Comments on: I'll wait for Windows 7 before buying a new PC

Don Reisinger says Windows 7 is an outstanding operating system, but there's more to this story than its superiority.

[dumbspammers]

No, it's like cheating on your taxes because you found out the tax laws are in blatant violation of the Constitution, and that none of the lawmakers pay any taxes. If you want a silly metaphor.

[nebby74]

I'm curious how much open-space is available on the iMac... those 5400 rpm drives slows everything down quite a bit when they get close to full. I try to keep at least 50% open space. Running Diskwarrior helps too.

[edmalloy]

Don,

I hate to be the one who breaks the bad news ...... Windows 7 IS Vista. It is not a new operating system, simply the next iteration of an old one.

I know, I know your buddies in Redmond didn't tell you this, but it's true.

Poor Don.

[Mark_Anderson]

I hate to break the bad news: You're a retard.

[homercles82]

"Originally, a version of Windows codenamed Blackcomb was planned as the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. Later, Blackcomb was delayed and an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn" was announced for 2003.[7] By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major viruses exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period in 2003, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold in order to develop new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn (Windows Vista) was also "reset" in September 2004.

Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006,[8] and again to Windows 7 in 2007.[3] In 2008, it was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of the operating system.[9][10] The first external release to select Microsoft partners came in January 2008 with Milestone 1 (build 6519).[11]"

Vista is actually a copy of Windows 7. LONGHORN (VISTA) BORROWED ELEMENTS FROM BLACKCOMB (WINDOWS 7). get your dam facts straight.

[homercles82]

"Originally, a version of Windows codenamed Blackcomb was planned as the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. Later, Blackcomb was delayed and an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn" was announced for 2003.[7] By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major viruses exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period in 2003, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold in order to develop new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn (Windows Vista) was also "reset" in September 2004.

Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006,[8] and again to Windows 7 in 2007.[3] In 2008, it was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of the operating system.[9][10] The first external release to select Microsoft partners came in January 2008 with Milestone 1 (build 6519).[11]"

Vista is actually a copy of Windows 7. LONGHORN (VISTA) BORROWED ELEMENTS FROM BLACKCOMB (WINDOWS 7). get your dam facts straight.

[dumbspammers]

"There hasn't been a good piece of software come out of Redmond in.... well, never." I disagree. MS Flight Sim - from which the development team has been laid off. Apparently, producing a good software package is a violation of Microsoft corporate policies.

[SteveW928]

I agree.... M$ Flight Sim was pretty good, and early in the game.... though others have since done better. The other place M$ gets credit is Excel. Outside of that, I can't really think of any other innovations or original ideas.

[Inconnux]

Don't forget those great Age of Empire games, and Age of Mythology... Great games by the former microsoft owned studio, Ensemble... of course they produced a product of too high quality and Microsoft disbanded the studio.

Yeah sad to see Aces get shut down as well (studio that created Flight Simulator)

[protagonistic]

Having used the Windows 7 Beta and OS X Leopard all I have to say is can you please send me some of what you are smoking. Admittedly, we are talking opinion here in both our cases.

I have been telling XP users who are looking for a new computer to either get a MAc or wait for Windows 7. And I admit I do like Windows 7, but as I have told many people there is nothing in 7 that would make me want to switch back to Windows after a five year absence.

This supposed superiority of 7 over OS X has me puzzled, though. For one thing, the software that comes with the OS does not even come close to doing what I can do with a standard OS X install. A case in point is video cameras.

A friend of mine bought a Canon FS10 flash based videocam. We never could make it work reliably in XP Pro so I brought it over and connected it to my Windows 7 install. It does see the camera, but out of about three dozen attempts I could only get 7 to see the internal memory card once. When I hooked it up to my Mac it picked up both the internal and flash card memory and allowed me to bring in the photos and movies. All of this without even installing the Mac software that Canon included on the CD.

Anyway, to keep this short, there are so many areas where Windows 7 is still not caught up. I have yet to get it to do a backup to my network HD, something that is pretty much automatic in Leopard. So, while I agree with you that Windows 7 is very good, I have to add the caveat that this is true only when you compare it to previous versions of Windows. Windows will be caught up to the point everybody else is now, but everyone else will be about a year ahead again by the time it is released.

[Dylan_Wisor]

Waiting for Win7 to be released before buying a new computer? I've been holding off on buying a Vista machine! Looks like I got skipped over, huh?

[svk1069]

I'm not taking sides on Mac vs Windows here, but I do have to point out how Don Reisinger is trolling for comments again. He purposely writes stuff that he knows will get people incensed. That may be great for him and CNET as they get a lot of page views, but it's shoddy, sensationalistic journalism.

