Survey: Beta testers happier with Windows 7 than Vista

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PCWorld reports that in a recent poll conducted, Windows 7 Beta testers are 4 times happier with Windows 7 than the early users of Windows Vista, the reason due to which more than half of the companies plan to dump Vista adoption plans.

A recent poll conducted by ChangeWave Research, a market research company revealed that 44% of the 68 Windows 7 Beta testers were very satisfied with Windows 7 beta. A similar survey by ChangeWave in February 2007 conducted few weeks after Vista's launch found just 10% of the respondents expressed satisfaction.

In a poll of 2,000 enterprise users responsible for IT purchases:

53% said that their businesses will skip Vista, and wait for Windows 7
15% said that their organizations would roll-out Vista
14% said that their companies were delaying some PC and server purchases in anticipation of Windows 7

Windows 7's improved performance and speed, were mentioned as the big reasons for the participants' satisfaction. The beta testers also mentioned the following as the main reasons for their satisfaction:

Quick installation
Pickup of proper drivers
Usage of less memory
Faster boot process
Clean interface
Desktop - easy access of commonly used menus
Customizable services

The beta testers also had some complaints about Windows 7's instability and incompatibility with older software and hardware, regular crashing IE 8.0 beta and about resemblance of Windows 7 to Windows Vista.

"The Windows 7 beta has so far received a much warmer reception than Vista, Of course, beta testers tend to be hard-core techies and the ultimate test is how satisfaction holds up when mainstream users get their hands on the new software"

Earlier in a February 2008 ChangeWave corporate IT spending survey, Mac OS Leopard received a 53% "very satisfied" rating from users, 9% higher than the satisfaction rate, Windows 7 gets currently.

(3 replies) #1 Shunik Jan on 08 Apr 2009 - 01:29

They haven't seen anything yet. The 7068 leak was pretty much like a finished product with the exception of a few bugs. Soooo much has changed since that beta.

#1.1 Lord Ba'al on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:25

Yes, and 7105 will still be better.
Anyway, no big surprise there. Even 7000 was already a great deal better than Vista Rtm.

#1.2 Faisal Islam on 08 Apr 2009 - 09:35

now Downloading Build 7077 via Torrent

#1.3 Faisal Islam on 08 Apr 2009 - 09:37

Lord Ba'al said,

yeah Bulid 7000 (Public Beta) is far better thn Vista SP1

(2 replies) #2 Omen1393 on 08 Apr 2009 - 01:32

Well it's nice to see that a beta is just 9% lower than the released version of OSX. Also, I haven't really noticed less memory being used however I think the memory is just being used more efficiently.

#2.1 andrewbares on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:11

The people that got the beta OS X version are probably extreme Mac supporters. Microsoft released their beta to the entire public, which means an Apple fanboy could download it, try it, and then report negative on the survey.

#2.2 random_n on 08 Apr 2009 - 03:21

Well, they're doing something right with memory and disk usage anyways. When I'd go over 1.5GB of physical memory usage in Vista on my PC with 2GB of RAM, performance shot through the floor and it hit the HDD on every task switch. Windows 7 7057 is absolutely beautiful until a few hundred MB over 2GB, which is *exactly* what I would expect. It also takes a few more apps to ramp up the memory usage too, so I rarely exceed physical memory unless I'm running more VMs than my system has business running.

I also tried it on a 512MB machine, and performance was pretty in-line with what XP would do. Active memory after boot was around 300MB - only about 100MB more than XP did on the same system.

And finally, Outlook 2007 absolutely flies on Windows 7. This makes me especially happy.

#3 rajputwarrior on 08 Apr 2009 - 01:44

i have been using the beta and it's been more stable and faster for me then vista and xp. I love it and i think microsoft has really got something here.

(5 replies) #4 Shiranui on 08 Apr 2009 - 01:46

68 testers? Well that is a huge sample, isn't it.

#4.1 andrewbares on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:12

Wow. Good point out.

#4.2 toadeater on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:26

I don't think the results are very shocking.

#4.3 splur on 08 Apr 2009 - 04:48

anything more than 10 is a consensus these days.

#4.4 The2 on 08 Apr 2009 - 05:31

splur said,

LOL

"PCWorld reports that in a recent poll conducted" sounds so complicated

#4.5 +Smigit on 08 Apr 2009 - 15:01

Yeah I was going to say that. 68 users is virtually meaningless. You could get more results running a poll on Neowin. So much for the "market research company".

(3 replies) #5 timster on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:01

In a poll of 2,000 enterprise users responsible for IT purchases:

53% said that their businesses will skip Vista, and wait for Windows 7
15% said that their organizations would roll-out Vista
14% said that their companies were delaying some PC and server purchases in anticipation of Windows 7

but thats only 82% ... do we assume that the other 18% will stay with XP Pro or 2000 and will wait for a possible Windows 7 SP1?

#5.1 .Cameron. on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:06

Some of the participants could be in multiple groups, or none at all. Would you find it surprising that someone who's waiting to deploy Windows 7 would also wait to buy more hardware?

#5.2 timster on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:18

i would have thought if a partipant were to be in mutiple group, it would have been noted as 'xx% would upgrade after necessary hardware adjustments had been made' instead of grouping them in with the other 3

of course this is only my assumption and in not way is a saying of how things should be done

#5.3 +Smigit on 08 Apr 2009 - 15:04

Well theres no option there for not rolling out vista or Win 7, or at least having no plans. maybe thats where 18% went?

