Is Windows 7 The Best Windows Ever?
From technology enthusiasts to the average Joe running Windows, everyone was looking at Microsoft for the past 2 years, their hopes gathered around a simple name: Windows 7. There are many reasons why this version of Windows was sought after, not the least being the public relations nightmare brought by Vista.
But did Microsoft come through with a stable computing platform, with decent hardware requirements and a hardened security model? The definite answer is yes. I’ve been running Windows 7 on my laptop for over a month, installed all the applications I’d normally use – iTunes, Office, Firefox, Mozy – and they all worked fine, without any compatibility settings or whatnot.
While my computer is far from being state of the art, it is able to run Firefox, iTunes, Word and Photoshop at the same time, with decent speed. On just 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 2,2Ghz AMD Turion 62 single core processor. The visual effects are fluid on a two year old ATi X200M graphics chipset with just 64MB of RAM. What they did under the hood, optimizing the code to run faster, is simply amazing. Running Vista on this laptop was like swimming with cement boots, even with the visual effects turned off.
A very important aspect for Windows users, security, has also been addressed in many ways, and while most of the technologies were present in Vista, they have been improved in Windows 7. The UAC (User Access Control) dialogs are less frequent and not so annoying, executables are scanned for digital signatures of their vendor, you are notified about files downloaded from the internet as well as an improved firewall and notification center. DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is enabled by default, we still have the KPP (Kernel Patch Protection) and a significantly improved Autorun. Also, the privilege level of your account is not root, which would grant you unlimited access to system resources, but a member of the Administrators group. To affect changes that may affect system integrity and security you have to accept an UAC prompt. In addition to this, all start-up items that access critical system areas are also required to be manually approved via an UAC prompt. Checks and flags are implemented all around, to the point that you would have to ignore multiple security warnings in order to get infected. These are all significant changes from Windows XP. All around, you can see that the engineers have dedicated a significant amount of time to securing the operating system.
From such an important aspect as security,we go on to examine the improvements in the user interface department. The taskbar, part Mac OS X dock, part Start menu is an elegant and comprehensive UI element. The functionality offered is simply amazing; We have quick access to commonly used applications, an amazing way to find the window you’re looking for with Quick Look, a streamlined notification area which is clean yet retains usability and instant search from the Start menu. I’m sorry to disappoint the Linux and Mac OS fans, but Windows 7, as it is today, has the most advanced and usable UI.
With Windows 7 Microsoft has changed the game. I for one was saving money for a MacBook, which from a Windows XP viewpoint is an incredible upgrade. But compared to Windows 7, not so much. We have performance, stability, a not too shabby security model, an incredible selection of hardware and software. If lastly, we consider the price – free until June next year – we have an incredibly attractive offer. The ball is at Apple and the pitch is going down at WWDC. Unless something amazing comes out, it’s going to be a homerun for Windows 7.
As always, I’d love to hear what you think about this topic. You can check out How To Install Windows 7 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox and Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine written by Guy McDowell.
Loading ...
134 Comments on “Is Windows 7 The Best Windows Ever?”
An honest comparison, if you were so inclined, would be to compare windows 7 to the new Apple OS after it is released. But this is a blog. Blogs are for opinion not fact and have nothing to do with journalism
Sorry to disappoint you Mikey. This post was originally intended to be published on MakeUseOf. I will surely review the new Mac operating system once it's released. Journalism, something you could elaborate on, if you have a point about that.
I think the blong entry is very accurate with respect to comparing the existing Windows operating systems and Windows 7. In my opinion, Windows 7 is in a fact a huge leap for Microsoft with respect to XP in functionality, and a tremendous improvement against Vista in terms of performace, reliability, user friendliness. I have been running Windows 7 for about 3 months now and I have been pleasently surprised. Particularly when it relates to security and visual content. I never made the switch to Vista… with Windows 7, I have already made the move!
What is more honest about answering the question 'Is Windows 7 the best Windows ever?' then what was done above? The new Apple OS, whether amazing or awful or inbetween, will still NOT be a version of Windows, therefore it has nothing to do with the question being asked.
lol what a jerk
Umm.. whats with the negative connotation here? I thought it was a perfectly honest comparison with other versions of Windows, as the title of the blog entry implied (Is Windows 7 the Best Windows Ever?).
And I see Steve beat me to the punch.
agreed – Read the title fool
I don't care how mac os gonna be. Just hoping Windows 7 much better than Vista.
The New York Times has a whole host of blogs (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.htm... CNN obsesses over Twitter, and almost every single good journalism source publishes articles online as well as offline. I think Mikey sees online articles as a certain type of material, instead of what it really is: a medium for any type of material – including well-written and informative ones such as this.
So what you are essentially saying is that Windows 7 is like a refined version of Vista, which was undeniably a step backwards from XP. Sounds like we are right back where we started. I've been using Windows 7 for about 3 months now, just moved to the RC build 7100.. Your evaluation covers the most basic functionality, but completely glosses over the most important selling point of W7, namely that PCs are not Macs for a reason. If I wanted a better OS I would have bought a Mac. The whole value of windows is not the generic fundamentals, but rather the extensibility and diversity of the platform as a whole. A dumbed-down OS is not a better OS, it's just a dumber OS.
I still think Mac OS is still better than Win 7
Mac and linux are both better and faster than windows, cause windows is not meant to be safe, is not meant to be stable, its commercial, thats why it promotes the use of antivirus and alot of small programs that need cash, in order to make more money, so , u cant compare it to other OS's because its simply different.
And yea, Windows 7 is the best windows ever, because it would be dumb, to make a windows thats not as good as the last one. Although windows vista is considered like that,vista unlike other os uses a different ram thingy.
But, all in all, windows 7 is a more "polished " version of windows vista with the desktop integrated, so thats why it seems more fast and speedy, my opinion would be, that windows 7 should have been a simple upgrade for vista, but , then again, its commercial
Good honest review of an operating system that finally sets the bar higher. Windows7 is much stable, safer and better in every way than Vista. I would recommend everyone to try out the RC1 and experience it for youself.
I am posting this comment from my windows 7 machine. I use linux and osx…I sell computers at a major retailer and I can honestly say that windows 7 is the best os windows has developed thus far.
Vista users do not know how slow their machines are until they use windows 7.
The overall look and feel of the os is crazzy!! I love it!
Your comments are ignorant. Please go troll elsewhere.
a)Mac is also commercial. I'd say mac is almost a monopoly since they control everything from hardware to software, giving them a free pass to inflate prices as they do.
b)Microsoft doesn't promote antivirus to make money. Antivirus exists to fight viruses. When Apple gains a more significant user base, the viruses will come.
c)Yes you can compare OS's to each other. A computer is a tool. Certain tools are better than others.
d)What the fuck is a "ram thingy"?
