikely to make any real productivity improvement over XP in a trading situation. The issue is preference and compatibility. Its still easier to achieve high software compatibility with WinXP 32 bit that anything else while maintaining good (best or not) speed and manageability. On preference, if you like 7 then go there. I ran 5 or 6 early additions and liked them but I'm back to WinXP running EWF for best speed and manageability.
And what test would that be? Most of the stuff posted here is so subjective that it is laughable. Anyway if it makes people feel better ......
Yep, seems we got our own Flat Earth Society(tm) happenin' right here. Win7 faster, fan boyz, sheesh...
Faceless? Their own tests? Nothing like opening your yap and removing all doubt that you're an idiot.
I must admit, I find the Win 7 hype both entertaining and a bit perplexing. I also find the revelation that it runs "real quick" on hardware you paid an arm a leg for, to be quite enlightening. No doubt there are performance differences between them all, but I'd like to see some hard figures that those differences are significant. I remain skeptical, because the kernels will not be that different and the filesystem is the same. In any case, I don't use any of them so the whole business doesn't bother me too much.
OK. This is from microsofts own site. Windows 7 Vulnerability Claims * Posted by: Paul Cooke * 06:56 PM Friday Nov 06, 2009 * 12 Comments Now that Windows 7 is available, a recent blog by Chester Wisnieski (who works at security vendor Sophos), entitled Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses, which has stirred some interest. Here's a quick summary for those who missed Chester's blog. During a test SophosLabs conducted, they subjected Windows 7 to "10 unique [malware] samples that arrived in the SophosLabs feed." They utilized a clean install of Windows 7, using default settings (including the UAC defaults), but did not install any anti-virus software. The end result was 8 of the 10 malware samples successfully ran and the blog proclaims that "Windows 7 disappointed just like earlier versions of Windows." Chester's final conclusion? "You still need to run anti-virus on Windows 7." Well, we agree: users of any computer, on any platform, should run anti-virus software, including those running Windows 7. Clearly, the findings of this unofficial test are by no means conclusive, and several members of the press have picked apart the findings, so I don't need to do that. I'm a firm believer that if you run unknown code on your machine, bad things can happen. This test shows just that; however, most people don't knowingly have and run known malware on their system. Malware typically makes it onto a system through other avenues like the browser or email program. So while I absolutely agree that anti-virus software is essential to protecting your PC, there are other defenses as well. Let me recap some of the Windows 7 security basics. Windows 7 is built upon the security platform of Windows Vista, which included a defense-in-depth approach to help protect customers from malware. This includes features like User Account Control (UAC), Kernel Patch Protection, Windows Service Hardening, Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) to name just a few. The result, Windows 7 retains and refines the development processes, including going through the Security Development Lifecycle, and technologies that made Windows Vista the most secure Windows operating system ever released. Beyond the core security of Windows 7, we have also done a lot of work with Windows 7 to make it harder for malware to reach a user's PCs in the first place. One of my favorite new features is the SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer 8. The SmartScreen Filter was built upon the phishing protection in Internet Explorer 7 and (among other new benefits) adds protection from malware. The SmartScreen Filter will notify you when you attempt to download software that is unsafe - which the SophosLabs methodology totally bypassed in doing their test. So while I'm not a fan of companies sensationalizing findings about Windows 7 in order to sell more of their own software, I nevertheless agree with them that you still need to run anti-virus software on Windows 7. This is why we've made our Microsoft Security Essentials offering available for free to customers. But it's also equally important to keep all of your software up to date through automatic updates, such as through the Windows Update service. By configuring your computers to download and install updates automatically you will help ensure that you have the highest level of protection against malware and other vulnerabilities.
All Sophos showed was that 8 out of the 10 viruses installed themselves without triggering UAC. MSFT ought to fix UAC, but UAC is more like a "sudo" program than an anti-malware program.