Windows 7 FREE until June 2010

[AnOther]

For early adopters MS are offering a free download of Windows 7 release candidate build 7100 valid until June 2010 so if anybody wants to give it a whirl.......

Careful though, it's a 2.5gb download and took 2 hours on a 2mb connection so dialup users need not apply [:'(]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

How many gig of RAM and how many extra hard drives and processors will I need to add to my laptop to make it work? [;-)]

[Clair]

It doesn't seem too hungry:

Here's what you need to have:

• Internet access (to download Windows 7 RC and get updates)

• A PC with these system requirements:

  • 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

  • 1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

  • 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)

  • DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

  Please

  note these specifications could change. And, some product features of
  Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or
  navigation through the use of "touch," may require advanced or
  additional hardware.

[AnOther]

Windows 7 is no hungrier than Vista in terms of CPU and RAM and runs on about a par with it on my Samsung Netbook. Disk space is a bit of a disappointment as it uses a special cache folder which even on a clean install occupies nearly 4gb and brings the total disk cost to around 7.5gb, but with the size of drives these days that's not such a lot. I don't know where the quoted figure of 16gb comes in.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Might give it a go just for a laugh. My laptop has been on a go slow for a while, so needs reformatting with a fresh install anyway. I'm on XP.

R.