I completely agree. Using Win 7 feels like using xp with a Mac osX skin slapped on to it…
and i'm not attempting to be a troll.
I believe windows 7 to be an upgrade, but like many late to hit microsoft products i fail to really feel it to be innovative in any way.
the settings menu's are a nightmare… tossing you back and forth through the same loops, trying to dumb things down too much rather than actually making them easy to use…
prime example of this : having an uninstal button rather than being able to simply drag the application to the trash…
this is something i just can't live without… simple by design, not designed for the simple.
I just wish windows had something like garageband.
So if I am a new Mac OS user, would I receive a revelation from God to drag the application to trash? An uninstall button makes perfect sense to me.
I work in a PC shop, so I certainly have a bias to PC's. (I thought I should state that up front). Over the last couple of years I have begun to accept that Mac OS X is the superior operating system. Many of my customers are mac customers, buying cheaper networking products and peripherals off me that also work with Mac's.
Until now the only argument I have had against Apple is the pricing on their systems as well as the after market stuff; the range of hardware and software available; the fact that when talking to a new user I can speak honestly to them when saying you will have to learn your way around the new interface.
As a result I cannot speak as to whether Windows 7 beats OS X, but it appears that the Mac lovers have got a bee in their bonnet about this article because finally something produced by Microsoft is actually at least "comparable" to Mac's in usability. As a frequent Linux user on the other hand, I can tell you straight up that W7 beats the hell out of Linux for the non super-geeks, Linux can't even get simple features such as audio mixing and resolution changing right on a fair amount of hardware available, without reading the impossible man pages and reading how to edit some conf file in a keyboard shortcut driven text editor.
But as for working in a PC shop I know that from the release date of Windows 7 it is going to be a lot easier to sell Windows based PC's to the could be Mac converts.
Well written article BTW.
Better interface, better looking, fluid operation, better security, mac's better, blah blah
If i need something that looks nice i'll just buy a jaguar
For everything else there's the XP
Fails to innovate? Compared to what? The feature set for the last couple of OSX releases compared to the huge changes in Windows null your point out of existence. As for the Uniinstall button… if anything this is the other way round, I want to uninstall an application, so i click uninstall…. what is wrong with this? A lot of people would say that OSX takes simple to the point of being obscure, for example, they often shy away from labelling buttons so you have no idea what they do.
you are the moron my friend … windows is not meant to be safe … dont you think it would be a logical step in the evolution of this OS to have a good anti-virus built-in ? im not talking about that w. defender crap-ware. i mean a serious anti-virus ! i mean windows is out there since the late '80 (1986 i think windows 1 came out) and there are millions of viruses and shit that can fuck -up your computer, and windows still doesent have a a-v buit in ….
You are the one who is dumbed down, my friend. Try some recent OS’s based on the Linux kernel and you will see what I mean.
I feel stupider for having read these comments.
Thanks for the great article. I've been dabbling in Linux lately, and am ready to go back to Windows, especially after reading this.
For all of 7's new features, I think it is let down slightly by its ui. You can not add or remove as many items from the toolbars as you used to in XP, so for me thats less control over my operating system.
they are planning on doing that. If I remember correctlly it is called "one care".
1. I must start by agreeing to the comments on dumbed-down OS, for a newcomer it might LOOK nice but anybody with a brain in the end will get the more advanced one …
2. What I find surprising in the article are some strange mistakes – when I saw “Also, the privilege level of your account is not root, which would grant you unlimited access to system resources, but a member of the Administrators group.” I put it down to a post from somebody that only used Linux all his life and never bothered about details on Windows but on the other hand the overall tone and attitude does not point in that direction at all … among other things the total lack of any comparative info from the Linux world … and the part “I for one was saving money for a MacBook” is kind of pointing to a ‘wanabee’ which just looks after ‘cool now’ stuff …
3. Anyway, around here people obviously don’t know that also XP could have some of the improved security by using DropMyRights (and since NT you could use a non-admin account).
4. Bottom line – Windows 7 will cut the crap from Mactards bragging about the better looks of OSX and will be definitely a big step forward from both XP and especially Vista; however the competition is no longer OSX, it is now more and more Linux which is already close to domination in the ‘very skilled’ range and is also starting to look good even the more advanced users …
I just wish I could use Acid and Soundforge on my Mac. Their initial build in the 90's was better by far then even the most recent garage band.
You have SoundBooth, which is steps ahead Soundforge and (obviously) ACID.
I'll keep my Mac, for what i use it for – web design etc, the software available is streets ahead. Nice little apps like, Transmit, CssEdit, Tweetie, TextMate are just a joy to use. I normally use the Mac for serious stuff, while i see the PC as a fun machine, for internet – gaming – just something to let loose on!
Running Windows 7 on Vmware fusion seems to work well. :)
I work on Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows XP; at home I run Mac OS X. These days I think I would say that to the average user would feel at home using any OS assuming it is running normally. Sure on linux I've had to play with .conf files to get it working properly with my 2nd monitor, but then on Windows I've had to mess around with the registry and the problems I've had with Games for Windows even as a technical person are just plain annoying. Equally my Mac has given me a kernal panic during the boot sequence (my boot hard drive failed spectacularly and debugging that was a pain) and my screen gave me lovely orange lines (my graphics card was toast)
Windows 7 is looking like it will be a major upgrade and Windows badly needs that. Personally I'll be keeping my Mac OS X at home, since as a rule of thumb I can just use it but I look forward to using Windows 7 in 2012 or so when work gets round to using it.
Though vista actually performed better than XP in a lot of areas, and fell back in a lot of areas as well. 7 is like the good parts of XP + the good parts of Vista + more.
Sorry but windows 7 sucks big time. The UI is not strict. It´s a mixup with a lot of old and new things. The UI is in your face, not like Mac OS X where the UI is in the background. Sorry, but Microsoft is years after Mac OS X. The only thing Microsoft is the leader in is in the number of viruses on the plattform.
The UI is not close to Mac OS X. I know. I have been using Mac OS X since 2001 and i Windows Vista for two years and now windows 7 for 5 months. The UI is in the users face. When the UI is in the users face the productivity is decreasing.
Macs don’t have multitouch screens and OS X doesn’t run on a $200 netbook. OS X has nothing to offer this household.
Security?
BSD FTW.
why the hell would you buy a jaguar at all
Your article is pretty good. However, as nice as Windows 7 is (and it is nice) I feel like they will find a way to mess up anything they release. I have heard the same sentiment from a lot of people.
As someone who has had
1) Xbox – Red ring of death
2) 3 Zunes stop working randomly
3) Paid for Vista
My patience with this company has quickly run out. It would take at least a year after its release of everyone telling me that it was the "best Windows" before I gave them any money. Microsoft lacks quality control.
