Windows 7: My Take

trigatch4

trigatch4

BuildAndEarn
Aug 23, 2006
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www.eurekadiary.com
Hey guys, just wrote up this article about Windows 7 I thought you might enjoy. If you like it... I won't be mad if you digg it ;)
Buy Windows 7: For Nostalgia & Sanity | Android Phone Fans

I've been RIDICULOUSLY busy and haven't swung by here much. Now that I've been so busy I have some great stuff to share and now I feel like I don't have any time to share it. How ironic.

Seriously though. Don't let me be a stranger. I owe you guys some good shit. It's coming. Promise. Maybe I'll even do a live case study or something - could be fun and a win/win.

Hmmmmm I kind of like that idea.
 


Forgot to copy/paste the article:

If you have Windows Vista, you’ve probably wanted to gauge your eyes out with a titanium spatula dipped in scorching hot snake venom. Or maybe not. But either way I want to inform you that today is the first day you can officially Buy Windows 7.

Why the HECK am I telling you to buy Windows 7 on a freaking ANDROID related site? For nostalgia. Android was created to free the masses from mobile prison and Google has already freed millions from Microsoft’s Alcatraz Mobile. Regardless of what Windows Mobile 7 brings, most of us will never return to what will now be called a “Windows Phone”.


Nostalgia. Because when all is said and done, this may be the very last time you purchase a Microsoft operating system. Heck… it might be the last time you purchase ANY operating system because with the help of Google, we’re living in a free world. This time next year you’ll be shopping for your first Chrome OS Netbook/Laptop running Chrome browser with both Google Apps and Android Apps.


Take a deep breath. Breathe in. Breathe out. Remember all the good times you had with Microsoft Windows along the years…


The floppy disks. The hard disks. The gorilla banana throwing game in QBASIC. The blue screens of death. The free Compuserve and AOL trials. The conversations you had under fake aliases with Compuserve and AOL free trials. The first CD-ROM drive you ever had. The first time you burned a Mix CD. The beginning of your music pirating obsession. The long walks on the beach. More blue screens of death. Number munchers. Word munchers. Oregon Trail. MS-DOS. Buffer overflows. Computer worms. Viruses. CRASH!


*sigh*


In all fairness I’ve had a decent run with Windows. I’ve never wanted a Mac and to be honest – I think they’re overrated. Go ahead Apple evangelists, skewer me in the comments. Linux and Ubuntu faithfuls, I know I’ll hear from you too. Microsoft Windows has been a real pain in the ass from time to time but for the most part… and I use that phrase loosely… Windows has treated me well.


But innovation is stagnant. Microsoft is complacent with having a death grip on Market Share and worrying about little else. Tisk tisk. Android has totally disrupted the mobile ecosystem, forcing a shift in how companies and consumers approach and perceive the market. Ane the loser? Windows Mobile.


I have a feeling Chrome OS will be to the desktop what Android is to mobile. I know Chrome Browser hasn’t taken off like Google hoped… or Google Apps, to be honest… but Chrome OS will be a bit different. Because now Google has Android. Android, Chrome and all of Google’s product overlap in ways that Google will be able to leverage like never before. Timing is everything and right now it seems like Google is carefully composing a software/services orchestra that they know, if they are patient, will become the ultimate masterpiece.


Don’t get me wrong, I AM going to buy Windows 7. Partially for Nostalgia – I think this is the last version of Windows I’ll ever purchase. But mostly because Chrome OS won’t be launching for another year and if I use Vista much longer than I feel forced to, there is a 50% chance I’ll punt my motherboard off a ferris wheel. And yeah, I’m waiting eagerly for Chrome OS… but I’m REALLY waiting to see what Google does to integrate Android and Chrome OS together.





But for the next 10-12 months… Windows 7 it is.
Click to expand...

:)
 
I think people will go 7 out of necessity, for example when manufactures push out the new lines and your only choices are Vista and 7 (ie: no more XP)... the choice is obvious.