#6 GenBlood on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:30

Windows 7 is a big plus over Vista ... I'm looking forward to its RTM ...
I plan on upgrading my main system. I just need to get a better LCD
monitor and video card now ....

#7 lawtai on 08 Apr 2009 - 02:39

looking forward to using windows 7 when the final version is released

#8 +majortom1981 on 08 Apr 2009 - 03:34

i am using windows 7 beta on my work pc and my laptop . I use the laptop everyday. I say windows 7y is microsofts next big operating system.

I am using the beta and it has been rock solid. We will most likely be moving over to windows 7 from xp . In my opinion thats a worth while upgrade.

(2 replies) #9 scaramonga on 08 Apr 2009 - 04:10

The people who loved (or proclaimed to) love Vista are now the ones begging for the next build of Win7 every day lol,

#9.1 GreyWolfSC on 08 Apr 2009 - 14:09

Incorrect.

I could care less until they fix the stuporbar.

#9.2 +Smigit on 08 Apr 2009 - 15:05

And why not? I liked Vista but Win 7 is still a very worthy improvement. My laptops still only on the Beta (and Desktop Vista) but I'll certainly make it my default OS once the RC is out.

#10 naap51stang on 08 Apr 2009 - 04:10

I've been using it on my lappy (Dell E1505) since it was released to the public. Still running build 7000, NOT ONE ISSUE.

(1 reply) #11 Neo Razgriz on 08 Apr 2009 - 04:44

I've seen news about the first RC of Windows 7 being released (7077?). I was thinking about downloading and using it as my primary OS. I've gathered up all the software and drivers I will need too.
Would using the Win7 RC as my OS be a good idea, or not?

#11.1 The2 on 08 Apr 2009 - 05:33

Neo Razgriz said,

Why not? Everybody I know that was testing win7 has is now as their only and primary system

#12 Raa on 08 Apr 2009 - 07:04

You bloody bet that's true too!

Bring it on!

#13 Unto Darkness on 08 Apr 2009 - 08:59

But it's only 44%? That means a majority still isn't satisfied with Windows 7.

Or do they go by Very Satisfied, Satisfied and Not Satisfied?

#14 JamesWeb on 08 Apr 2009 - 09:24

Well stop the presses! This is the newsflash of the century!

#15 boho on 08 Apr 2009 - 11:44

Yeh, yeh, yeh! more people knocking Vista. I sick of these "Vista sux" articles. People who criticize Vista have never tried it! Vista rocks! Boohahahahaha!

#16 paperinik2k on 08 Apr 2009 - 12:09

I've installed the Windows 7 beta, I agree on the fact that it is faster than Vista, that is maybe doesn't have drivers problems and that it has a new bar, but I don't see much difference with Windows Vista....the explorer is the same, maybe some new wallpapers...and still missing the "UP" button in Explorer...this sucks.

I see Windows 7 more like a minor update to Windows Vista, let's call it "Windows Vista Service Pack 7"

(3 replies) #17 LaP on 08 Apr 2009 - 13:54

Lie

We all know that Vista was PERFECT and that the bad press it got was only a plot by aliens to destroy the world.

End of sarcasm.

I'm one of the people who bought Vista when it came out ans seriously it was a mess. Took lot of month before Creative released Vista drivers for the X-Fi. nVidia drivers support for Vista was awful in the first month. You can blame 3rd party companies all you want but i think it's MS responsability to make sure 3rd party companies are ready before releasing an OS.

The more i read about Windows 7 the more it looks like it's the next XP to me. It is built on Vista technology so drivers wont be a problem and it looks like MS improved the UI a lot. I'm all for new UI but the one MS did with Vista was not that great honestly. The ideas behind Vista UI was not bad but it needed some work. Vists was just not ready to be released.

Hope Windows 7 upgrade wont be too much expensive. Already paid a lot for Vista DVD, an OS i still not use on a regular basis today (i'm still using XP OEM for daily usage).

#17.1 GreyWolfSC on 08 Apr 2009 - 14:18

Creative has always been slow and they skipped the Vista hardware developers conference, and nVidia writes their own drivers. Neither of those were Vista's fault. They both had API info way before Vista was even released as customer preview.

#17.2 +Smigit on 08 Apr 2009 - 15:09

GreyWolfSC said,

Neither of those were Vista's fault.

But it sure is their problem

But I disagree with the original poster. Companies had months if not years to be ready for Vista and thats not forgetting that the consumer release happened some time after the enterprise release was made public. MS DOES work with vendors when building it's OS and I'm sure companies like NVidia would have had very early access to it. Companies had all the time in the world to get drivers out but they kept holding out for the last minute.

#17.3 GreyWolfSC on 09 Apr 2009 - 00:57

It wasn't a problem with me. I just took my Audigy card out and the on-board worked fine. I've only recently put it back in and I honestly can't tell the difference except the sound stopped working on Bioshock.

#18 dcghost on 08 Apr 2009 - 16:48

I'm excited...can't wait for RTM, but until then the betas will have to do...and they are doing a damn good job

#19 winrez on 11 Apr 2009 - 03:18

Must be polling the public beta users

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