Dell Latitude E6500 with Windows 7 RC

If you're using it as a hobby system, go ahead.  If you're using it for business or critical work, think twice - Windows 7 is a developmental operating system, NOT for production use.  It can and does (from first-hand experience) crash more often than Vista, and there ARE still hardware pieces that have no driver support or have only partial driver support.

DO NOT make the mistake of expecting a retail-ready OS - if you need that, wait until it is released.

Thanks for the reply and comment. The missing of driver support is my main concern and I guess I will use the VM technology approach ie

• convert my notebook to a VMware Virtual Machine
• upgrade the Vista 64 bit to Windows 7
• do more testing from the VM

Of cause the converted VM is not 100% equivalent to the physical notebook e.g. video driver etc, but at least I can have a rough idea on the compatibility of Windows 7 on a virtualized E6500 VM.

Will post my findings later on

I have done it. Everything works pretty well. I haven't tested the HSPA or POTS modems yet.

Good on you. Did you do the upgrade on your physical hardware or converted VM?

I just finished coverting my Vista 64 bit E6500 notebook from physical to VMWare VM, did the windows 7 upgrade yesterday. The followings are the findings so far

1. the Windows 7 upgrade when went, no error/problem was reported
2. Windows 7 booted up ok.
3. Dell ControlPoint stop working and I can't find any support/drivers on the Dell E6500 support web yet
4. Nortel VPN client (v10.01.052) stop working
5. TrendMicro stop working initial but after I remove and reinstall, it seems to be running ok

Will do more testing later on.

The Nortel VPN cleint stop working on the VM stop working after the  Windows 7 upgrade and Igot it working again (version 10.01.052 with tunnel type IPSec) after I uninstall and reinstall the softare.

Worked fine for me, running everything perfectly!

Nvidia had winows 7 drivers so I used that, everything else is running the vista x64 from dell's driver site.

No problems after a week of use.

I have a dell e6500 that has xp 32 bit on it.  I wanted to go to win7 64 bit on it.  It seems to work but is VERY slow on the expanding files part.  I left it for a few hours and it made it to 100% I think but then had an error that it could not find some file and aborted.  I read somewhere that I may need to load the sata driver probably 64 bit one...anyone know which one?

As opposed to other opinions... 7 does NOT crash more than Vista.  Especially the RC.  7 Beta crashed as much as Vista with the added benefit of startup/shutting down faster, using fewer resources, automatically detecting far more hardware and having some nice features to boot.  Has my RC been problem free?  No.  Have the problems hampered my enterprise experience?  Not at all.  I've used Beta since the day after the release and then the RC the day of the release.  My 6500 runs like a champ.  I find 64 perferable to 32, but if you have legacy 16 bit apps... forget running 64 without using virtualization (and then you run into other issues like video or something else with virtualization driver support.)

You'll need to grab a few drivers, but those are easy and by now Dell should have them.  If they aren't available, just go directly to Dell's suppliers and get the drivers direct.  Video shouldn't be a problem as it updates from Microsoft (yeah, seriously.)  You'll probably need ancillary device drivers and maybe chipsets (although that may not be a problem either.)

My company will be an early adopter of 7 because we had the luxury of skipping Vista.  I forsee very little in terms of technical issues and I am so tired of Windows XP, I can't stand it.  I personally think Vista is worse.  There are people that disagree and argue "implemented properly, Vista is a decent OS".  I beg to differ and use the now-cliche Millenium is to Vista as XP is to 7.  I'll leave it at that.