Windows 7

Ubuntu 9.04

Booting from DVD

(1:10 minutes)

The Windows 7 ISO is a large file (about 3 GB), and so had to be burned onto a DVD.

Inserting the DVD into the machine while running Ubuntu resulted in adding "UDF Volume" (with a DVD-R icon) to the Places menu. The files could be manipulated as any other, but Windows 7 did not offer to install itself under Ubuntu. This should surprise no one.

Rebooting to DVD was uneventful and reasonably fast.

Booting from CD

(12 seconds + 119 seconds or 2:10 minutes)

Ubuntu is a more net-centric installation, and fit tightly on a single CD.

Inserting the CD into the machine while Windows 7 was running resulted in an offer to "Install Ubuntu" via "Run wubi.exe". This is likely to surprise anyone new to Linux, where this kind of magic happens remarkably often.

However, I opted to set up a dual-boot configuration, since Ubuntu performance is slightly faster when running from a native ext3 drive.

Booting to CD took a remarkably fast 12 seconds.

Ubuntu first displayed a menu offering to Try Ubuntu, Install Ubuntu, Check disk, Test memory, or Boot from the hard drive. I chose the default, Try Ubuntu.

Booting to the test environment was uneventful.

(Windows 7 does not support LiveCD mode)

LiveCD Testing

Unlike Windows 7, Ubuntu booted to a completely operational system without touching the hard disk. This allowed me to verify video, sound, networking (both wired and wireless), etc. before installing. Even more impressive, I could use the system during installation (in my case, browsing the web).

The time displayed GMT, which puzzled me until I realized it had never asked for my time zone. I didn't bother to change it; I was here for the install.

To start installation, I double-clicked "Install" on the desktop and was off.

Options Screens

(2 screens)

Unlike Ubuntu, Windows 7 deferred most system configuration options until after installation. Still, two option screens were required to get things moving.

The first screen offered selections for Language, Time and Currency, and Keyboard or Input Method. The defaults were all correctly detected.

The second screen offered to upgrade my existing Windows installation, or to install from scratch. This was unnecessary, since I didn't have an existing Windows installation. I picked the only reasonable option - to install from scratch.

Options Screens

(3 screens)

The Install dialog opened in 10 seconds. Unlike Windows 7, all installation data is gathered up front.

The first screen allowed me to select the language (English) from a very long list.

The second screen asked me to select the current time zone, using the familiar Region / City selections. America / New York was the default, which I changed to America / Chicago.

The third screen detected the USA keyboard layout, and offered it as default. I didn't need to change the default.

License Screen

(35 seconds)

Windows 7 is proprietary, and so I had to read a rather extensive legal document and agree to it. As with virtually everyone faced with such an opportunity, I just selected "I Agree" and got on with it.

(Ubuntu doesn't show or require agreement with any licenses.)

Partitioning

(25 seconds)

Windows detected the two ext3 partitions on the hard drive. A subtle error message in the bottom of the dialog informed me that Windows 7 can only be installed to an NTFS partition.

I briefly thought I was stymied, as the "Format" button was disabled even when I selected a partition.

After a bit of experimentation, I noticed the Delete button became enabled when a partition was selected. Deleting both partitions enabled the Format button, which I then selected, and was told Windows 7 might create additional partitions as needed. (Note: I didn't count the partition deleting screens against Windows 7's install screen count, since having existing ext3 partitions is unlikely to be a common occurrence among Windows aficionados.)

Partition setup was subsequently quick and painless.

Partitioning

(12 seconds + 18 seconds)

Ubuntu detected the two NTFS partitions created by Windows 7, and offered to install Ubuntu side-by-side with Windows (default), replace Windows, or allow me to specify partitions manually. I accepted the default.

A somewhat ominous dialog warned that the disk would be modified, and that changes could not be undone. I boldly selected Continue.

The partitions were apparently reset to provide space for Ubuntu automatically. I was not told of the partition selections until later.

(Windows waited until after installation to gather user information)

User Creation

(1 screen)

At this point, Ubuntu asked for my name, user name (it suggested "george", but my standard is "ricegf"), password (twice), and the name of this computer (default was "ricegf-desktop", a very reasonable network identity). It also offered the option to log in automatically at boot, a convenience I accepted because I favor convenience over security on my personal workstations.