Agreed
I too have been using Windows 7 for a few weeks. It definitely feels better than XP, and is a lot better than Vista. However, things are not so rosy when you actually try to use the OS for some I/O intensive tasks.
Try this: Put 1000 files in a directory. You'll quickly notice that viewing that directory using Explorer, or performing any file operation on that directory takes several minutes.
If MS doesn't fix the file I/O problems, there will still be a significant percentage of users continuing to use XP well into the next decade.
I would venture to say that allowing nearly anybody to use the Windows 7 Beta and even more people to use Windows 7 RC is a pretty broad spectrum of quality control.
I bought a new PC simply because the second-hand bought PC I've been using is old and slow. I only wanted XP to run faster but my new PC had Vista pre-installed. I've never got used to a different operating system as quickly as I did with Vista, and found myself liking it very much. However, purely out of defiance I installed XP on a different partition (not easy to do with pre-installed Vista) and found that going to back to using XP – XP really sucks. I've been using Windows 7 for a few months now, installed on another seperate partition and I have to say I never these days use Vista! I like Windows 7 a lot. It's fast, its security is excellent, and its usability is excellent. I am not in the habit of speaking highly of Microsoft but well done Microsoft. It's a winner.
I tested the Beta version, and it was kind of better than Vista, but not perfect!
nice job microsoft! i love the new OS and it will do laps over a mac any day of the month! love it : )
Good point. Even though i prefer *nix over Windows, Windows is a hell of a lot easier to learn how to use ( but a slight headache to fix up :P )
HAHAHA, (d) Excellent!
Blogs have everything to do with journalism and to state otherwas is naive
Ram thingy: A word commonly used by mac fanboi's who are still in denial that macintosh computers will forever be a niche market until they can compete with PC's in terms of gaming
I guess the trick is to put out a crappy OS, then put out a decent one to show what you can do and redeem yourself. With windows ME, and XP, the difference was profound, with Vista and windows 7…not so profound, but less buggy. For the longest time I puzzled over how Vista and 2008 could have the same kernal. Not I suspect it's more marketing strategy than developmental retardation. The differences are intentional, and nevermid those who lost money, and those who bought Xp downgrades but had to buy a Vista license so MS could brag about how many many copies of Vista it sold…Am I being sarcastic? Yeah. Am I wrong? Maybe.
Sorry.. If you are going to command line on Linux for resolution, you haven't used Linux in over 4 or so years.
Linux has other issues, but CLI is not one.
Everyone's missing the real point here. As long as "us consumers" have at least two good products to choose from, and for those product's manufacturers to compete again. We need good competition to be given good options.
XP is faster. 7 doesn’t add anything I’d use that I don’t already have from 3rd party utilities. Oh, eye candy, wow.
So you mean to say that at your home you don't put garbage in your trash bin??? you need God to tell you that the garbage goes in the garbage bin? Or your significant other to do it for you? (uninstall button). I think putting things you don't want in the garbage is quite intuitive.
That being said, OSX doesn't delete your apps in the trash properly all the time. files are left behind in library folders etc.
So i think all thou OSX has the advantage it is not as simple as our friend Mac and Linux FTW says.
I have OSX running on my $200 netbook. Runs great.
Thanks for the great article
You have to realize the core focus of each OS in order to appreciate it's dominance over the others.
Linux: Customizibilty. Don't like the way something works? Open up the config file and change it. Your option isn't in the config file? Download the source code and change it there. Also, give Linux some slack on usability, considering it is free and doesn't have to field support calls from users who can't get something to work. For the other two OS vendors, that type of feedback is used to make the next version.
OSX: Usability and presentation. Why do some people buy a BMW when a honda will do just fine? When they drive it, it makes them feel cool on the way to work. OSX is the same way; every interaction and program that runs on it feels cool and well thought out, and it is very intuitive in the way the UI responds to user interaction.
Windows: Business and consumer. You have to realize that the large majority of computers running Windows are owned by businesses and the government. They have such a huge voice in what features make it into an operating system, it can really hurt the every-day consumer in terms of getting their voice heard. Each operating system they release has to be able to support such a wide variety of hardware, software, and users that it kind of dilutes the strength of the OS. Windows is stellar at doing just about everything in an adequate fashion.
FYI: I'm a computer programmer by profession; I run OSX on my netbook, Ubuntu on my work PC, and Windows at home. I think that each OS in each scenario that I use it for is the superior choice; I wouldn't change it if I could.
Windows is the most popular and most widely used OS in the world, the thing is linux performs much better it's just that it's market is not as successful like windows. I haven't tried it yet but I'm looking forward to using windows 7 if the blog post was true then congratulations it's really a huge leap but still it's a resource hungry
umm what version of linux did you use? I haven't found any hardware what wasn't compatible with linux in 3 years. But then again compared to windows linux gets major updates every few months than every few years like windows. And I'm almost positive that the new ubuntu is easier to use than any version of windows. Only reason windows seems easy to use because everyone uses it.
There are two arguments that apple fan boys use the most often that really irritate me. The first being that the Apple OS does not get viruses. If that were true symantec, Norton, and many others would not bother creating anti virus software. The biggest reason that there are more viruses on PCs vs MAC is that there are a FAR FAR greater number of PC's than macs. Same holds true for Linux.
The second argument is that the MAC OS doesn't crash or have as many problems. The MAC OS is also very restrictive as to what hardware they will support. Windows OS tries to support a much broader range of hardware and software. In most cases a problem with a PC can be traced to a third party driver or software as the cause.
Until the MAC OS supports every pieces of hardware and software that the Windows OS supports, and still has the same reliability, then any comparison between the two is moot.
Microsoft, get you own ideas, your layout is starting to look like mac's layout.
The new motion sensor for your x-box is a joke.
Seriously sit down higher some employes to actually think up your own fucking ideas.
Yeah! "higher" some "employes"! Didn't Apple recently release a right mouse button? Wonder where they copied that idea from. Oh, from every other browser who makes use of it! I'm guessing you're a Mactard, judging from your M$ hate and your spelling. The Mac vs. M$ war annoys the hell out of me because both OSes are catering different markets. GET. OVER. YOURSELVES. White pieces of crap hardware are not cool or sleek. You Mactards only buy their products because of the branding. And you M$tards need to stop arguing with the cool kids just because your software is a joke.
You sir, are an idiot. You must have voted for Bush twice since Fox news is real journalism to you.
