Taking the real Windows 7 for a spin – virtually
Monday 17 August 2009 - Filed under Tech Notes
Is the time for biscuit, I mean, time for a new shiny netbook finally upon us?
September and October will be new operating systems galore with the debut of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It seems mass shrink-wrapping has already begun on all three of them. I am particularly keen to get my hands on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard because one will be my new development platform while the other will be the foundation of my everyday computing for many months to come. For now, I am tinkering with the finalised version of Windows 7 mostly out of curiosity. While my experience with the new consumer OS does not match the depth and breadth of reports by expert reviewers such as this, this, and this, I have a specific angle: Is Windows 7 good for virtualisation? That is because as a corporate customer of Microsoft products, the probability of me installing Windows 7 on a physical machine any time soon is infinitesimally small. (Addendum: “infinitesimally small” is still not zero. I now have Windows 7 on a physical machine.)
So I took Windows 7 for a spin for the first time since the brief encounter when it was in beta. I used VMware Fusion on Mac OS X as I did last time. The installation was simple and painless and a brand new Windows 7 virtual machine was up and running in no time, figuratively speaking. The very first thing I noticed was the responsiveness of Windows 7. OK, I had given it 2GB of RAM, but it definitely felt smoother than Windows Vista running on the physical machine I once had with 4GB (3.125GB usable) RAM. Compared to its beta days, Windows 7 has also cleaned up some of the rough edges in user interfaces. It looks relatively neat even when stripped bare of all eye candy also known as themes. Having said that, it is a huge disappointment that virtualised Windows 7 still cannot do the glassy Aero themes. It lets me select Aero, but nothing turns glassy. I’m stuck with the slightly-shady-yet-still-opaque blue on the title bars, windows, and taskbar. Enabling 3D graphics on the virtual machine doesn’t help. Perhaps things might change once VMware Fusion gets updated to officially support Windows 7 as creating Windows 7 virtual machines on it still remains strictly experimental.
More importantly, can Windows 7 replace Windows XP as the virtual client (as in server vs. client) machine in a lab environment? Or should it? If it’s a question of whether Windows 7 presents functionality that cannot be done or tested in Windows XP, then the answer is a resounding No. If it’s a question of whether Windows 7 is faster than Windows XP, then the answer is still a resounding No. If it’s a question of whether Windows 7 is more resource-efficient than Windows XP, then the answer is again a resounding No. If it’s a question of whether Windows 7 without Aero is particularly prettier than Windows XP, then the answer is yet again a resounding No. If it’s a question of whether Windows 7 is more secure and reliable than Windows XP, then the answer is, it solely depends on how the user maintains their system. So if somebody asks me today why use Windows 7 in a virtualised environment, I’d have to say I don’t particularly see much point – other than the fancy collection of desktop wallpaper images that comes with Windows 7.
To be fair to Windows 7, I haven’t found much use for Windows XP virtual machines lately, either. All my development work takes place on virtualised, self-contained Windows Server 2003, which runs SharePoint Designer, the various Office applications, the various browsers, SQL Server, Visual Studio, and everything else I need on the Windows operating system. That is why I am much more keen to get my hands on the latest Windows Server 2008 R2, which is really the server-side counterpart of Windows 7.
As I was about to close this, VMware came back reporting an error in the Windows 7 virtual machine that caused it to self-suspend and the pretty dolls turn ghostly. I had to resuscitate it by restoring the state of the VM, but I don’t think it’s a biggie as what I have been doing is entirely experimental at this stage and small hiccups like this are not unexpected.
There will come a day eventually when it’s not possible to purchase Windows XP licences or get product support for XP any more. Until then, Windows 7 will have to fight the good fight against the phantom of its grandpa. I’ll keep wondering who will take the throne first: Windows 7 or Prince Charles?
2009-08-17 » JK