Windows 7, Opinions? Options

[Mr. Selvetarm]

You all remember the Windows 7 house parties that were making the rounds about a month ago? Well, I entered (and won) the chance to throw one in my dorm. So we drank beer, played Borderlands and played with random Windows 7 related items. (And installed our University's copies of 7 from MSDNAA of course). I still have the "Steve Balmer Signature Edition: Windows 7 Ultimate" that came with the houseparty I'm now considering selling it to get a little money for Black Friday deals. What are your guy's opinions on selling this potentially valuable piece of Microsoft history?

[Janichsan]

I still have the "Steve Balmer Signature Edition: Windows 7 Ultimate" that came with the houseparty I'm now considering selling it to get a little money for Black Friday deals. What are your guy's opinions on selling this potentially valuable piece of Microsoft history?

Did Steve Ballmer personally handle it? If so, it could be a valuable ingredient for some voodoo spells.

[teflon]

Flog it. I mean, really. Who cares about MS history?
The only valuable items from their past would be Bill Gates' left foot (it trumps rabbit feet for sure) and the $20,000 contract that Apple had with MS that saved them way back when.

Ballmer might be the current CEO, but it doesn't mean that everyone respects him and thinks he's a amazing pioneer worthy of asking for a signature. In fact, I'd say that practically nobody does.

[the Battle Cat]

You could put it on eBay to see how much people will pay you to keep it yourself.

[jackdawsson]

Ballmer might be the current CEO, but it doesn't mean that everyone respects him and thinks he's a amazing pioneer worthy of asking for a signature. In fact, I'd say that practically nobody does.

He's certainly no "pioneer", but also far from the schmuck some Apple fans like to make him out to be. Despite initial huge losses on the Xbox franchise, I think MS's foray into console gaming is a good long-term move - I mean, these are perennial, highly lucrative markets & Xbox is Ballmer's baby. The guy knew MS had to branch out as their established 2 cash-cows, Windows & Office, would likely face increasing pressure from greater competition, not least from Google in future. He's probably also admired throughout the industry for being extremely driven to succeed.

By the by, one story which offers some insight into SB goes: guy in his 30s, peak condition, regular jogger, is out running when he finds himself joined by an older jogger he's never seen before. The older guy looks unfit, obviously overweight, but to the huge surprise of the younger guy manages to keep up with him for miles. By the end, the older guy is absolutely wrecked, but he never gave up, didn't allow himself to be bested, no matter what. Introduces himself as Steve Ballmer & they part. Only later does the younger guy realize that this was the same Steve Ballmer of MS.

The MS stores (many planned to be located close to Apple stores), the ads, etc. all have the personal mark of SB on them. I think this is still early days; Apple & others will see the ante upped in the years to come. All in all, can't be bad for consumers. Besides, if he was so disrespected, MS would surely have replaced him years ago?

On a side note, I'm still fairly miffed that when I buy a new Mac with discrete graphics (as a gamer integrated is useless to me), at current prices the cheapest I'll pay is £1,199. How crazy is that!

[flyman]

I'd take it a step further (as I mentioned earlier in the thread), and separate the Windows OS install from your user data. It's a fairly easy process to set all your My Documents, etc., folders to another partition or drive, and you can set up links so that Steam thinks its games are in the main C:\Program Files\etc directory when in fact they're on another drive.

I did this partially so that if I have to reinstall Windows, it'll be an easier process - just reinstall the OS, wiping the existing install, reinstall your applications, link up to your existing user files on the other drive - and partially because as SSDs creep towards being a more sensible buy, I like the idea of being able to image my Windows install straight on to one, and keep the user files on a much larger magnetic HDD. The ability to selectively redirect your Steam or other game folders means that you can keep one or two of your current most-played ones on the smaller but faster SSD, and copy them off to the HDD when you want to make room for a new one.

It might seem overly complicated, but it's less than 30mins work.

Well to a total novice like me it all sounds a bit too complicated!
So now I've ended up with W7 & XP on separate drives.
Just out of interest you refer to Steam but what does Steam do?

Unfortunately I cant afford going down the SSD route so do you think it beneficial to load all my games onto my WD1500ADFD?
BTW I plan to come away totally from XP and continue using W7 which is installed on my WD640 Black.

[teflon]

But to the average joe, he's nothing but a funny face and a crazed repeated shout of "DEVELOPERS!"
I do think that he's a good CEO, otherwise MS wouldn't have him in charge, likewise, I think that Jack Tretton is a good CEO of SCEA, but that doesn't mean I want either of their signatures, because for me neither of them are really superstar CEOs like Jobs is.

[Sneaky Snake]

Just out of interest you refer to Steam but what does Steam do?

Steam is a gaming service for the PC. It lets you download pretty much any game that you'd want to play and install it on any number of computers that you have. The nice thing about it is that you don't need disc's anymore for games you've purchased, and it has a built in game overlay so that when you hit "shift"+"tab" it opens up a ingame thingy that gives you access to your friends, a web browser, and other settings. It also has a chat option for talking between your friends while both of you are in game or out of game, or just doing whatever. The quality isn't as good as Skype, but it uses less bandwith.

Think of it as Xbox Live for PC - except way better cuz a loooot of games are available to purchase (MW2, Dragon Age, etc.)

[J'nathus]

Think of it as Xbox Live for PC - except way better cuz a loooot of games are available to purchase (MW2, Dragon Age, etc.)

Assassin's Creed
BioShock
Borderlands
Crysis
F.E.A.R. 2
Half-Life 2
Portal
Prince of Persia (all of them)
Team Fortress 2
Mass Effect
Mirror's Edge
Unreal Tournament 3
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Call of Duty 4
Call of Duty 5
Call of Duty (6) Modern Warfare 2

Fun indie games like:
Audiosurf
Braid
Trine
World of Goo

Just to name a few.

[Sneaky Snake]

Yup, what J' said

And it also lets you browse the web while a game is loading, and get games for pretty cheap. The have weekend sales and promotions every weekend. They just had Crysis+Crysis Warhead for $30 this weekend. A few weekends ago I picked up COD4 for $25. The DRM they use is brilliant and you won't even notice it unless you deliberately try to test it. There's also acheivements for some games, and it does notifications and all that when your friends sign, or start playing a game. It also a handy place to download demo's and game videos. I'm download the Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Demo as we speak

Just give their website a whirl. Everything you see on there is what's in the Steam app (it looks identical).

[flyman]

Thanks for the info on Steam, I'll have to go and take a look