I received some interesting data and commentary about Windows 7 from my friend and fellow Cajun Clickers Computer Club member Ron Spruell:
I have a couple of thoughts and questions about upgrading to Windows 7.First some facts, if you can believe what you read on the Internet.
OS Market Share Table from HitLinks.com
[Table deleted. Visit the link to see the current version. - Terry ]The most likely candidates to be moving to Windows 7 will be the unfortunate 18.62% of consumers that are running Vista. (Vista, the modern equivalent of Windows Millennium.) A lot of large business users are still running Windows 2000. I was amazed to find this out earlier this year. (I wonder how much of the 3.42% using Other OS are using Windows 2000 and Windows NT?)
Those of us (consumers) and businesses using Windows XP will be slow to change. I may upgrade to Windows 7 in 2 to 3 years. I support a small business that uses XP, and I will probably wait and upgrade when they upgrade. They will have to buy 3 new computers and upgrade 4 others. When you consider the hardware, software, and training, you are talking $10,000 to $20,000. And, will the system be compatible with their clients?
If you look at the table above, Windows Vista and the MAC OS have both gained about the same over the last 12 months. 4.34% for Vista vs. 3.99% for MAC. The question is “Did the MAC users come from XP or from Other?” I think that it might be safe to assume that the Vista users came from XP.
Another interesting note is that Linux users have not significantly increased because of Vista. Linux users are still hanging in at about 1%. We have seen an increase in users in our computer club, but this is mostly “geek-wannabes”. A big problem with Linux is the same as with Vista, hardware support. In the area of overall support Linux, specifically Ubuntu, has made amazing progress in this area. However, what do you do if you install Ubuntu and you can’t get it to run? The fun stops here.
Here are some more “facts” from the Internet. Even though I think this biased toward Linux, it does not indicate that Linux made much headway because of Vista. It also show MAC losing market share.
OS Platform Statistics from W3Schools.com
Windows XP is the most popular operating system. The Windows family counts for about 90%:[Table deleted. Visit the link to see the current version. - Terry ]
So much for the drivel, and down to my question.
I am running Windows XP Pro, SP3. When I get ready to upgrade I think that I will be limited to Windows 7 Pro. Is this correct?
It will have to be a “clean install”, so I know I have to take special precautions.
What about installing an image of Windows XP Pro on another primary partition other than C?
Let’s call it F.
Set F as not active. (This assumes that I will be able to figure this out with Acronis Restore.)
Install Windows 7 on C.
Delete the XP Pro partition after Windows 7 activation.What do you think? Is there a better way?
Except for my laptop, my newest old computer is 6 1/2 years old. I plan to convert it to Ubuntu and give it to my wife to use. She only does Yahoo! Webmail and Surfs the Web using the Sea Monkey browser. Since all of our kids have MACs, her computer must be able to handle MAC generated files.
I have 2 other older computers. One has XP home in a dual boot with PC-BSD (temporary for Demo). The other has Windows 2000 dual boot with PCLinuxOS running MythTV. I may use one of these as a Ubuntu Server. So many computers, so little time.
See you around the club.
Ron Spruell
I wrote back to Ron to tell him the official word on upgrade capabilities. The only upgrading in place, over an existing Windows installation, is for specific versions of Windows Vista to specific versions of Windows 7 except that almost any version of Vista can upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate (as long as it’s 32-bit to 32-bit or 64-bit to 64-bit).
The "upgrade in place" options, which take a working Windows installation and convert it to a new Windows 7 installation, are:
- Windows Vista Home Premium to Win 7 Home Premium, 32-bit to 32-bit and 64-bit to 64-bit
- Windows Vista Business to Win 7 Professional, 32-bit to 32-bit and 64-bit to 64-bit
- Windows Vista (any version other than Vista Starter Edition) to Win 7 Ultimate, 32-bit to 32-bit and 64-bit to 64-bit
For upgrades to different versions:
- any version of XP can upgrade to any version of Windows 7, but must be
fresh installs; - any version of Vista can upgrade to any version of Windows 7, but it may require a fresh install;
- any version of Vista can upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate, in-place upgrade for 32-bit to 32-bit and 64-bit to 64-bit, otherwise requiring a fresh install.
- any 32-bit version of Vista to a 64-bit version of Windows 7 will require a fresh install.
As far as installing on another primary partition, that’s my plan. I expect to dual boot Windows 7 Professional and Windows XP Professional during a transition period. Eventually, I would expect to delete my Windows XP partition on my upgraded computer.
I hope this works without deactivating my XP license when I activate my Win7 license. Based on the
Win7RC, I expect to be able to do this.
Regarding the C: vs D: vs E: etc drive letters, Windows automatically adjusts between the systems, unlike Windows XP when it was installed on anything other than the first primary partition.
When Win7 boots, its boot partition is C:.
When Windows XP boots,its boot partition is C: (assuming it was C: before you installed the dual-boot mode).
In the Win7RC, both see the other OS’s partition, but treat it as read-only (thank goodness). Of course, if you get Windows 7 Ultimate and install BitLocker, your Windows XP probably will not be able to read the Windows 7 partition.
and