When it comes to op sys i ONLY use xp pro right now i dont have a computer at all just my ipod and soon will be getting a new computer i hope lol its realy funny when i go into a store to look at a computer the first thing i ask is can i use xp on it and the looks on there faces is priceless as thay ask me why the hell would i want to down grade a top of the line computer lol So i say that any thing newer than xp is compleat crap thay just up and walk away lol i can tell thay dont know much about computers as thay just turn away shaking there heads with out ever ancering my ? That i allready know lol but there is the od one that will say yes then i ask if i can get it cheaper without the os sys and any other softwere most say no it comes as is some say thay will ask ONE said yes

Who do you think i will get my new computer from lol

W7 is far better than XP pro on a modern machine.

Ubuntu is better than both but doesn't have the support for everything I need at the moment tired

Most the people who like XP over W7 havn't given it a good go or have old hardware that holds them back.

I like xp because its efficient , but they built in limitations for usable cores , ram and memory bandwidth so ultimately they force you to switch , but this is the very first machine I've had with win 7 and apparently this hard drive came loaded with it ! I lucked out. But it does seem to be snappy even running my pc at just 2ghz.

on video processing,and programming,office stuff,graphics and surfing the net,windows 7 is fast and great,but for robotics not

Hi all,

I am going to keep with my claim for Windows 7 again here. I think it is good to keep things lively and have both sides of the story presented.

I completely disagree about Windows 7 being a hype.

IT experts ...the engineers...and I don't mean IT guys from the shop down the street, i mean the ones from the major fortune 500 IT companies who really understand IOPS and Operating systems will tell you. Windows 7 memory management and security is way better than XP and power consumption (if Windows 7 is setup properly with appropriate chipset drivers etc) is just as good if not better.

Newer Robots are going to need/want processing power....do do more things and executing more complex code and start doing the things described above. The bot I am planning must have the ability to render 1080p video (perhaps multiple feeds concurrently), do voice recognition, and handle lots of scripts and control perhaps more than one EZB.

To address the issue about high end robots using XP PRO....they will not be for long ..once Microsoft no longer supports XP (I think it is end of life in 2014), the successful robot companies will either go LINUX or Windows 7/8. Windows 7 can cost more to implement too if a company has older hardware they are trying to keep around. Coding is also another reason you don't want to get stuck with XP......certain apps are already starting to not support XP.

To set the record straight I am not a Windows advocate. I can't wait for my Raspberry PI to get here......should be in next month.....

Windows 7 has many great features, I especial like the separation of Public vs Private Networks, alloying different firewall settings for each. But He's absolutely correct, on the exact same hardware, especially on Atom processors, Win 7 is much slower then XP... I've got 3 Asus Eee PCs with 1.66Ghz single core Atoms, 2 w/ XP, 1 w/ 7... Just an blatant example, the 7 one, with all the Windows 7 Visual enhancements disabled for speed, can't play HD streaming videos worth a dime, while the XP ones can do it perfectly while multi-tasking.

i was IT tech for bestbuy and do some work as IT person for my job now,and found out that if running windows 7 it does draw alot more current then winows xp pro very few robots need high end video unless you are using it has a computer hook up to hdmi tv or monitor ,then you will need it,dont need a very fast computer for a robot and about xp support will end at 2014,thats not a problem,just meen you dont get help from microsoft plus really dont need newer hardware unless you are using as a desktop computer all microprocessor boards ,sensors,and other robot parts still runs on xp pro coding is not a problem and most likely be a long that it will be,C++ and other programming software still runs on xp pro,and you dont need to upgrade if you dont want too even the LASTEST PROFESSIONAL ROBOT that came out QBO is using windows xp pro and i have yet to see a professional robot use windows 7 yet i found out that WINDOWS 7 is great for desktops,running high end video,programming software,video graphics ask you self why use 1080p video on a robot,when you need a large screen tv to see it can easy use a computer hook up to a hdmi large screen computer,high e nd video card if you look at the specs takes many amps as jstarne found out and need a ac power to use it

check the specs on 32 bit computer and compare to 64 bits used on windows 7 also double the power for same processor speed,one reason is double the bits,uses higher end video chip and more memory it all adds up

