Over the weekend, and I do mean the entire effin’ weekend, I installed a Windows7 tester to my machine. Let me first describe the install…

I started with a backup, which took (this may tell you how much shiz I’ve accumulated) about twelve hours. Then I tried to upgrade to save myself the trouble of reinstalling all of my programs.

I left it to run at 2.30p and returned at 10p with a message (similar to): “Preparing for first use; setup will continue after restart.” What timing! Instead, this message came up every three minutes between restarts. Continuously.

I finally wiped the drive, starting from scratch. After about thirty hours, I installed essential programs (browsers, CS3, TweetDeck, etc.) and started playing around with it.

So far, so good. I’ll give it a week before it slows my Macbook-purchasing momentum but there are some marked improvements:

• Entire machine runs smoother (OS isn’t Exxon-like resource consumer).
• Launching Chrome is almost instantaneous.
• IE8 fixed a bug IE7 and IE6 were both showing. (Maybe a better browser?)
• Media player is different (video popped out) and buggy but looks better.
• Taskbar is very Mac-dock-esque but useful.
• Seems to have fixed a bug in my DVD drive that was causing halted audio playback.

Take it for what you will (a new OS always runs like honey) but anyone running Vista on less than 3gb RAM should think about moving over once it’s released later this year. (Netbooks, I’m looking at you.)

Note: I’m still getting a Macbook for portability, durability and reliability. Just not in the market for 17″ of carry-around anymore.

Microsoft is impressively stupid. Back in the day they were kicking ass and taking names. Everyone had to be on a MS platform to do anything. Then Apple started gaining market share and MS shat a few mouse trails. (Launched an error-laden OS; spent millions on un-aired ads.)

As I sling interweb code for a living (theoretically) my relations with MS have been more uncomfortable. Their browser (set as default and installed with their OSs) is terrible. It’s a one-legged, fat guy trying to keep up in a pick-up game of 3-on-3 with off-season NBA rookies.

More stretched analogies: It reads CSS like a cranky, dyslexic toddler with only one eye. It complies to standards like Jeffrey Dahmer complied to social norms (too soon?). It creates beautiful web pages like this creates great portraits.

MS is coming out with a new OS that’s supposed to fix their Vista problem. I’m sure it comes with a browser trying hard to be dismal. I’ve heard mixed reviews (read: bad) and then there’s a post from Ken Sipe.

Apparently, MS is making it difficult to download the beta version of Windows 7. Instead of trying to infiltrate other markets they seem to be trying to hold onto as many already-users as possible. (Which, I assume, is 93.75% businesses too terrified to ditch their Outlook and Office Suite.)