Installation

(18:21 minutes to first restart, 24:00 to second restart, 26:10 total until User Account screen)

Windows 7 installed in 5 automated steps: Copying Windows files (quick), Expanding Windows files (about 17 minutes), Installing features (the bulk of the installation time), Installing updates (quick), and Completing installation (which consisted of the next two steps).

Installation

(9:17 minutes total with no restarts)

Ubuntu now pronounced itself "Ready to Install", giving a summary screen of the selections including (at last) the partition selections. An button labeled Advanced led to options for configuring the boot loader and network proxy, and the opportunity to vote on the popularity of included applications, all of which I ignored.

Installation was tracked in a traditional progress bar dialog, with status messages mostly chronicling adding and removing of packages. I ignored the Cancel button, and let it do it's work.

First Restart

(45 seconds)

At this point, Windows needed to reboot. This presented a slight conundrum - the BIOS asked if I wanted to boot from CD or disk. Since Windows 7 hadn't specified, I didn't touch a key, and after a brief timeout, installation proceeded successfully.

(Ubuntu required no restarts during installation.)

Updating Registry Settings

(25 seconds)

A dialog briefly appeared to tell me that the registry settings were being updated. I have no idea why I needed to know this.

(Ubuntu has no registry.)

Second Restart

(45 seconds)

Windows 7 restarted the machine a second time after a brief notification. It did not explain why my computer required restarting, however.

(Ubuntu required no restarts during installation.)

Checking Video Performance

(55 seconds)

This screen displayed some vaguely attractive color patterns at the bottom of the screen for a while before automatically advancing.

(Ubuntu did not gather video performance information until the compositing manager was enabled after installation.)

User Creation

(5 screens)

At this point, Windows 7 asked for a user name and computer name. This was highly unintuitive, as most websites use the same screen layout for user name and password. I followed decades of convention by typing "ricegf" as my user name rather than "george" (it offered no default, having never asked for my real name). Windows 7 then offered "ricegf-PC" as the computer name - ugly, but reasonably intuitive to others on the network.

The second screen requested the usual dual password entry, plus a password hint - a nod to the common web practice not offered by Ubuntu.

The third screen demanded that I type my Windows product key, which wasn't given to me when I downloaded the ISO. An on-line activation option was pre-checked, however, so I simply clicked Next (like Indiana Jones and Nazis, I really hate those guys).

The next screen asked me to select an update policy - Recommended (according to the thorough help pages, this means everything Microsoft considers significant, as well as collecting and transmitting user data to improve Windows), Important (which means only "important" security-related updates - Help specifically failed to mention whether my usage data would be collected or not with this option), or Ask Me Later. I took the Recommended settings since it was default, though I'm quite aware of Microsoft's tendency to interpret "significance" through a market share rather than technical lens.

Next came selecting a time zone. Unlike the traditional city-centric options, Windows 7 offers the more cryptic "UTC" +/- hours format, supplemented by the more recognizable time zone name (e.g., "Central Time (US & Canada)", though quite a bit more than just the 24 options I expected). Oddly, Windows appeared to read the time from the BIOS incorrectly - after I selected Central Time, it reported the time as 5:18 instead of 7:18. I corrected the time manually and proceeded.

(Ubuntu gathered user information prior to installation.)

Network Setup

(2 screens + 15 seconds)

Although I had a wired connection, I also have a wireless card installed. Windows detected both automatically, and offered two wireless networks - my neighbors' and mine. (Connection to a hidden network was also offered.) I selected my own wireless network SSID "constellation"

I was also given the opportunity on this screen to "Start this connection automatically" (I think it meant when the computer rebooted - this wasn't clear). I enabled this check box just in case.

The second screen allowed me to select Home network, Work network, or Public network (default), with an explanation of each. I selected Home network.

(Ubuntu did not require any user data to set up wired networking. Wireless networking worked after installation by simply selecting the network SSID "constellation" from a drop down on the desktop.)

Logging In

(1:10 minutes)

At this point, Windows 7 automatically began "preparing my desktop". A minute or so later, a very mechanical two-tone bleep informed me that I was operational. Immediately, a notification balloon in the lower right corner told me that Windows 7 was "Installing updates", a process that may have taken about 2 minutes (at least, I believe that's when the balloon disappeared).

Logging In

(18 seconds + 27 seconds + 48 seconds, 1:38 total)

After installation, I was left at the LiveCD desktop with an Installation Complete dialog, offering to let me continue testing or restart. I selected restart, and the computer shut down (ejecting the CD) in 18 seconds, and came up to a list of operating system options 27 seconds later - Ubuntu 9.04 (default), Recovery Mode, Memory Test, and Windows Vista (sic), I accepted the default.

