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.

Windows 7 mock-up from xazac.

Deconstructing the marketing

In the eve of PDC(Professional Developers Conference), a lot of people are starting to talk about Windows 7: features, release dates, and of course deciphering Steve Ballmer’s  comments.

It appears that Microsoft is taking the Apple approach – creating hype and expectations, columns on major publications and flame wars on forums.

They’re keeping the tech world on its toes, not a good thing to do if you don’t have something worthwhile coming out:

Customers are prepared to walk if you don’t deliver when you promise. So, in order to meet these demands, for the last 20 years or so, we’ve all been applying the mantra: “Under Promise & Over Deliver”.

Their current strategy would indicate that they’re going to launch something pretty impressive. Of course, if they don’t deliver (aka Vista), the first to be disappointed are the nerds and tech journalists, both with huge influence on the mainstream users.

They’re doing the same mistakes over and over again.

Windows 7: More than an operating system

Windows 7 is more than an operating system, its a 3-5 year strategy that affects billions of dollars of revenue, millions of people and companies around the world. It represents the lion share cut of Microsoft’s revenue.

Just imagine what would happen if people just stopped buying new versions of Windows. Profits would collapse and the huge costs of running such a big corporation would bring the balance to red fast.

Courtesy of ZDNET

In many ways this phenomenon has already started. A lot of people, myself included, are running the same copy of Windows XP they bought back in 2002, over 5 years ago.

And even with its huge marketing campaigns and deals with manufacturers  people downgrade to XP because it’s faster, less bloated (700MB CD – 4,7GB DVD) and less bling-bling style. Why would I want to run Photoshop slower? Or wait 2 minutes for the system to start up?

Features such as 3D rendering of the desktop are nice from a technological standpoint, but not very useful. This kind of feature-creep should be avoided for Windows 7 – and instead try to make it as lightweight as possible and let the users chose the features they want at installation.

Bottom line

People don’t care about Microsoft’s profits – if Windows 7 proves to be a flop, they will just stick with XP for a while longer. And, considering the tremendous efforts from both Apple and Canonical, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if more and more people bought Apple computers and PC’s with Linux preinstalled.

Microsoft is not going to go away soon – they sit on very large pile of cash – and in a worst case scenario they’ll become an IBM-type company.

While the demise of Windows may bring some smiles to the open source community and Steve Jobs, it will actually be a loss for the consumers: basic economics tell us that the more competition, the lower prices and better quality of the products.

Let’s hear it in the comments: What do you think about Windows 7 and the future of Microsoft? How would it affect you personally?