Windows 7 Impressions

Image by F687/s via FlickrLike a lot of people, I'm taking the Windows 7 Public Beta for a spin. I downloaded both the 32- and 64-bit versions, but since I have an old Pentium 4 Dell collecting dust, I figured that'd be a good test since everyone says that it works a lot better on older machines than Vista.

The test machine:

• Dell Dimension 4500 (circa 2002)
• Pentium 4 2.0 GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 200GB IDE hard drive
• 32MB ATI Rage 128 (AGP)
• Netgear WG311 v3 802.11g (PCI)
• NEC CD+RW & Lite-On DVD+RW drives (IDE)

Yep, ancient. Considering that it's about 5-6 years old, I wouldn't have been surprised if everything didn't work under Win7.

After burning the ISO to DVD, the OS was really easy to install. The first change is that the installation begins from a Windows GUI, not the DOS-like pre-installation environment that Windows installs have always begun with. It took literally less than 10 seconds to choose whether I wanted to upgrade or start fresh, followed by a quick format. All of the confusing crap about partitions and so forth are hidden behind an "Advanced" setting.

The installation as a whole took maybe 22 minutes, including reboots. The end result was an ancient machine starting up from cold boot to a usable desktop in under two minutes. I don't think a clean install of XP Home booted up faster. Conspicuously absent was the many minutes of hard drive grinding during startup. Impressive!

The most major hitch after installation was that it wasn't able to find drivers for the audio chipset and the Ethernet and 802.11g cards. Having no network adapters is a bit of a problem, so I went over to Netgear's site and downloaded the Vista drivers for the wireless card and sneaker-netted them over to the Win7 box via a USB thumb drive. Fortunately, the drivers installed and worked without a hitch. Can't say the same about the Ethernet drivers...none of the ones on the Dell site (nothing post-XP, some even mentioned Window ME!) worked.

I was pleasantly surprised that once the driver was installed, Win7 was able to detect and connect to my WPA2-secured wireless network with only the security key. No fiddling with settings or having to specify the SSID. It literally took a hour for me to get the damn thing working under XP and only after using Netgear's management program--versus less than a minute with the built-in connection wizard in Win7.

After the wireless was up, I was able to activate the beta copy of Windows, download and install the driver for the sound chipset, install AVG Free for anti-virus, Flash, Firefox, OpenOffice, the KMPlayer, Irfanview, and so forth. No issues, other than a possible bug where trying to Win-Tab during the Firefox installation caused the installer to hang.

My six-year old Dell isn't going to win any races with it's lofty 1.0 (on a scale from 1.0-7.9) Windows Experience benchmark--thanks to the obsolete ATI graphics. There are some uncomfortable pauses from time to time too...perhaps disk related or due to unoptimized code. But it does seem much more responsive in handling multiple apps at once.

I'm also happy to report that the beta seems to hibernate/resume and still manage to restore the wireless network connection. That's something that was practically impossible in my experience with a laptop on Vista before tweaking and/or the Service Pack. The copy and strange networking behaviors seem to be less obvious. In other words, we're probably back to where we were with XP SP2.

Overall, Win7 is obviously very much like a refined copy of Vista. I've been running Vista for nearly two years and aside from the performance gap, XP is getting worn around the edges. The Vista/7 UI is much more visually appealing, but it's really the changes under the hood that will make the difference--after all, if you can get the bells & whistles of Vista with the speed of XP, why would you stick with an OS that is going on seven years old? It's really too bad that Microsoft wasn't able to bring this new build as its Vista product, since it seems to address the performance and usability (*cough*UAC*cough) concerns that drove people to stick to XP.

It's such an improvement that I'm going to hold off on buying a new PC until there's a free upgrade offer bundled with Vista (probably later this summer). I don't know whether I'd be willing to pay for an upgrade from Vista to Win7, especially since most of the changes are cosmetic (like the new Taskbar, which I can get used to) or tweaks that should have been there from Day 1. But certainly, based on what I've seen so far in this beta build, it should put the nail in XP's coffin.

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Review: Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Netbook

So after an almost two-month wait, I finally got my $439-list ruby red Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook. After taking some obligatory unboxing photos, backing up the factory image, getting rid of the bloatware, and installing my normal software load, I've had a few days to get a good feel for it.

My review and a video of the S10 cold booting to a usable Windows desktop are after the jump.



First off, I'll save you from the customary review trappings like a spec sheet, detailed physical descriptions, comparisons between this and competitive netbooks, and an explanation of what a netbook is. I trust that you can get all that from doing a web search and by reading the trickle of professional reviews that will soon be a flood. Instead, I'll focus on my reactions as someone who bought this mini laptop over all of the others out there.