Ubuntu announced the launching of my new desktop with a distinctly African jungle riff. Immediately the Update Manager launched and minimized itself, and a notification told me that proprietary video drivers were available that I could try out if I wanted. I skipped both for now.

First Impressions

At this point, I was left with a rather spartan blusih-green screen with a Recycle Bin in the upper left, a fish in the middle, and a traditional menu / task bar combo at the bottom.

The lower left 4 over-sized icons identified themselves via tooltips as "Start", "Internet Explorer", "Windows Explorer", and "Windows Media Player".

The lower right offered 4 small, black and white icons - "Solve PC issues: 1 important message, 2 total messages", "constellation Internet access", "speakers 66%", and the ubiquitous clock.

The "PC issues" icon looked ominous, so I clicked it first. It advised me to "Find an antivirus program online (Important)", and "Windows Defender needs to scan your computer".

Since it was "Important", I clicked the first message.

First Impressions

At this point, I was left with a distinctly brown ("human brown", I'm told) desktop with a menu bar at the top and a task bar at the bottom.

The upper left offered 3 menus - Applications, Places and System. Next to the menus were familiar Firefox, Email, and Help quick launch icons.

The upper right offered 4 icons and my name beside a power button. The icons identified themselves via tooltips as Restricted Drivers Available, Wired network connection active, Master 80% (with a speaker icon, so this must be volume), and the ubiquitous clock. Clicking my power button-adorned name dropped a menu offering to change users, lock the screen, or Log Out / Hibernate / Restart / Shut Down.

The left side of the task bar offered a Show All Windows button. The right sides showed the workspaces control (pre-configured for two workspaces) and the recycle bin.

Starting a Web Browser

(a splash screen + 2 option screens)

Clicking the first status message opened a "Welcome to Internet Explorer 8" screen. This was a little jarring - I thought we were off to find an antivirus program? Whatever.

The second screen asked if I'd like to turn on Suggested Sites. Although I had no idea what this did, I turned it on (I'm such a sheep sometimes).

The third screen asked me to choose my settings - express or custom. Express identified a litany of heavily Microsoft-biased sites. In a hurry to take care of my Important security issue, I selected express.

The browser then opened to Microsoft's "Welcome to Internet Explorer 8" site. Amongst the blurbs touting IE8's advanced features was a "Get add-ons" button. That looked promising. Wouldn't malware protection be added on? (And besides, Windows 7 brought me here when I clicked on that very topic!)

The featured content was a Bing Search plugin (this was shortly after Microsoft's Bing Search product launch), a Windows Live Hotmail plug-in, and an MSN Headlines plug-in. This was a distinctly marketing tainted affair, and I began to suspect that the "Important" security warning was really a ploy to get me signed up for more Microsoft on-line products.

The two critical plug-ins to make my browsing experience happy is a del.icio.us bookmark manager and something to make tabs work the way I want.

Typing "del.icio.us" in Plug-in Search pointed me to a lonely "Share with Delicious" plugin, which I installed (I think) by clicking the Install button.

Searching for "tabs" showed 7 options, the first two very low-rated, but the third with a promising 5 stars. I took that one, and was surprised to receive a "File Download - Security Warning". With the belief that I had done nothing outside the Microsoft constellation thus far, and so probably wasn't yet encountering trojans, I ran it anyway. After a 50 second download, I received a User Access Control warning, which I blew right past. (I'd heard about these from numerous Vista reviews, including one in which a Microsoft spokesperson stated they are intended to annoy users. I was determined to remain un-annoyed.)

At this point, I was stymied in terms of plug-ins. Nothing obvious had changed in the browser - no pages had opened, no new buttons had appeared. I had no idea how I was supposed to access my del.icio.us bookmarks (other than via the website), or configure tabbed browsing. I also had no idea where the idea of setting up that Important Security Software went.

(Later note: When I tried to shut down Windows 7 at the end of the day, a dialog complained that "Setup is still running". Minimizing the browser revealed a hidden ExBrowser Tabbed Webbrowser dialog, which I recognized as the tab manager I had tried to install earlier. I had no idea it was hiding back there. It was then that I discovered that I could only use this plug-in for 10 days before shelling out some hard cash. Not looking to lighten my wallet, I canceled the setup instead. Firefox and Tab Mix Plus work just fine on Windows, and for free.)