[SteveW928]

I agree but join the fun anyway. No one is THAT stupid as Don pretends to be. It is also interesting that he uses his Mac to do his work and a Mac portable when traveling. I wonder what his PC is used for?

[BazNZ]

Don said " I'll wait for Windows 7 before buying a new computer" in the context of a personal blog.

The fact that "...will get people incensed" says more about "them" than about Don.

[sanjayb]

I don't think Don believes half the crap he writes about. I bet if you were to visit Don's place, you would see him in front of his big screen TV watching the latest Blu Ray movie on his PS3 while surfing with his Macbook.

[wavjockey]

Rock on, Don.
Put me down as Win7 supporter.

Leopard and the Intel Macs DO NOT IMPRESS like they should.
OSX is a nice alternative look to the worn-out face of XP but the performance is not any better.
Vista is just a poorly executed Mac OS rip-off.

W7 is a whole new era for MS and the computing world. Coupled with more accessible versions of the Surface, I expect Apple and Google to "quietly" siphon ideas from Seven and claim them as their own.

[kcotham]

@wavjockey
Leopard isn't about "impressing". It's about usability and stability. I will agree that Vista is a poorly executed Mac OS rip-off, as you said.

Windows 7 is, as Microsoft itself said, more of a refinement of Vista. It doesn't really make any technilogical gains or changes.

If you think that Apple is going to borrow from Micro$oft, you've really been "been drinking the kool-aid". It always has been and always will be, the other way around. The hacks at Micro$oft evidently have been trying to play catchup with Mac OS X, and probably have been studying Snow Leopard with a microscope. By the way, Snow Leopard is also more of a refinement than a major update.

Oh, make sure you aren't late for work at Microsoft Friday morning. How is the weather up there in Redmond?

[jbrig08]

I agree windows 7 is really cool

http://www.ucubd.com/Index.aspx?id=1118&cid=x01000031

[Surf3Com]

Not to be too much of a Mac fanboy but using both OS X and Windows Vista and 7 you have to realize how many features Windows, shall we say, borrowed from OS X.

[jgalva88]

Well I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say about your first few weeks with Windows 7 are early next year if not Late this year.

[macewan_]

"I also like shiny objects"

Windows 7 in my testing was alright, but nothing outstanding. Ubuntu provides the same functions and has been in testing for years. It's constantly improved and all the software is free of cost and limitations.

[unifex_]

I don't know what people like about Linux, I tried it with Ubuntu when my anti-virus subscription ran out on my old Windows 2000 machine and I figured, why don't I try installing Ubuntu as a dual-boot, it's supposed to be virus-free and should be light on resources, so my old machine would work just fine, right? Wrong. Ubuntu was horribly slow. It never recognized any of the non-standard PCI cards I have on that machine, simply transferring a file from a USB key onto the hard drive was literally several times slower than on Windows 2000. I had enough of it after a month. I guess the old saying is right, you get what you pay for.

[somecallmemike]

I wonder how much this guy got paid by Microsoft to write this article...

[ppgreat]

What I don't see in the article is why he thinks it's the best operating system in the world, besides the linked article that he likes the Task Bar and it's faster than Vista.

Hardly switcher statements.

[gary85739]

Sure wait, the new OS will rock. Wait for it..it'll be here soon anyway...

If you have XP or Vista, you'll see an inprovement in W7....

I usually get a new computer every 2nd or 3rd version+ service packs...first was W95, next was WinXP...

[imacdane]

I've been wanting a macbook for some time now, but currently use a pc. Windows 7 does look like a nice operating system, but I will still get a mac and put run windows 7 on it if i want. Plus snow leopard is coming out as well, although its not expected to be a huge upgrade.

[norcalrivercat]

I agree in almost everywhere. Windows 7 runs better on my 2 year old HP then Windows XP ever did. It shocks me that Microsoft actually developed this product; but I'm really happy about it.

[ferretboy88]

Mac fanboy have a cocky and arrogant attitude and it tuns me off to Apples. I had a macbook but sold it. I didn't want to be part of a cult and if you ever went to macrumors.com you will see a anti-american liberal view of everything. They think its fine for Apple to charge $1200 for a ram upgrade or ipod touch software upgrades but God forbid if microsoft charges for software.

[crossedretorts]

I would also dearly love to replace my 7 year old XP system, and might even put up with Vista for a few months until 7 is released. But, I still haven't seen Microsoft's upgrade plan or costs. Wouldn't it be a great gesture for Microsoft to participate in the economic recovery by making it a no-charge upgrade from Vista, thus enabling some new PC sales right now?

[madcow06]

Ahh, I love the mac and microsoft fanboy fights. Have any of you guys ever thought about meeting up in a back alley and having an all out battle royale for os supremacy? Like the one in anchorman "rule number one no touching of the hair and face, and that's it!"