Initial Reactions

First reaction: As I unboxed it, I realized that pictures don't do justice to the design, build-quality, and aesthetics of the S10. It feels solid, with no thin, flexing plastic panels. The hinge feels as solid as a ThinkPad. There are rubber feet on the bottom that give it stability and bumpers on the inside of the lid that make the lid feel closed and solid without needing a latch.

I got the red version, and it's not a bright, Communist red like I was expecting, but a rich, ruby color with an automotive-like metallic paint feel. In fact, the lowercase lenovo logo is chromed and inlaid into the lid, not just glued or silkscreened on. I was also afraid that the white battery, power cords, and interior would look odd with the dominant red exterior, but it looks classy.

Second reaction: It's tiny. When you put your hand up against it, you realize that it's smaller (and although it's a bit heavier than I'd like, lighter) than a hardcover novel. This is something that you can take with you without having to even think about it. Of course, the small form factor translates into a microscopic keyboard, which seems even smaller than the 85% normal size that Lenovo claims. Maybe the alphanumeric keys are 85%, but keys like shift and tab are significantly smaller and placed awkwardly. Sadly some of the mainstay keys like Home and End are now Fn-combos. Thus, while it's not bad for occasional use, you'd be crazy to use this as a replacement for any laptop.

I'm really disappointed that Lenovo, who inherited TrackPoint technology from IBM, didn't use that here. I really prefer to use a pointing stick rather than a touchpad because it's much more comfortable (and less obvious that you're using the mouse to others since your hands never leave the home row of the keyboard. So we're left with a tiny touchpad with annoy mouse buttons that require a lot of pressure to click and make a loud clicking noise to boot.

So then I'm thinking how nice a travel mouse would be for extended use. Oh, but wait, no Bluetooth is included in the initial models. And only two USB 2.0 ports, so it's not even that practical to get a wireless mouse with a USB dongle. Bummer.

Cold Boot Video

One question I had was whether Windows (XP Home SP3, BTW) on a weak-spec'ed platform was functional compared to the solid-state disk-equipped, Linux based netbooks. Fortunately, the answer seems to be "yes." As you can see in the video below, my S10 booted from cold-off to a functional Windows desktop in about a minute (another 15 seconds or so for the disk activity to completely die down to idle), and that's with the default 512MB RAM. Using standby and hibernation closes the "instant on" gap between this machine and those using Linux-based netbooks.



From there, it's a mostly positive user experience. Unlike many notebooks I've used, the hard drive rarely runs, probably thanks to tweaking down the bloatware and unneeded services. For example, I went to turn off the Indexing Service and discovered that it wasn't installed. Very cool. Once I figured out that setting Lenovo's Energy Management utility to "Super Energy Saver" mode disables the wireless and wired network adapters, it was easy to get wireless working. I love that I can suspend or hibernate, or toggle the WiFi enable/disable button and wireless reconnects without a problem.

Given the weak integrated video chipset and the cramped 1024 x 600 screen resolution, you're not going to be playing any 3D games on it, but it did handle smooth playback of 720p-encoded WMV-HD and Divx video.

On the negative side, the S10 doesn't come with reinstallation discs but rather Lenovo's OneKey Recovery utility (apparently OEM'ed from CyberLink). Unfortunately, the printed documentation suggests that you can recover to the factory image via OneKey and a hidden partition, I couldn't figure out how to do that in OneKey. The only visible options are to backup the system partition to an image file and to create bootable recovery discs from the backup image. But there's no default image, so you have to create one before you do anything that you might want to recover from and then you have to burn it to...hmmm, no built-in or included CD/DVD burner. That's kind of messed up!

Then there's the funky drive partitioning. 80GB isn't a huge hard drive, but I was counting on XP being a fairly light install (and it is--like 7 GB or so). Unfortunately, Lenovo divided the drive into 3 partions: a small, hidden parition of a few GB (perhaps for the recovery feature that I can't access), a system partion of 30GB, and parition of 40GB that only has a directory of Lenovo drivers and installation software. But what takes the cake is that the system parition that Windows is installed on is formatted as FAT32 and the Lenovo partition is NTFS! Truly, WTF? If I wasn't afraid that I might have to re-install Windows and be unable to, I would try to dynamically resize the partitions and convert to NTFS.

And then there's the crappy selection of pre-installed software. While thankfully they didn't throw in a ton of useless, bloatware like most PC manufacturers do, they did include Norton Internet Security...on a 90-day trial. And seriously, who uses marketing literature to tout that they include Adobe Reader, a power management utility, and Windows Live Toolbar? Add OneKey and that's all that's included. Weak.

