socialmedian: Is Windows 7 any different?

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Is Windows 7 any different?

Submitted by Robdiana from Google Reader

Nov 12, 2008

Summary

I realize that I may not know enough, but does Windows 7 offer any radically different stuff? I mean I am one of the few people who likes Vista, but how exactly is Windows 7 more than a sort of addon? I always feel that instead of a new OS, Windows 7 is what Vista wanted to be. We were promised a completely redesigned and different OS by Microsoft a while ago and I don’t really thing they’re delivering again.

Sure, it looks better, it’s possibly faster, it might even have some cool new tech under the hood, but in the end I don’t really care, and I doubt 98% of the end users care. Aeroshake is a nice innovation and the other special actions, taskbar stuff, it shows the company is thinking about users finally, but is it doing enough? I can’t really see the awesome breakthroughs, the innovations, radical new ways of OS design. I’m starting to think Microsoft would rather stay with the old and at least keep most of their market, then go for something new and risk it.

With even free OS-s like Ubuntu starting not only to catch up, but surpass Microsoft Windows in man

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Comments (4)

Chuckcolby,

Nov 12, 2008

Actually, it is - I use Vista because I basically felt I had to in order to get my mindset ready for my clients' eventual transition to it.

Mind you, what I know about Windows 7 is only from other people - but those other people are the likes of Paul Thurrott, who talks about it extensively on the Windows Weekly podcast - and his website at www.winsupersite.com.

The reason I like Paul? He makes a living talking about Microsoft stuff, but he's no fanboy. I've heard him rail about the ridiculousness (is that a word?) of some of Microsoft's decisions regarding product, development, marketing, any number of topics.

In any event, there is apparently no piece of code in this operating system that hasn't been given a "once-over". This is a much needed code tune-up over previous versions - to the extent that it may have even less in the way of hardware requirements than Vista did.

I do like my linuxes (Centos/Red Hat for servers, Ubuntu for desktop mostly) but I can't get the vast majority of my clients to go there - so I need to be familiar with the latest from Redmond, no matter what it is. In this case, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Bellepensee,

Nov 12, 2008

One thing to remember is that Windows 7 is not in production yet. The current release is only a beta. It is by no means complete. Maybe it doesn't wow you like it has for people like Paul Thurrott and the cast of TWIT episode 167 found at www.twit.tv. There is still time for Microsoft to show that this is a valuable version of Windows. Deciding that you don't like it right now is like saying that your baby is ugly when it is only the first trimester.

Desormeaux,

Nov 12, 2008

I listen to Leo Laporte's podcasts available on iTunes and on his TWIT podcast recently he had some people on that actually have the 650G HD loaded with Win7. I wish I had it on me right now, but I believe they said it has an amazing new toolbar and used a lot less resources then Vista, so little infact, that it can be used on a netbook. Not bad.....I use Vista on my HP Pavillion notebook, and it runs GREAT...so I don't feel a need to upgrade when it comes out. But as for XP users waiting for a good reason to move up...they may want to wait.

Maynardschriner,

7 days ago

Microsoft like Apple is taking the time to clean up there code and make things efficient. As we move from powerhouse computers on our desktop to smaller portable machines the more efficient and seamless between platforms they can make it the better. Microsoft got burned by touting new features in vista and not delivering so they may be in a under promise, over deliver mode now. I'm excited to hear they are slimming things down again. Vista and Leopard, though great operating systems, seem to require far to many resources and lots of tweaking to get them to an efficeent level of use. Even XP is tweaked by many to eliminate excess resource usage. I would agree though that it's early and Microsoft may come up with something truly inovative for Windows 7.