I have nothing but mac's in my home and am a Linux fan, but Windows 7 is rock solid and awesome. I am running it as my primary OS at work. As for some of the comments from the Linux boys and OSX-ites, there is absolutely nothing wrong with commercial software. Opensource is great, but you do pay for it one way or another. I love that I can get a free OS, but it is not equal to Windows, or OS X (which is commercial, too.) Until the hardware companies begin making better drivers and the Linux folk get it through their ego's that simplicity (like Windows 7 and OS X) is what people want, then the Penguins are going to be on the outside. Linux is still geared towards geeks. It does not have the software fluidity of the Windows or OSX counterparts. For those who don't have time to play, need tools to get the job done. Microsoft and other commercial software vendors have provided that mean. OpenOffice is great, but it is no where close to Office 2007.
Microsoft does a good job and as for them being commercial, I am sorry friend, but that is free enterprise. While I don't like all of their tactics, they do make a good piece of software. Nothing is perfect.
I've been using Win7 since the beta, and am currently on the RC build. This is on a 2005 Inspiron 6000 laptop, which runs Ubuntu 8.04 in a dual-boot. It had been reported that Win7 was a good choice for older less-powerful computers with the visual features shut off. Windows XP always ran fine on this machine, and Ubuntu still is quite responsive. While Win7 may have a lot of useful features, on this machine it is a hassle to do anything in Explorer. Even just getting the right-click menu can take up to half a minute at its worst, and any file operations can take a lot of time, especially multiple small files (even when expecting an extra time cost in the process). While this isn't a high-performance machine it's running on, I'd have expected basic features like getting into a file's properties through a right-click to not end up being a chore. I hope that's not consistently the problem, but it sounds like I'm getting similar results as at least one person in the comments. If that's a common problem that persists into release, I don't think that's acceptable for a new OS that, for all I have known, have generally done the basics without such heavy delay.
When you get into using the higher end audio programs, Garageband is like a piece of trash. I thought the same thing until I got into recording with professional studios.
In (somewhat) defense of Apple, they make really usable applications. On the other hand, when you actually want to do something extremely well, their products don't cut it.
I'm an IT professional and have used Windows, Linux and Macs. Before I get blasted, I owned a Mac (iBook G3) and used it for 3 years running OS X, my daily work involves Linux, I do run Ubuntu on occassions on my Dell, and I use Windows Vista. My sis and several colleagues at work uses the new Intel MacBooks as well.
My experience with Mac wasn't fantastic. Yes, it's a beautiful (as in asthetically) OS, but other than that, I would choose Windows over it anytime.
Apart from the failing hardware (the iBook G3/G4 had known problems with the display cable fraying around the joints and also cracking GPU solders), the Mac was just not a very efficient OS. I had trouble multi-tasking and making full use of my screen space (no "maximize" button, no "show desktop" back in the earlier versions of OS X) and I couldn't remove a wireless AP I added moments ago without having to edit some XML file hidden deep in the filesystem (I believe this is still a problem now). By observing my colleagues at work, it seems to me that they take much longer to complete a task than I would have done in Windows simply because they are so obsessed with the graphical effects (e.g. they use the F11 or something to get an overview of all the windows that are open then take about several seconds to figure out the app they need to switch to because the windows are so damn small to even see – I'd just use the taskbar.)
The only reason why an IT pro would use Mac would be that it runs a *NIX. That makes working with command line and remote shell easier.
On the other hand, I have 3 copies of the latest Windows 7 build running over here. Although most newer features are plagarism from the Mac, Windows just does it better. I still prefer the Windows taskbar. I love the way the start menu allows me to search for an application. I much prefer the control over the OS from the Control Panel (OSX had a very simplistic control panel that didn't do much of the job). And I'm sure Macs can't do without a right-click nowadays but the MacBooks are still built without a right mouse button.
OSX is a great operating system for the housewives, but for a power user, it just doesn't work out for me.
I agree with most of what you wrote. Very well said.
Windows 7 hasn't even get officially release how can you even judge a product that hasn't even been in your hands yet?
well actually its only free until march when at that point it will shut down every two hours, rendering it useless for typical usage
I don't think the author knows very much about OS', Windows 7 has been benchmarked to death and it is slightly faster than Vista in some cases and slightly slower in others. It is still Vista underneath which means it contains years of spaghetti and legacy cruft code that does nothing but use resources and cause instability. As to best interface and surpassing OS X thats amusing. Leopard is years ahead of Windows 7 in efficient use of processors and memory and Snow Leopard will widen the gap even more. OS X is still far superior in having a simpler UI that gets out of your way while still being powerful. Plus the Apple hardware, software, support combination cannot be beat.
Macs have multi-touch trackpads on their laptops which are infinitely more useful and practical. They will be expanding the use of multi-touch on their laptops as well as the iPhone which has had it for several years. Thank god Apple does not have $200 Netbooks. They are not interested in playing in that low to no margin game using the cheapest possible components and no support. For that matter I don't know of many useful $200 netbooks.
As usual the Apple haters know nothing about Apple products.
I understand Windows users are desperate for something they can put on their cheap hardware after years of the archaic Windows XP and the horrible embarrassment of Vista. If you have to settle for Microsoft over superior OS' like OS X and Linux then its no wonder you see this as the second coming. but lets not make more of it than it is. You are still settling.
Its always interesting that people can't talk about how much they like Windows 7 without trying to slam OS X and Apple in the same breath. If you are that insecure in your choice of platform then its much more about you than Apple.
BTW I have 18 years in IT, and am a Principal Consultant who designs, implements, and develops operation support for very large, in many cases Global, Microsoft, Unix and Linux based OS' platforms as well as .NET and J2EE. I have my choice of what to use and my choice is Apple like many of the people I work with. I'm not going by what runs my games best or what i can buy cheaply. I have work to do.
"they often shy away from labelling buttons so you have no idea what they do." – such as?
you sir are an idiot
if mac has a monopoly on all its software, so does microsoft.
mac's shareware eclipses microsoft's any day.
You know, Microsoft would love to put antivirus right into the OS. However, there is something that prevents them from doing so. It's called "antitrust." They got kicked in the nuts by Janet Reno and the U.S. government, who ruled that they had to break out many of the parts of their OS to operate as separate downloads, in order to avoid stifling competition. Now that precedent has been established, they have to be very careful about what they put in the OS in order to avoid more antitrust suits. If they built in an antivirus program, they'd get sued by Symantec, and Symantec would probably win.
Back when Vista was released, this was actually an issue. Symantec wanted Microsoft to open up the Windows security protocols so that instead of just using Windows Security Centre, Symantec could install its own security centre. Microsoft argued that this would render the OS less secure, since the release of code combined with the lack of oversight for third-party software might result in exploitable third-party programs, but they eventually capitulated.
no one outside of the Apple NERDS cares about the Apple OS — and blogs are great for journalism because they greatly increase the levels of participation vs a dead newspaper model. Hoping that Windows 7 ROCKS.