I reverted to typing URLs to my common social sites manually - del.icio.us, facebook, google, yahoo, and twitter all worked as expected. My personal websites loaded without issue as well.

Starting a Web Browser

(no screens)

I clicked the Firefox icon, and was taken promptly to http://start.ubuntu.com/9.04 - an Ubuntu-themed Google search page with additional links to Ubuntu Help, Participate, and Ubuntu Shop.

I selected Tools → Add-ons, and in the resulting Add-ons dialog, selected Browse All Add-ons (Get Ubuntu Extensions was also offered, as were 5 "recommended" add-ons - Flagfox, Glubble for Families, Lazarus: Form Recovery, Minimap Sidebar, and Video Download Helper.)

Typing "del.icio.us" into the search box yielded 61 total add-ons. I found Yahoo!'s Delicious Bookmarks plug-in on the second page (tagged "Recommended", among others) and clicked Add To Firefox. I accepted the EULA, clicked Install Now, and installation completed in a couple of seconds.

Typing "tabs" into search revealed just under 400 add-ons. I found Tab Mix Plus on the 3^rd page (still 5 stars after numerous reviews), clicked Add To Firefox, Install Now, and it was done.

Finally, I clicked Restart Firefox (necessary to change the add-on configuration, it said), and a quick restart later I was presented with "2 new add-ons have been installed". Closing the dialog revealed a new tab opened to "Quick Tour of Delicious Add-On" to get me started, although it wasn't really necessary - new Delicious, Bookmarks, and Tag buttons on the menu bar made operating del.icio.us inside Firefox obvious. Clicking Tools (the obvious place to look for me) revealed Tab Mix Plux Options, which led to a tabbed dialog offering hundreds of configuration options for tab behavior.

Browsing heaven.

Social Tools

Clicking the Windows logo in the lower left offered a few basic programs - Internet Explorer, Windows DVD Maker, Fax & Scan, Media Center, and XPS Viewer, but nothing that appear particularly social. This struck me as odd, given the current popularity of social networking.

I typed "Instant Messaging" into Help and was informed, "Instant messaging isn't included in this version of Windows. To send and receive instant messages, you'll need an instant messaging program from Microsoft or another company." Weird. A link was provided to a website that provided a link to Windows Live Essentials, which promised to download Messenger (do we need this much indirection?).

Windows Live Essentials offered to install Messenger (IM), Mail (email / calendar / newsgroups / RSS), Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Toolbar (quick access to Windows Live on-line features), Writer (for blog posts), Family Safety (to control kids access to the Internet), and Silverlight (an Adobe Flash competitor). I accepted them all. Installation took about 15 minutes, but was uneventful. The install program politely requested permission to set everything to Windows Live branded properties - Bing, home page, etc. - and to collect lots of data on my usage habits, all of which I declined (I'm not THAT much of a sheep).

Windows Live Messenger was left under a Windows Live grouping, but on launch only seemed to know about Windows Live Messaging service. I signed in just in case, and was instantly greeted with a stack of "friend" requests from emails such as anniezowehe@hotmail.com and louellarolubop@hotmail.com - obvious porn requests, each in its own window. I had to work through these one by one (wouldn't a list be more efficient?), and in my haste almost reported my one actual friend in the stack as spam. Bad user interface. I tried to close it, but it refused to die. REALLY bad user interface. I was stuck with WLM for the duration, but couldn't use it to talk to anyone.

I tried searching Bing for "AOL yahoo instant messager for Windows 7", and the first response was... Windows Live Messenger. The second option was AOL 7.0 for Windows, which I installed (as with Windows Live, it tried to get my permission to set everything to AOL branded properties - I was noticing a very commercial pattern by this point, which didn't improve with the Hamburger Helper ad that appeared at the bottom of my AOL window). After killing an unwelcome "Find Buddies" window, I had two IM programs running, one useful. One to go.

The first Yahoo Messenger link in Bing's search result was the Wikipedia entry - not terribly useful. On the second page was a link to BrotherSoft (?)'s copy of Yahoo Messenger 9. When I tried to download, I was warned "Before you download, clean your pc (sic) from Errors (sic)!", not a reassuring sign. Pressing fearlessly onward to be able to reach my friends on Yahoo, I clicked Download. Installation was uneventful (and no request to switch my life to Yahoo brands), and I was on-line.

But with 3 different IM programs, I was not very happy.

