Windows 7 – Finally a worthy successor of Windows XP? – Part 1

bhoot — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:23:12 +0000

I was eager to try Windows Vista. It was to be the new Windows that Microsoft has spent to much time developing and whom we saw many previews and release candidates. Needless to say that like many people I was quite frustrated in the beginning with UAC (User Account Control) that needlessly pops up everytime you do something that requires administrator priviledges – I turned that off. And that Windows Explorer never saving the view I specified in any folder – all too annoying… Games working SLOWER than Windows XP, huge memory requirements… But it had advantages – it was more stable, system recovery was efficient, Direct X 10 gaming, and with Service Pack 1, was FASTER! It did become my default Windows Installation (on my dual boot) until it crashed…. to never be repaired… and I didn’t want to do a fresh install… I went back to Windows XP with Service Pack 3…

Then came Windows 7 Beta 1. My hopes were up again. It sounded like Windows 98 (Windows 7) had come for Windows 95 (Vista), or Windows XP SP2 over original XP… It’s FAST was my first impression… and many of the small annoying features of Vista were not gone (they got corrected)… It’s a joy to see lower memory consumption than Vista! And it’s quick to free memory when you close programs. Microsoft did do a lot of work… (Well, the Linux community too did a lot these few months). One thing is clear though, Mac OS X still has the best interface!

So there was the same Aero theme on Windows 7, more (new) services, Documents is back to “My Documents” but guess what I saw in About… Version 6.1… Windows 7 is verison 6.1? That confirms that it’s like the second edition of Vista! That was to be expected! It always happened with Windows since version 3. The first one is new, and Microsoft then refines the product across releases to make a stable and performing version…

But it’s still a Beta Windows 7. The final versions have always been better than beta versions (remember Win 2k, XP, 98, Vista…). I’ll continue using the beta, put a lot of applications and see what it gives or gives up.

March is bigger, more powerful, more economical than Sunny!

bhoot — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:19:54 +0000

I feel like taking it all out whenever I see someone still buying a N17 Nissan Sunny VIP. It’s ugly (to me), DISCONTINUED in Japan and SMALL INTERIOR for it’s exterior size. It is an improvement over the past Sunny in terms of space use, and it remains an economical engine to run and service (lower second price about Rs 100k less). But can’t you see that the Nissan March is BIGGER THAN the Sunny interior?

Nissan March AK12

The Nissan March’s engine is 1.2L 90 horsepower on about 900 kg (about 100 hp/ton) – compare that to the Sunny’s old 1.3L 87hp on 1100 kg (that’s about 80hp/ton), for about Rs 50,000 more (and it the March is the best selling Nissan in Mauritius). Even the Tiida is here now. Tiida is the official successor of Sunny – which I doubt many Sunny-addicts realise.

Tiida’s interior is its best feature of all – it’s as big (or bigger) as the old Bluebird Sylphy, bigger than a VW Golf or Civic hatchback. The gearbox is a gem. CVT means that there is unlimited gears! It’s not the old uneconimical step-auto 4-speed that we used to get 10 years ago. CVT Automatic’s give better mileage because you can reach your reasonable speed (say 50-90) without pressing hard on the pedal (while keeping a low RPM): just like a 6-speed uses less fuel than a 4-speed manual. All that while driving smoothly without any gear-change shocks and drops in torque/power. More on CVT here.

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Windows 7 – Finally a worthy successor of Windows XP? – Part 1

March is bigger, more powerful, more economical than Sunny!