Although still not perfect, the beta has fared much better than Vista.
windows fanboy
Before heading back over to "PLEASE PLEASE INFECT MY COMPUTER AND DELETE MY FILES" land, consider checking out Ubuntu 9.04 at http://www.ubuntu.com/
After using Windows for everything, I made the switch to Ubuntu Linux just over a year ago. On the few occasions that I really need Windows for something (eg: Visio) I can run XP under a virtual environment called "VirtualBox" – it's from Sun Microsystems and it's free. Only took 10 minutes to set up, and I swear XP runs faster under VirtualBox than it does running installed onto the computer as the main OS.
Another thing to consider – with Linux, there are no viruses. They simply cannot exist. They cannot achieve digital homeostasis.
Oh also my wife even uses Ubuntu Linux exclusively (after Windows again got s-l-o-w and/or infected – who really knows anymore). Email, web, YouTube, OpenOffice – it's great!
Oh and BTW its free – as in Freedom.
Well, if you cared to take a look, you'd see the apple fanboys slammed windows first. Anyway, after reading about some of the in-depth security features of 7 in the new [IN]SECURE magazine, I'd say they are on the right rack for sure. And, yes, their security far surpasses that of the Mac OS. However, it all looks good on text, we'll see how it performs. Just because it's a feature, doesn't mean it will be enabled by default. Like 7, Vista and XP had support for DEP/NX-bit, but wasn't enabled by default. We'll see how things go once everyone starts to get their hands on the OS and plays around with it.
I agree with you. The whole world is Microsoft devotee – They just follow without exploring options.
Microsoft is such a big company that if they try to bundle any software with Windows other than what you need to run it they get sued. (eg. bundling IE with Windows) as good as Macs are Apple doesn't have nearly the same install base so they are able to bundle all the software they want and no one complains and there aren't as many viruses for OSX because Windows has so many more users it is far more likely to find vulnerable Windows PCs then to find vulnerable Macs so people looking to infect PCs in order to send spam or whatever would probably find many more Windows PCs than Macs.
All I can say is about **** time microsoft woke up. After the vista debacle (The compatability headaches arguably outweighed the UI upgrades), it's good to see windows actually make an effort to become the best OS. IMO, which one is better remains to be seen, macintosh could come out with something amazing, but applause needs to be given to microsoft for starting to be competative again. After all, competition is good for all computer users.
Are you a power user? You started off like one but ended up like a grandma. All the feature you mentioned is already in other OSes. Have you ever thought why Vista existed in the first place? They (Microsoft) made money by allowing to downgrade to XP and will be making money when upgrading to Win 7. I was so happy when Ubuntu slips because they build a robust OS, while Vista slips did not do that.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6052766-7.html
http://news.cnet.com/Vista-debut-hits-a-delay/210...
I'd rather use windows 3.1. At least it had an original design.
Am I the only person who things that the Emperor has no cloths? I tried running WIndows 7, again, after having tried the first beta and just cannot understand why suddenly everyone who used to rage over Vista now raves over Win7. I uninstalled and went back to XP after 2 weeks with 7. On my quad core box w/ 3 TB of hard drive space and 4 GB of RAM, the Win7 GUI would often 'lock up' for multiple seconds resulting in a halting, jerky feeling while using the OS. For the most part, all my software worked – so that's a good thing. But why does it have to be so darned slow?
The rapid change in attitudes among reviewers really makes me wonder if there isn't some Microsoft Viral Marketing thingy in the works and that many of these glowing reviews are either paid reviews or written by MS directly. I don't know.
Win7 doesn't appear to be anything to rave about in my opinion.
^
||
spelling fag.
Am I the only person who things that the Emperor has no cloths?
I appreciate Justins opinion. As a life time PC user, I was forced to use a Mac out of desperation when my Dell broke down after just 4 years. When I tried using Vista, nothing worked period. It was worse than a paperweight because it was too large. During the Vista fiasco, I recall MS insisting only 50% of the people using it were having problems an that only 500MB of RAM was needed to run it. When I got it, It took me no time to realize the OS was lousy and all my friends were looking at me for solutions. You're talking to a guy who was hard core microsoft all the way and never thought about a Mac.
Needless to say, me and all my friends went from PC to a Mac and have MacBook Pros for laptops. Based on the tone of this post, I would imagine you are thinking I'm about to now pour on the Mac cool aid. No… I discovered because I was go with a PC and use to Maxing the computer, those skills help me a lot with understanding a Mac. First let me add, that I never left the PC world and have installed XP on my Mac was well as OSX. I never got the Apple warranty and removed the fly spec of a hard drive and installed a stronger and faster one.
For those PC users who and have used a Mac, I will help you. Apple deliberately makes its products to make it as difficult as possible for the user to upgrade and they try their best to build their product for obsolesence. They are doing everything possible to prevent you from replacing batteries, hard drives and drives on your computer and try charging you an arm and a leg for having to do it for you. Actually they send it to China-so nothing is done in the US.
If you get a MacBook, you will not get firewire, you will have no bluetooth drive possibility and you will find giitches that Apple knows about and refuses to correct. Everyone who owns a PC knows what Direct 10 X and 9X is suppose to do. But Apple users don't. They have been force fed the fact that Apple has great graphics, film editing and phot editing capabilities that make it better than a PC. The real truth is, for 95% of the Macs that have been sold, the platform of OSX has never been able to take full advantage of the hardware and the Mac Users who have Nvadia 8400s or 8600 are basically only able to use it to Direct 6X capabilities-same thing with sound cards. That is a major reason why you cannot play games on a Mac. In the newest version of the MacBook Pro, they tried correcting the problem, but still failed, so now you you've paid for two chips that cannot be fully utalized. So then you have to ask Multi media-Lots of short coming there too. The allusion of Apple.
If you get a Mac Book Pro you also don't have an external eSata port and basically have fewer ports. Without a fast drive and enough ports and having a firewire port taken away, you not only have few ports, but also do not have a central means for gaining through put.
With respect to WINDOW 7, all I can tell is is I have never seen it, but without looking at it will tell you MS only tred to copy the innovations of OSX. File searching, cover flow, icons and everything else.
The difference that Apple has from MS is that although they do the same things in different ways, Apple know what their customers use most and the market they are trying to reach.
When someone says an MS product is ready to use right out of the box, you will forgive me if without even looking at it, I don't believe you. The is especially after seeing the test result of how windowns 7 performs to Vista.
There are pluses and minus to both operating systems. If you would like eSata, many posts, blue ray and less expensive repairs and to be able to swap out different dives, you will need a PC. Sorry, but I will never use Vista ever.. Frankly nobody know what Vista Ultimate does better than anything else.
