My AMD Turion 64 X2 notebook runs much better on the Windows 7 Release Candidate than it did on Vista In February, I compared the Windows 7 beta with Windows Vista on a quad-core desktop using the memory footprint and other metrics. Now that the Windows 7 release candidate is out, I felt comfortable enough with the system Saturday to install it on the laptop I use at home.You can say what you want about how Windows 7 is an incremental improvement of Windows Vista. On this laptop, the difference is like night and day.[ For now, Microsoft stays mum on Vista plans after the launch of Windows 7 | InfoWorld offers early glimpses at Windows 7 in a special report. ] You’ll want details. It’s a Compaq Presario V6000 with an AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50 dual-core processor running at 1.6GHz with 1GB of RAM, and it has Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics. I augment the inadequate RAM with a 2GB high-speed SD card dedicated to ReadyBoost.Qualitatively, the Windows 7 RC launches itself and applications much faster than Vista on the same machine, and with some exceptions, it has far fewer periods where it’s showing me the circular equivalent of an hourglass. Quantitatively, Windows 7 has a much lower memory utilization: just after boot, it reports about 50 percent utilization, versus about 80 percent for Vista. In addition, device and networking support seem to be as good or better than Vista, again with some minor exceptions.As I always mention, given my background in experimental physics, one data point is not enough for a conclusion. In addition, there are the exceptions to which I alluded. And there are still a few application incompatibilities to be ironed out, which may be the cause of some of the exceptions. For example, Google Chrome sometimes locks up on me, so I’m using Firefox and IE 8 for most of my browsing. Should my experience change as I add more applications, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, I’m a happy camper. Technology IndustrySoftware DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business