We just couldn’t help ourselves, and put this Windows 7 .iso we had lying around exactly where it belongs: on Sony’s VAIO P. After mucking around on “the internet” figuring out the best way to install it, we ended up going the lazy route and dragging / dropping the plain files onto a folder on a USB drive, hitting setup.exe and watching the installer do its magic — and it worked flawlessly! We weren’t timing it or anything, but we’d say 45 minutes or so is a good guesstimate for the install. A few thoughts:
It boots fast! Not that Vista was that bad on the boot front, but we’re pretty happy with this.
No Aero. That’s to be expected, but the lack of transparency and visual effects makes the OS look quite a bit different than most of the screenshots out there.
It’s very responsive. To be honest, a lot of that could be from the fact that this is a clean install, minus all the crap Sony loads on. Still, we’re very happy for the start menu to pop open instantly, windows to redraw like God intended… it’s pretty great.
Browsing is 100% better. Internet Explorer pops open in a flash, and pages load in times nearly on comparison with “real” computers. Also, scrolling is ultra smooth, whereas with Vista it was stuttery all the way down.
There’s a lot more to explore. We’ve just scratched the surface, but we love what we’ve seen so far.
Update: both videos are after the break!
Update 2: for those who’ve asked: yes, the webcam works, and no, we haven’t had any luck getting Aero up and running, though we have the video drivers loaded — we’re not saying it’s impossible, in fact, it’s likely very possible, since plenty of other similarly specced netbooks can pull it off, but it’s just not happening for us just yet.
Gallery: VAIO P, now with more Windows 7
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