The reason why MS is rolling out Windows 7 (Vista Fixed the way it was suppose to) is not because of you the consumer at all, but because it cannot sell a new OS to business customers. IF MS cared about its customers, it would offer it's Vista users a free upgrade to Windows 7. That ain't going to happen because they want more money even if you got no benefit going to Vista.
I don't care who you are, but if you have XP or Vista and want to go to Windows 7, you are a fool. Unless you need a new computer now, I would "not" get a Mac unless you like the software the Mac has-The easy to use software is the advantage of the Mac. The Mac is not as versatile as a PC, fewer ports, no possibility of a Matte screen or OS Platform that can take full advantage of the graphics hardware.
You best bet if you can is always wait until a year after business adopt the platform, that is when software will be made for it. That is the best advise anyone can offer based on MS track record with its OS releases. I think that's as unbiased as it can be,
Is it me or does everyone seem to validate their post with "I've used Linux so I know what I'm talking about."
Firstly if you've used Linux, then you would know once it's installed and working even the most incompetent people on the planet can work with it for the most common of tasks.
It works on all modern equipment with no CLI. and the speed at which it runs is insane.
Mac OSX, people keep saying "oh but it's a completely different operating system" Jaguar was a piece of garbage, the OSX equivalent to Windows ME. Leopard however is absolutely stunning and can do anything that a Windows corporate machine can now do. Including connecting to Exchange via Entourage. It just does everything a little quicker, efficiently and safely than Windows.
And you can upgrade hardware!
Windows XP was just perfect, unless you're stupid enough to use any symantec anti-virus, Windows Vista was fine if you knew what you were doing and far too many complaints were made by people that didn't know what they were doing. Saying that, unlike XP after a year and a half of corporate use sever slow down did occur due to disk fragmentation that was impossible to sort properly without a re-install. Windows 7 has set a good impression, it still has it's basic Windows interface that people love and know, but I think it's still overly bloated in unnecessary areas for an OS, things that should be add-ons not default.
Oh yeah I've done them all, suffered through the good and bad and I should probably add the obligatory "I'm an IT professional blah blah blah" working in a run of the mill PC world is not classed as a professional, the fact they manage to tie their shoelaces in the morning always amazes me… YOU SHOULD NOT BE GIVING ADVICE!!! Call me when you learn to backup files properly and not the desktop shortcuts.
Do you know what the maximum file size capability of an edb file running sp2 is without using google? and do you know what happens when it reaches this limit?
Don't give me the Linux pro bullshit if you can't realise Windows is a very dead operating system, it's architecture is antiquated and you people that can't adapt are keeping it alive.
OSX Leopard is probably the best OS currently available, yes for office, personal, professional generally everything use.. and doesn't it just make sense to install a program by dragging and dropping, no click next, accept, no don't press that oh system failure call a professional, finish.
Linux is second by a fair way, but that's acceptable because I'm getting it for free and it's amazing..
Windows I genuinely feel is trying there best, I'm just waiting until the mass third party software bundles on PCs that fuck everything up.
the reason windows has so many more viruses is that mac has less than 10% of the market share. If i were to program a virus, what would be more efficient? a virus for less than 10% or more than 90%. I will not deny that macs are amazing machines but they are under protected. It won't be long when the virus and spyware programs see a lovely exposed chunk of market sitting there as a juicey target. have fun when the tidal wave of mac viruses evens the playing field. It won't be long before mac's 'security' will become a victim of apple's success.
Ha ha – i switched to Mac this year, couldn't care less about this. Windows is like a deranged denis the menance dancing on your desk and setting things on fire. Look at me, I just fucked up again! Oops, whats going on! Just pooped on your keyboard! Better clean that up! What you doing, trying to work?
where can i get windows 7?
"I’m sorry to disappoint the Linux and Mac OS fans, but Windows 7, as it is today, has the most advanced and usable UI."
Wow the author lost all credibility when he made this statement which shows he has little to no experience with either Ubuntu or Mac OSX. A new taskbar makes Windows the best OS ever ? Thats like stating that a Porche emblem placed on a Ford Feista makes it the fastest car ever.
I like Windows 7 alright, but it actually took me a while to get it to use my sound card right (an old Sound Blaster 5.1 with LiveDrive), as opposed to most newer Linux distros which pick it up right the first time. Sure, I'll blame this more on Creative for not supporting their old hardware, but you'd think Windows could have some sort of simple driver to make it work.
Oh, and my mother uses Linux. She's no idiot, but she's certainly not a super-geek. She can check her email and play Solitaire in Windows, but I've got her converting vinyl LP's to CD's in Ubuntu. They must be doing something right.
Linux better than Windows? Hardly. After using KDE 4.2.2 for weeks on end, I can see why Windows is in the lead. Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Your average consumer doesn't want the CLI — too cryptic and hard to learn.
Windows 7 is the most clever marketing ever. I am honestly amazed as how stupid people really are claiming that Windows 7 has a new GUI, it's the same GUI that it is Vista. Windows 7 is simply Vista SP3 with a new name, yet only a few people can see it.
People have been having problems with Windows products for decades, but that's ok I guess, because it's Microsoft and that is acceptable. Microsoft a multi-billion dollar company with more resources than god himself and most of the time they still can't produce a decent product, yet Linux an open source product with very little funding yet they still are able to produce an amazing OS with more features and customization options than Microsoft could dream of, but then of course people like you come along and state the old linux is too hard excuse.
Haha, you guys think journalism exists anymore. Our news is simply corporate interests fed to us through the actors they hired to read a teleprompt. Journalism died a long time ago, if it ever even existed. All news has a bias and is orienting towards buying or producing something.
Hey Mikey,
THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!
Truth be told, more than ever, all that you read or watch that is to be considered "news" is usually slanted or spun to sound interesting or appeal to a specific audience. Mikey, where have you been for the last few centuries?
Yes, and Apple is not commercial. C'mon kids! Think about what you're typing before you type it!
That's not how I read the review at all. I've been using Windows 7 for two months and my opinion of it differs from yours, I used to run XP simply because Vista was so slow. I also run macintosh (two Ibook G3's, (yes G3!) and I love the way that the mac ages so elegantly with the latest (beta!) Safari running perfectly on the 800 mhz Ibook G3, an equivalent would be a PII or PIII 450 Mhz. Yet the mac is great for what you want done on a mac, for everything else (i.e. 3d stereoscopic gaming on a HD projector) you had to use XP until now.
Windows 7 is miles ahead of Vista in terms of speed (bootup and shut down at XP speeds, but in terms of speeds it far surpasses XP, we can now truly unleas the power of 64 bit CPU's and DDR3 ram (XP 64 was very immature and unstable, Vista 64 was, wel, Vistaawful).
