Once upon a time there was an operating system called Windows
95 which dominated most of the tech-world/desktop PCs. Windows 95’s dominance
continued when its new avatar i.e., Windows 98 took over. And then there
were others (Windows CE, Windows ME & Windows NT—CE ME NT?????), but none like
Windows XP. Windows XP was a wonderful desktop operating system and it ruled
over desktops for a very long time. Even today after it has (officially) passed
on the reins to Vista, Windows XP continues to overshadow its predecessors as
well as its successor. This is true because many buyers still ask for XP instead
of Vista. As a matter of fact many even sought to uninstall the preloaded
version of Vista in favour of XP. However, with newer applications and
technology being developed every day one needs to move on. With XP being more
popular than Vista and people preferring to downgrade from Vista to XP, what did
Microsoft do ? ? Did it infuse better code in Vista ? Was XP resurrected from
the dead?? . . . . on the contrary it announced the launch of Windows 7.
Microsoft has announced that the launch will be in the last
week of October 2009. In fact, Microsoft has already begun dishing out trial
versions to users in order to get a feedback and plug any bugs. The reactions of
the users however, have been guarded.
While other operating systems came and went, sometimes in the
blink of an eye, yet there were others like Windows XP which stayed firm. But
the question that begs to be answered is WHY ? ? ? An industry expert points out
that what many neglected to figure out was that Vista needed a different machine
and hardware to function properly at its optimum, not an XP designed machine.
It’s like when Bill Gates announced the launch of Windows 98, he said it was
faster than Windows 95 and better to use. What he failed to mention was that it
needed a different machine to work on and not the old machine itself. Oops, a
minor detail ! ! !.
Another fact about Windows Vista is that it gave
dedicated Windows users a tough time. For instance Vista takes up hogged
gigabytes of space, users had to interact with the machine saying ‘yes’ (as
someone put it) a million times before it starts to even contemplate copying a
small file from one place to another.
So what did Microsoft learn from all this (and after a couple
of million dollars down the drain) . . . looks like very little because (once
again) . . . they have forgotten to mention that e-mail, address book, calendar,
photo management, movie editing and instant messaging won’t be available with
Windows 7. These have to be downloaded from Microsoft’s website. What’s more, in
some cases, additional requirements are needed. For instance, the Windows XP
Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard
disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualisation with Intel VT or
AMD-V enabled. OOPPSS ! !
There are news reports stating that while designing Windows
7, users were asked, if it were up to them, how would they make XP better ? What
would they want from a new OS ? The feedback was anything that combines
simplicity, sleek design, ease of operation and interactivity sits pretty much
at the top of a ‘to own’ list. The result ? Windows 7. In fact, the marketing
hype from Microsoft says, “To create the next generation OS, which would make
everyday tasks faster and easier and make new things possible, Windows 7
simplifies things with a more streamlined design and one-click access to
applications and files. It has a faster boot-up and shut-down time and comes
bundled with improvements in terms of reliability, battery life and fewer
alerts.” What’s more, Windows 7 promises not only to be faster but in fact
intuitive. Features like multi-touch, JumpLists and HomeGroup have been built in
to enable consumers to interact with their PCs in faster and more intuitive
ways. Enhancements to the Windows taskbar, JumpLists and search are designed to
make navigation much easier. Also, InPrivate browsing in IE 8 prevents browsing
history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies and usernames and
passwords from being retained by the browser. Controlling the computer by
touching a touch-enabled screen or monitor is another core Windows 7 user
experience.
But the fact is that these features were always available in
MAC OS. For those who’ve used Apple’s systems, it’s easy to see what has been
borrowed. The taskbar looks and works like the Mac OS X’s Doc :
big square icons of your favourite programs. Other Apple borrowings include the
sticky notes programe, multi-touch gestures like rotating an image by twisting
your fingers and pinch to zoom. Aero Shake allows you to get all but one window
out of the way. One needs to grab the top of that window, shake it and all the
other open windows minimise to the taskbar. Shake the window again, and they all
pop back on screen.
Didn’t we see something similar in Vista as well —it was felt
nice initially, but then eventually I used to turn it off because the feature
would either slow down the PC or would result in disrupting other programs.
Whats the point of an enhancement which cannot balance user experience with
costs and performance degradation issues.
Another feature in Windows 7 is Snap. With Snap, one can
simply grab a window and pull it to either side edge of the screen to fill half
of the screen. If one wants to quickly see gadgets or grab a file from the
desktop, all one needs to do is move the mouse to the lower right corner of the
desktop. Peek makes all the windows transparent and one can view the desktop.
Windows Flip is a feature similar to Mac OS X’s Expose. The rate at which
they are borrowing the feature may be… one may want to wait for the Snow
Leopard (new OS announced by Apple) before switching to Windows 7.
There is also the issue of cost of the software. The cost remains unclear, though initial reports had indicated that the estimated prices for the full Windows 7 package in the US for the premium, professional and ultimate versions would be $ 199.99, $ 299.99 and $ 399.99, respectively. The hype however says that “Firstly, the price for the retail versions of Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional will reduce in the range of 15-25%. Secondly, India pricing for these two versions is lower by 25-40% in comparison with developed markets like the US. Pricing for other retail versions of Windows 7 remains the same as Windows Vista.” Of course this does not include the additional requirements in terms of RAM/CPU, etc. It’s still a wait and watch for me.
After all the cribbing readers may wonder whether its worth the upgrade … maybe … maybe not. Wait for the next write-up before you leap.
Cheers! ! .
This article is merely an attempt to give the readers a bird’s-eye view of the reactions. This article is not intended to be either an endorsement or critique of any particular software or feature.