Windows Live Mail, by contrast, worked surprisingly well. I simply entered my gmail and hotmail email addresses and passwords at the prompt, and (since I had already enabled IMAP on gmail), I was up and running as quickly as with Ubuntu. I was a little surprised that that it insisted on downloading two years worth of email from gmail, but I suppose in the age of cheap disk space and broadband, why not?

Social Tools

Clicking Applications → Internet revealed Pigdin Instant Messenger, a rather obvious IM tool. Launching it took me straight to the Accounts screen, where the Add button allowed me to specify user name and password for my AOL and my Google IM accounts (and 14 others, some of which I had never heard). I was up and running in a couple of minutes.

The same menu offered the equally intuitively named Evolution Mail, which opened directly to a setup wizard. The first setup screens welcomed me to Evolution. The next offered to restore Evolution from backup, Screen 3 collected my Identify information, then screens 4 and 5 configured email reception from 10 supported server types and set receiving options (check every 10 minutes, leave message on server, that sort of thing). Screen 6 configured sending email, then screen 7 allowed me to name this account.

Surprisingly, an 8^th and final screen then asked for my timezone (didn't I already set this at the operating system level?).

Despite the puzzling time zone redundancy, setup of my social apps was fairly quick and easy, especially since they were pre-installed with the operating system.

Productivity Tools

No office suite was evident on the Start menu (nor did I really expect one), though WordPad provided a very simplistic word processor.

Clearly Microsoft expects you to shell out for Office 2008, but being budget-minded, I typed "windows 7 word processor" into the Bing box and was offered AbiWord or OpenOffice.org, two popular open source offerings also available for... well, pretty much every operating system. I took the latter, and was offered a staggering array of languages and versions (Windows, Linux rpm or deb for 32-bit or 64-bit, Mac Intel or PPC, and Solaris x86 or Sparc, in 30 different languages - 270 well-organized links). Wow! I picked Windows English, and installation when smoothly - though about this time I began to really tire of installation wizards, and really miss the quick and easy install methods available in Ubuntu.

Attempting to open a PDF file took me to the Windows File Association website, which offered several choices - Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat Family, Foxit Reader, PDF Suite, Paint Shop Pro, and gDoc Fusion. I picked the first and ended up at a page offering versions for Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Mobile. I picked Windows and received Adobe's ubiquitous reader (after ANOTHER wizard - gads), which worked fine.

For PDF generation beyond OpenOffice.org's built-in capabilities, I usually use PDF995 suite. It costs $9.95 (obviously), but works well.

Start → Paint launched the new Paint program, which isn't nearly as useless as the XP version. It's not nearly as complete as Ubuntu's Gimp, and the user interface is now a ribbon (some people like this, I'm told, and it's certainly easier to use than Gimp's windowful approach). It's probably adequate for simple bitmap manipulations.

For vector graphics, OpenOffice.org (now that it's installed) provided that with no extra installs.

Productivity Tools

Clicking Applications → Office revealed the rather comprehensive OpenOffice.org office suite already installed - Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation - with a dictionary (I prefer Dictionary.com) and Evolution. I've used this suite for years, and have found it quite adequate for what I do, even though the Presentations app is a bit weak in my opinion.

I selected Places → Home Folder to open the file browser, then double-clicked Examples and then Ubuntu_adoption_case_studies, and finally KRUU-FM_Radio.pdf. Document Viewer (formerly the Evince PDF reader) opened instantly and displayed the document, so reading PDFs works out of the box, as expected.

OpenOffice.org includes a File → Export as PDF command that works quite well for generating PDF files from office documents. For more general PDF generation and editing, I googled "Ubuntu PDF printer" and found a reference to pdftk, a "useful tool for manipulating PDF documents", which is fine.

Applications → Graphics revealed the standard Gimp high-end bitmap graphics editor and the OpenOffice.org vector drawing tools pre-installed. I'm fond of them both.

No additional tools needed to be installed in this category, as those I needed were all pre-installed.

Games

Earlier Windows versions are rather famous for including a Solitaire game, and Windows 7 offers no less. Unfortunately, it also offers no more - only Klondike is supported (though well). While I miss the more interesting games like Spider, it's serviceable enough that I didn't bother to install a separate solitaire program.

Google turned up a .EXE install package for Frozen Bubble on the Internet, which I downloaded and ran (despite Windows' dire warnings).

Similarly, a .EXE install package for Hex-a-Hop turned up on CNET (with the reassuring "Tested Spyware Free!" banner), and was quickly installed in the usual fashion.