I am amazed at how great Windows 7 really is (it is not a better vista at all). What does surprise me is how much like the Mac dock the new superbar is though, it's like they copied it 1 to 1. Then again Apple has been getting too arrogant and walking besides their own shoes lately.
Wonder how much M$ paid to have this piece of junk published?
The Win 7 RC is ultimate and was installed over Vista Basic on a Celeron 540 with 2 megs of memory. All the programs were there and ran just fine. Oh yeah, the Vista explorer used to mysteriously freeze. Didn't happen with Win 7. It's a Buena Vista!
no, you'd receive a revelation from Jobs….along with your robe and flail.
Why must every single article about Windows 7 have such a huge number of Mac and Linux proponents responding? As mentioned, the title of the piece is solely about Windows releases. I have an XP laptop which is getting on in age, but have refused to purchase a new PC with all the negative things that have been reported with Vista. I have been looking forward to 7, with hopes that it might be a 'decent' Windows release that will work for me. Why can't the Mac and Linux proponents shut the fuck up, and allow PC users to try and get a decent feel for what Windows 7 has to offer?
That said, I can't help but respond to the flame war out of reflex. I have a bachelors degree in computer science. I have used Linux extensively in college, and although it is getting much better, it is not for the faint of heart. If the flamers really want to bash PC's why not direct your attention to the vast number of blogs/articles that detail the trainwrecks descibed by various 'PC users' and their pitiful attempts to try out Linux. If you want to spend the rest of your computing life wandering around the internet forums to fix problems that should have worked right out of the box, switch to Linux. (Power users and Engineers that depend on Linux for doing 'WORK' that can't possibly be done on a PC please disregard. The 'flamers' don't seem to be able to embrace the typical level of computer savvy of the American public. If it involves the command prompt, most of the people in America are going to get on the phone to their more 'techy' relative.)
For the Mac war I don't really have much ammunition. I have never even sat down in front of a Mac. Maybe if they didn't cost twice as much as a PC I would have. Maybe if I wasn't so tired of the 'social networking' + 'cool' wars I would. Take your overpriced proprietary imac, ipod, iphone, icrap, overbearing plutarchy and move to Britian. Maybe you should buy a Bentley, you obviously have more money than sense.
(I would apolgize to 'working' people who are forced to use Mac products here, but I don't know any. Maybe marketshare has something to do with that.) Since I have managed to get on a roll, and probably ended up on a hitlist somewhere, I will continue even further off topic of the actual article. Linux and Mac are fine. I might even consider Linux at some point in the future. Maybe a virtual machine which I can play around with. I would still rank Mac's with the average college student studying 'any degree that doesn't require anything higher than business math', and spending more time on facebook, myspace, youtube, and twitter than 'any' PC application more difficult to pull off than a web browser. All in, all done, any actual 'usefull' opinions of how Windows 7 is going to turn out? Is it Vista with a facelift, or actually something a bit more substantial. Worth the move from XP? My apologies about the ranting, but it seems that the Linux and Mac fans can't help but turn a review of Windows 7 into a flame war about which OS to choose.
It certainly looks good but Windows XP is the best so far.
Because we don't want you to waste time and money. Why wait while you can have it right away?
Think … If we all think, we might have even had a better windows – Instead of cashing money for Microsoft. Just think, if XP would have been the best windows ever, would you be thinking about Win 7. It is good that you did not buy Vista, otherwise, you would be paying money to downgrade to XP and paying money to upgrade to Win 7.
same here, i've got osx running on a $100 mac cube made in 2001…
I just recently try Windows 7 and yes, it is the best Windows out there.
Honestly, I skip Vista because my first impression on it is really bad
I can say honestly that Windows 7 does not give the same impression at all
It simply looks and feels better.
Yes, windows defender is annoying, but not as it is in Vista
I still like Ubuntu better thought. No argue here. Only a matter of taste
umm, my office runs on osx and i can tell you that we have five power users here. we run so efficiently that i doubt a team of seven pc users could beat our productivity. we made the switch eight years ago and wouldn't you know that we cut our it cost by like 40%?
I am not really sure what you are trying to say here actually.
For one thing yes OSX is very nice, I am writing this on my MacBook and I buy only mac's for my home however there is a serious flaw in your argument which always seems to sneak in..
Firstly we have the myth that linux is always simple. Nope its not, in fact some of the most common OS'es like Ubuntu have serious flaws when you want to go outside of the box – try explaining how to add repositories to your granny.
OSX is also very nice, looks great, works well.. But I support an environment with over 50 OSX servers in it and it suffers from some of the same issues as Windows with other quirks thrown in (the quality of enterprise OSX backup software on the market leaves lots to be desired) as does supporting mac's in large numbers in a mixed or mac only environment not to mention costly.
Windows7 is going to be sccessful simply because its fast, efficient and its an upgrade from XP corporates will buy.
And its the enterprise world I live in where Windows rules and will continue to rule. Nope folks despite the best claims we in enterprise IT are not switching to Linux or OSX – unless you count ESX servers as Linux I guess, we are not ditching Windows as out enterprise server platform because there is quite simply nothing out there that offers the maturity, enterprise stability and manageability as Windows and AD – nada.
And there in a nutshell is the reason why Microsoft continues to dominate the market and why Apple has sub 10% global market share – sure you can plug a mac into an AD environment – I do it every day, but to really get functionality you need AdmitMac which isnt cheap and then you have to pay more for most apps and deal with Apple support (ugh) but its worth it – however you still need all that back end and when you have 30'000 users or more you have only one choice.
The obligatory IT professional comment cracks me up because you then proceeded to make the same mistakes yourself – By the way the maxiumum size of an edb file is dependant on which version of exchange you are dealing with and what happens when it fills is also dependant on other factors, so no points there but Id love to hear your thoughts on what you do when you have a MNS cluster fail due to loss of Quorum drive and how to recover from that..
Windows isn't dead, anyone who thinks that is not an "IT Pro" indeed its not someone even paying attention – market share and mind share will show you its not the case and thats before you look at Gartner's figures on Enterprise sales and installed seats. Windows has survived so many death pronouncements by Linux and Apple advocates its not funny, in fact the MS Sucks rubbish became boring to most of us a decade ago now and we just buy what we like or want.
People who claim tt be IT pro's always make me smile – Ive spent nearly 200 years in the industry and rarely use the term except sarcastically these days – There's naught that is proffessional about most IT workers.
I am a Linux user. I have used Windows 7 RC for nearly three months myself. I am still a Linux user. Windows 7, while a VAST, improvement over both XP and Vista is still nowhere near as easy to use or allows as much customisation as my Kubuntu 9.04 installation. In order to get functionality such as an expose feature on Windows 7, where a movement of the mouse to a section of the screen allows you to see all current windows open in a neat tiled interface you can select from requires you to install additional software. Customising the look of Windows 7 is limited to colour and desktop background image. And STILL no multiple desktops which for me is a feature I now cannot live without since moving to Linux.