But overall, its performance seems pretty snappy, well-suited for basic web tasks and as a personal media player (though not by the built-in speakers--they're loud but they sound like the $10 radio I have on my desk at work).

That's about all of my initial reactions...here's my list of pros and cons in a less TL;DR format:

Likes

• Solid construction
• One of the best looking netbooks out there
• Quick bootup
• Long, long power cord (around 10' total)
  
• Decent price considering what you get (though specs do seem anemic compared to competitors)
  
• Fairly light considering its solid construction (2 lbs., 5 ozs. without battery; 3-cell battery adds another 6 ozs.)
  
• Good system responsiveness despite Windows, traditional hard disk, and Atom CPU
• Easy to upgrade the memory
• No trouble handling 720p-bitrate video
• Bright, crisp display
• Loud speakers
• ExpressCard slot for future 3G (or hopefully WiMAX) expansion
  
• Good WiFi signal strength
• Built-in SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro card reader
• WiFi toggle via a solid button rather than a sliding switch
  

Dislikes

• Tiny keyboard with oddly-placed keys
  
• Tiny trackpad with loud mouse buttons
• No TrackPoint (aka mouse pointer stick embedded in the keyboard)
• No volume mute button or key sequence
• Small hard drive, partitioned into two usable partitions (one FAT, one NTFS--why?!?)
  
• Lack of OEM or third-party accessories at launch
• Low-runtime battery (28 watt-hour, 3 cell battery)
• Cheap, cellphone-quality webcam
• Crappy crapware selection included
• No apparent way to do a factory restore & no included re-installation discs
• No cable management for power cord
• Multimedia cards stick out of reader (can't insert flush)
• Gets warm (though not as hot as some full-fledged notebooks I've used)
• Only two USB ports
• No Bluetooth included (yet)
• Clock-radio quality sound from speakers
• Scant screen real estate (obviously)

Verdict

Despite the long list of negatives to the S10, if you keep in mind the reason why you'd buy a netbook in the first place, this Lenovo is definitely a solid choice. While built-in WWAN and a more capacious battery would definitely help improve its coffeehouse usability, for a cheap travel companion it's a great choice. With its built-in card reader, light weight, and sturdy construction, I can see taking the S10 with me on vacation instead of a heavier, more delicate, and more expensive notebook. Although the initial config is light on hard drive capacity, it can serve as a good portable media player. And while I'd still cry if it was lost, damaged, or stolen, I'd rather lose a $400 netbook than the $1000+ ones that I normally travel with.

I can also see that it might be a decent choice as a laptop for a kid or teen, especially since the keyboard is too cramped for lengthy typing by adult hands. Searching eBay, I see plenty of sticker skins to personalize the S10 already, so it could be a good holiday gift for them.

As for me, understanding that this isn't going to be as good as an expensive ultraportable notebook, I'm happy with my decision to go with the Lenovo instead of an Eee or Wind. While some other models may offer more for the dollar, the attractiveness and build quality of the S10 is definitely on par with the well-designed shells from Dell and HP. Sure, there's no SSD or 6-cell battery, but considering it runs Windows XP decently, I'll take the bigger storage and more versatile OS of the S10 over the other Linux netbooks out there.

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Chronicles of the Fast and the Babylon A.D.

We caught Babylon A.D. over Labor Day weekend because my wife and sister both like Vin Diesel--alot. Don't get me wrong, I like him too, ever since Pitch Black, but B.A.D. (hmmm) is a collection of his typecast roles, from The Fast and The Furious to Chronicles of Riddick to xXx. A Children of Men clone (which I liked enough to buy on DVD but I was't as impressed by that movie as some), B.A.D. fails to capture even a tenth of the plot development of CoM.

The movie had promise, especially the first couple of acts as "Toorop" (whaaa?) and his package escape from Russia to Canada on their way to New York. I loved the dystopian future combined with the glimpses of future technology (interactive e-ink map, omnipresent Google, and the ginormous TV wall). I was hoping for more, but alas, it didn't even approach the futuregeekness of, say, Minority Report.

However, the movie ultimately falls apart because it doesn't give the audience a compelling reason to root for the characters, unlike CoM, which the very future of humanity was at stake. And don't get me started on the ending...I won't spoil it, but it was either the most blatant sequel setup ever or they ran out of ideas or money or both since there's seemingly no final act. I think the "WTF?!? C'mon!" reactions from the crowd as the director credit appeared sums Babylon A.D. up best.

With that behind us, bring on the next Fast and Furious. My sis and wife need a better Vin fix!