I lucked out at the old pawn shop yesterday and found a HP mini laptop for $100.00 with Windows 7 Starter and the Atom processor. Small and cheap, this will fit very nice in my robot. Now I can sell my Mini-itx board that I got for it and just run the laptop inside. The windows 7 solved several problems I had with my older laptop that was running Windows XP. Speech Rec was never loaded on it and it was a pain trying to find all the differant down loads to make it work. Even after I got it loaded I still had a microphone issue where it kept wanting to turn off. Also the tracking feature did not work well ether, the face and color tracking worked but I could not get the motion part to respond. Since I down loaded ARC to the new laptop everthing came up and works great, even the built in webcam works with the tracking. The only drawback is the mini laptop does not have a cd drive to load programs but thats it. So far I have not seen an issue running Windows 7 Starter with ARC.

you need windows xp pro,some drawbacks on using mini laptops,sometimes hard to upgrade memory and harddrive sometimes they use more current,size and little more weight,plus turning on but then they are complete,notthing much needed use i both types mini tx boards and mini laptop on my robot builds,but most mini laptops wont fit inside toy robots we hack with mini itx or PICO -ITX boards they will board i found great using EZB software and a very small size is 2.8" by 2.8" PICO-ITX PX10000G or PX11000G runnung at 1GHZ or 1.2GHZ with 1GIG ram,so will fit inside most robot builds

its not that i dont like WINDOWS 7 also,just for robots its not really needed,KKEAST said support will run out on windows xp,i never contact support yet and i dont think anyone here contacted them yet too,same on the software i havent yet see any software made for robots that cant use windows xp pro

There are not much of differences with using it on a Windows7 and XP on my side but there really are some components that do not work as described if you are in the more advanced OS.

I am guessing that you have tried the compatibility mode but still was not successful with it. And if that is the case, you might want to consider switching completely.

Hmm so some ezb features don't work if I'm using win 7 , please don't make me smack myself

Its good to get both sides out there I suppose. As for the power stuff....its worth looking into....Here is an interesting article...and link to the white white paper on Windows 7 double digit power savings compared to XP

Power Consumption

Did a single search and found this bot with embedded Windows 7.

ATOM-7xp

and another site for robots supports Windows 7 and LINUX.....options

Coroware Robotics and Automation

couple of things about comparing windows 7 to windows xp pro,first needs to be same processor board and memory ,so you need a 32 bit to do the testing,second on making changes to windows 7 for power saving ,you can do most all in windows xp pro

so it not a good test,only best test like i did is ,made many power saving changes in windows 7 and same in window xp pro and found i did save some power i have windows 7 on my video server and my programming computer ,because it was hook up to ac input and need much speed and power,on robots you dont need all that, s o the testing they did IS NOT ON REAL WORLD TESTING ON ROBOTS

then you have to look at extra costs using windows 7 compare to windows xp pro most robot we build here dont use anything very fast,unless you are using your robot as a home computer (jstarne and kkeast) is doing,to me thats not a real robot can very easy make a desktop computer and hook to large screen tv,i have 8 like that and adding another,one in each room and 3 in computer room hook up as a network and video server,and adding some others as control panels for my security system and X-10 control,WINDOWS 7 makes a great fast video server very easy to make windows xp pro use lest resources and power management changes to save power and add more speed

this is my video server running windows 7,real powerhouse ICORE7 3.9ghz 6 core cpu right now has 32 meg of QUAD CHANNEL ram and 4 teragig sata 6 ,boots super fast

@robotmaker...wicked!....put a SSD on that for the OS.....and it will boot even faster......but it probablly does more than you need it too anyway! nice!

i know about SSD,but for my desktop not really needed yet,looking to overclock to about 5 GHZ and buy a special cooling system,mostly a super gamming computer,i dont play games at all,but having it for as a video server,have more then 800 movies i collected

i found WINDOWS VISTA works great too,and there is still much support to it it does draw little more current then WINDOWS XP PRO much not much and close to WINDOWS 7 but still WINDOWS 7 DRAWS THE MOST CURRENT,simple test if you have windows xp pro or vista to compare current to windows 7 ,have 2 drives one with windows xp pro or vista,one with windows 7 in 32 bit mode,and if using 64 bit mode use that one and have a current meter hook up to 12 dc to dc converter so you can check idle current,min program current all programs running current on both operating systems,for speed test there are some programs out there that are free

if any ever see a big robot company that uses windows 7 let me know love to see it (link)