Games

A quick check of Applications → Games revealed AisleRiot Solitaire and Freecell Solitaire pre-installed. These present an embarrassment of riches, with many dozens of games and variations.

The same menu offers Tali, a yahtzee implementation. This works acceptably well, though I personally prefer the "Yahdice" yahtzee implementation on my Internet tablet.

Installing Frozen Bubble and Hex-a-Hop required that I click Applications → Add or Remove... to get the Applications dialog, selected All Applications from the drop down, and then browse or search in the Games category. After selecting the check mark next to each, I clicked Apply Changes, and they were promptly installed.

Accessories

Prior versions of Windows offer a basic full-screen snapshot to clipboard suing shift-PrtSc, and this worked with Windows 7 as well. Without the ability to capture windows and regions, however, I spend far too much time editing graphics files.

Windows 7 offered a new twist - the Snipping accessory, which provided roughly equivalent functionality to Ubuntu's Take Screenshot.

Windows 7 also includes a basic 4-function calculator, but I need a lot more. Since I learned to use an HP-41 RPN-based calculator in college, and a free simulator is available at no cost, I downloaded a ZIP file and installed it - the one exception to the "every Windows install package is an EXE" rule.

Windows 7 includes a variety of other accessories - the venerable Notepad and Paint, Sticky Notes, a Sound Recorder - but nothing I desperately needed.

Accessories

Applications → Accessories → Take Screenshot included the basic functionality I require in a no-frills package - though nothing like the dazzling SnagIt on Windows.

Applications → Accessories → Calculator revealed a very comprehensive algebraic calculator, with basic, advanced, scientific, financial, and programming modes. However, I'm much more efficient with HP's old RPN-based HP-42 model. The same free software implementation that I use on Windows, Free42, works just fine on Ubuntu as well. In fact, I run it on darned near everything.

Ubuntu included many other accessories, but none that I desperately needed.

Switching Users

With Windows 7, you switch to a new user by selecting Start, click the arrow next to Shut Down, select New User, and select the user's name from the list.

Switching Users

With Ubuntu, you click the User icon in the upper right and select the user's name from the drop down.

Uninstalling Applications

With Windows 7, you select Start → Control Panel, then Programs → Uninstall a program, then select the program from the list and click Uninstall/Change. It's unclear to what "Change" refers, as the only option in the resulting dialogs that I could find were "Uninstall". It's also confusing to use a completely different method for installing and uninstalling applications.

Uninstalling Applications

With Ubuntu, click Applications → Add/Remove, select the applications to uninstall, and click Remove. This is gratifyingly symmetrical to installing applications.

Browsing Files

With Windows 7, click the folder-themed icon on the task bar (the tooltip is your computer's name) to open Windows Explorer, then select the "Library" or network file system from the left pane.

Browsing Files

With Ubuntu, select the folder or network file system directly from the Places menu. (The resulting Nautilus file browser window also includes a pane similar to Windows 7.)

Launching Applications

With Windows 7, some applications are "pinned" to the task bar and are launched by clicking the icon. This is a surprising application-centric regression from the document-centric world touted earlier by Microsoft. Even more confusing, the same icon is used to switch between running instances of the application via a pop-up list. However, right-clicking a taskbar icon provides not only Close and pinning controls, but task-specific options - a very nice innovation on Microsoft's part that will be better leveraged as more Windows 7 applications are developed.

Launching Applications

With Ubuntu, applications are automatically categorized and are launched via the Applications menu. The panel at the top of the screen provides one-click application launch, similar to Windows XP's old quick launch bar. Applications are added to the panel by right-clicking the icon under Applications and selecting "Add to Panel", and removed by right-clicking the icon on the pane and selecting "Remove from Panel".

Eye Candy

Windows 7includes the Aero interface, a compositing system that (according to YouTube) provides interesting and sometimes useful visual effects - such as AeroPeek, that gives previews of applications before switching to them from the task bar. However, Aero didn't appear compatible with my hardware - or perhaps my hardware is inadequate to run Aero properly. In any event, I noticed very little eye candy during this test.

Eye Candy

Ubuntu offers the Compiz compositing manager, which was off by default on my hardware. To enable it, I clicked the "Restricted Drivers" icon on the panel and permitted use of a non-free video driver. The enabled effects were subtle but pleasing to the eye. Using System → Preferences → Compiz Settings Manager, I jazzed things up quite a bit - including (of course) windows that burn up when closed. My hardware had no problem running these effects.