I'm primarily a mac user (only really relevant cuz I have a 'dock' in similar fashion), and I think the new 7 taskbar is ugly, I actually preferred the classic XP look of the taskbar. Other than that I think its quite a decent 'fix' over Vista. 2009 must be the year of fix/tweaks when you consider Vista -> 7 , and Leopard -> Snow Leopard.

I wonder if we'll see the first major exploit as soon as the most popular distributor starts shipping out machines loaded with 7.
 
Refrozen said:
I disagree. Microsoft isn't going anywhere.


And I'm a Machead.
Click to expand...

I don't think they're going anywhere soon either, short of a major anti-trust fuckup. Essentially while OSX is nice the hardware it must be on is prohibitively expensive for 'most' home computer users (and doesn't make too much sense to corporate accountants), and linux just has too much learning curve and variety for the end users, and you would run into situations like hooking a neighbor up with ubuntu and they co out and buy some windows DX based game and wonder why they can't run the installer.
 
Also, for the record, Windows 7 boots up almost twice as fast as my Hackintosh running Leopard (same box). I haven't updated it to Snow Leopard yet though, so I can't say.

The Windows 7 bootloader is also incredibly pretty.

I don't like the new taskbar either. I wish they hadn't discontinued Windows Classic's taskbar in 7. That's actually my only serious complaint. Everything else is a huge improvement over Vista... unfortunately, it doesn't beat XP for me, still. Which says something about Microsoft's efforts, imo.
 
Also, @trig, Chrome OS is barely an operating system compared to Windows/Mac OS. Chrome OS is a web browser in a box, for netbooks, and really not going to be useful for much else. I don't see them ever wanting to expand it to be anything else.

As cool as Google Docs and most web apps are. Don't get me wrong, I use them almost exclusively for communications stuff. What will programmers do without a great text editor, what will graphic designers do without Photoshop, what will the common audience do without iTunes, etc..

Google Calendar isn't a good replacement for iCal or Outlook. Google Docs isn't really a good replacement for Office. All these web apps are cool, but they're not quite there, and I don't see them getting there until we overhaul the web in a lot of ways. Even the desktop apps; GIMP is not even a partial replacement for Photoshop, OpenOffice is great but for anyone except 100% personal users its probably not very useful (compatibility issues with .doc makes it hard to share your files).

Edit: Chrome OS sounds an awful lot like Easy Peasy with corporate backing from Google (i.e., Google-integration and lots of privacy issues that no one really cares about).
 
I'd also disagree that a Microsoft opperating system would be basically vanished in a year. It's going to take around 3 - 5 years (plenty of time for another Microsoft release).

And why is that? One word, "software".

Until major software vendors start developing for Linux based platforms, Chrome OS will suffer from the same outlook as any other Linux platform.

Why don't people use Linux? Software, and to a certain point, ease. That and people hate to just learn a new OS (even though they're all basically the same).

You see, it has NOTHING to do with price. Linux has been free forever, doesn't mean the masses are going to up and use it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great thing that Google is moving into an OS. Hopefully a large company with a lot of money can help spur development on the platform, and develop our own major graphics library like Direct X.

So no, Windows isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
 
Rage9 said:
Why don't people use Linux? Software, and to a certain point, ease. That and people hate to just learn a new OS (even though they're all basically the same).
Click to expand...

Now days most linux distributions install and do everything just great for an end user... basically everything it comes with, the problem is users naturally want to expand their software collection or variety, thats where issues start to arise with average joe and *nix. Oddly that isn't quite as true in regards to browsers :p, kinda wish it was.
 
kblessinggr said:
Now days most linux distributions install and do everything just great for an end user...
Click to expand...

That's not always true, there are still some gotchas which really need to be worked out.

Like having to recompile ALSA sound drivers every time I get a kernel update. Why does it just not work?

The list is small but they do exist. It's getting better all the time though.
 