Don't feel sorry for Linux users, we are the guys revelling in a hugely more usable and profoundly more advanced operating system while the rest of the world hangs on Microsoft's every word.
how would it cut your cost by 40% when mac computers are more expensive than PCs and the licenses for office on mac is more expensive as well? it's an illusion.
How would you define power user? One that runs a bunch of commands to start windows services as opposed to clicking the button in services under control panel? If that's your defination of a power user, I'm sorry, I'm not one of them. I did NOT downgrade to XP. It worked fine, and I truly appreciate what UAC attempts to do.
I appreciate Justins opinion. As a life time PC user, I was forced to use a Mac out of desperation when my Dell broke down after just 4 years. When I tried using Vista, nothing worked period. It was worse than a paperweight because it was too large. During the Vista fiasco, I recall MS insisting only 50% of the people using it were having problems an that only 500MB of RAM was needed to run it. When I got it, It took me no time to realize the OS was lousy and all my friends were looking at me for solutions. You're talking to a guy who was hard core microsoft all the way and never thought about a Mac.
i think the illusion is your understanding of simple math and common sense.
my company has saved over $820 per month over the last eight years (nine years in September); that more than makes up for the increase in unit costs for the computers. take into account that many of the enterprise level software we use are cheaper on the osx platform, we don't have to worry about running virus programs and countless other issues that are built into apple computers; we're way ahead. consider that things rarely go wrong and i don't have people with twittling their thumbs doing nothing while a pc tech support guy either removes the ibm machine from our office or causes my employee to be down for an hour and a half. there's a cost for that my friend and i pay for it.
as far as costs are concerned; we priced out a dell server two years ago that cost over $1200 more than a similarly equipped apple machine. i agree that apple costs more in most situations but you have to appreciate that you get what you pay for. apple machines come ready and there's less work to do in future.
Hmmmmm….. I wonder why Adobe Photoshop runs faster on Windows 7 installed on my Mac than Mac OS Photoshop version?
How would you uninstall anything else on your Windows PC? If you wanted to delete a Word file, a picture, a movie, a Photoshop file, or whatever other file, how would you do it? There's no uninstall button for those, right? I'm guessing you would drag it to the recycle bin or right click on the file and click delete? Macs treat applications just like any other file when it comes to removing them. Just simply drag them to the trash. It's not rocket science. If you can't figure that out, how the heck did you figure out how to turn on the damn thing? I'm pretty sure the power button doesn't say "ON".
Come on guys, as long as you have the choice of OS just try out yourself what's best for you, and be contended with that, when you keep on comparing you will always have your own favorites, which doesn't necessarily mean the facts. Keep what you prefer and stick with it till you feel the other one is better!
.
Terrible post Florentin, where to start……. First of all, you said windows was "not meant to be safe", what respectful software manufacturer would not try to make their product used on computers across the world, including computers in banks, as safe as possible? Im not even going to comment on them not making it safe to promote antivirus software because thats just rediculous.
Your ignorance shines again when you say that windows 7 is going to be better simply because it is the latest windows OS. Im sure plenty of us prefer XP over Vista due to the smaller demand on system resources. By the way, can you ellaborate more on this "ram thingy"?
I would love to hear more of your expertise on the subject. TOOL!!!!
Yes, and as a result one tends to say words like "stupider" which don't exist. :). I'm not trying to be mean, just teasing you about. :)
I've used just about everything under the sun for the thirty years I've been programming for a living, from Radio Shack Model I's through Osborne luggables and Mac+->OSX with some sojourns into Windows. The biggest programming headaches I have ever had were writing font utilities for Windows XP and Vista for several reasons – their anemic font API, their dog's breakfast registry, their paranoid and ineffective UAC model and their inability to create really top-notch developer tools that didn't come bundled with a straitjacket. Lots of this is due to the inherent difficulty of writing software that needs to make an OS work outside of its design parameters but it's made worse by the fuzziness of Windows' design parameters, avalanche of APIs and the hit-or-miss documentation Microsoft does so well.
Windows crashes much more often then my ubuntu os. In fact ubuntu has NEVER crashed.
For the last time, macs have 2 button mice standard, in fact they are 4 button mice. Also, macs are not twice as much as PCs! Please get your heads out of the 90's! As far as which one is better? That depends on the user…period!
I think the best thing you could do is to buy that macbook. Why ? Simple: you can still install windows on it, and if windows would let you down you haven't lost a thing, cuz' you still got macos :D why do I think windows will let you down ? because it is from microsoft, and you cannot put your trust in it.. ok, so you tested windows7 a month or more.. well, talk to me after a year, that is if you haven't already reinstalled it by then! You will see, windows will let you down, sooner or later. It's a fact! It's still on top of Vista, you know…
I went mac, and i cannot go back! It's like a dream, a paradise.. it's like a drug! You get more addicted on every startup. You will soon wake up eager to start your mac, even just for watching it! It's crazy, I'm tellin' ya.. when Bogdan told me how mac can change your life, I thought to myself "what the heck, it's a *nix system! it cannot be better than a linux, and linux ain't better than windows xp or 7, so it cannot be better than my precious windows". Now when I have to start into windows (because of work & school), I'm disgusted and can't wait to shut that thing down and get back to mac! My god, i'm so addicted to it..
I WAS about to make an intelligent comment, then I saw the level of intelligence on this blog. Not just this article, but practically every one of them.
Anyway, let's just say, having tried it, I'd recommend windows 7 to everyone who still needs to use Windows. I myself don't see the need to, and am glad I won't have to pirate it or pay for it.
yup its not meant to be stable because its commercial.. because when making an os you don't worry about it being stable or safe if its commercial. Also Mac OS is not commercial at all. nope. and your not buttfucking stupid either.. < /sarcasm>
No matter how many big or little modifications Microsoft may make to its OS it still remains at the end of the day the same basic architecture. The inherent design flaws are still there. Only a complete start-over will ever produce a better system, and that, as long as there is still a "buggy-whip" buyer will never happen. The same is true of Mac, although its architecture is more interesting and clever. However, as long as Mac still holds the hardware captive, it will always come in "second" in the only game that matters: profits. Linux is frankly the only logical, practical solution for the rest of the world: it is "OPEN," free, and makes good use of standard, inexpensive hardware.
I think that there is no doubt in mind, that Windows 7 is by far the most superior operating system from Microsoft ever.
The speed and agility of the system is impressive compared to Vista and it beats Windows XPs boring GUI every day.