I'll stick with XP for my desktop until resource requirements force me to move up to a 64-bit OS. At that point I'll probably bite the bullet.

I tested 7 beta, and I have to say it really provides nothing new I need, and some things in the UI seem arbitrarily changed just for the sake of change as opposed to adding functionality or ease of use. Performance comparisons between XP and 7 I've seen are inconsistent, or negligible.

Are you proud of that article? As a writer, I have to say it was poorly written, ignoring even the most common grammar conventions. You can't just write like you speak, inserting periods wherever you want to have a dramatic pause.
 
Rage9 said:
That's not always true, there are still some gotchas which really need to be worked out.

Like having to recompile ALSA sound drivers every time I get a kernel update. Why does it just not work?

The list is small but they do exist. It's getting better all the time though.
Click to expand...
I completely agree. Let's talk about wifi for Linux. A couple years ago I tried to set up a Linux media center PC with wifi and it was a nightmare, and I'm no technical slouch; I've been a sysadmin for SunOS, Solaris, BSD, and several flavors of Linux.

I know it's probably gotten better, but the thing is, third party hardware manufacturers are more motivated to produce working drivers for a commercially successful OS. It's a lot of work.

Don't get me wrong -- I love Linux as a server platform where the hardware is 100% supported. I wouldn't use anything else for LAMP etc. I just wouldn't want to use Linux as a desktop (I'm a gamer) or for any specific implementation where I hadn't checked out the hardware for compatibility ahead of time.
 
I bought Windows 7 about an hour ago. It's the first operating system I've bought since 2001... I used XP for 9 years and I can definitely see myself using this for at least the next 5.
 
I didn't say Windows would vanish. I just think Chrome OS will do to Windows what Android is doing to Windows Mobile. It will take 2-3 years though.

Think of all the tools Google has to make a completely robust Operating System built from the ground up in a new era of technology. They can totally change the concept of what an operating system is and should be:


  • Chrome Browser
  • Android
  • Google Apps
  • Google Wave
  • Google Voice
  • Google Books
  • Google Audio
  • Google Listen
  • Google Search
  • Etc...
Plus you KNOW they're working on more stuff, they plan on acquiring other companies, etc... I'm very bullish on Chrome OS.

Just like Android, Chrome OS will allow software developers to create plugins and extensions using a free, open and readily available SDK that will be designed around simplicity. Maybe it won't be as complex as Microsoft Windows 7 but sometimes (often) complex is bad. Bloated.

This time next year it will begin. This time TWO years from now this will be big. I'll make sure to link you to this thread in 2011.

That is all.
 
trigatch4 said:
I didn't say Windows would vanish. I just think Chrome OS will do to Windows what Android is doing to Windows Mobile. It will take 2-3 years though.

Think of all the tools Google has to make a completely robust Operating System built from the ground up in a new era of technology. They can totally change the concept of what an operating system is and should be:


  • Chrome Browser
  • Android
  • Google Apps
  • Google Wave
  • Google Voice
  • Google Books
  • Google Audio
  • Google Listen
  • Google Search
  • Etc...
Plus you KNOW they're working on more stuff, they plan on acquiring other companies, etc... I'm very bullish on Chrome OS.

Just like Android, Chrome OS will allow software developers to create plugins and extensions using a free, open and readily available SDK that will be designed around simplicity. Maybe it won't be as complex as Microsoft Windows 7 but sometimes (often) complex is bad. Bloated.

This time next year it will begin. This time TWO years from now this will be big. I'll make sure to link you to this thread in 2011.

That is all.
Click to expand...

1. Stop using the buzzword "robust". Every time I hear this I want to strangle someone.

2. Android is not eclipsing Windows Mobile, and certainly not about to fuck with iPhone or Blackberry.

3. 100% "Cloud based" apps are a pipe dream, because there will still be places where people cannot get internet access.

4. Google fanboys on digg/reddit are more annoying than any Apple or Windows fanboy, and I'm an Apple user for life. Jesus.
 
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