Why I can't get enough of Windows 7
Anyone who reads The Digital Home knows that I have issues with Windows Vista. I think it's a sub-par operating system with too many quirks and far too many flaws to make it worth using. I only use Vista when I have to.
So I entered into the world of Windows 7 with some trepidation. Would it be the bloated mess that Vista is? Or would it bring me back to the golden days of Windows and whisk me away from the clutches of Apple? I didn't know.
But after using the beta (a term I use lightly, since this so-called beta is better than anything Microsoft ever shipped as Vista "Gold"), I can say with the utmost certainty that Windows 7 isn't only the best operating system I've used in the past decade, it might be my favorite of all time. And as a person with four Macs staring me in the face as I write this, that's something I never thought I'd say.
But I should note that so far, all we've seen from Microsoft is this beta. The company has a proven track record of promising, and even offering, features in betas that never seem to make their way to the finished product. Yes, I'm looking at you, Vista.
Regardless, the Windows 7 beta provided me with an unparalleled experience. From install to surfing the Web, it's fantastic.
The install
The Windows 7 install provided the most surprising experience during my testing of the OS. Anyone who has ever installed a version of Windows knows that you normally need to set three hours aside to get it right. First, the install would take about 30 minutes to an hour, then you'd need to install all the software updates, and only then could you go out and start finding drivers so everything would work properly.
But installing Windows 7 is totally different. My install took about 30 minutes. Period. The drivers I needed installed were waiting for me and I wasn't required to download anything else.
It just worked.
The Windows 7 taskbar
As a Mac user, I've grown accustomed to the beauty of the Dock. It houses all my favorite apps, avoids clutter, and makes using the OS much easier than rummaging through menus to find an application, like I do in Vista.
But the Windows 7 taskbar takes that functionality to a whole new level. See, one of the major issues I always had with Windows was how difficult it made finding a specific window if many were open. With the help of the new Windows taskbar, that issue has been eliminated.
The new taskbar, much like Apple's Dock, includes all the applications, both open and closed, you have added to it. When you roll your mouse over an icon, thumbnails of every open instance of the application will be displayed. If you're unsure which window you want to open, you can hover your mouse over a specific thumbnail and it will be brought to the front in full size.
Though I enjoy using the Dock in Mac OS X, it doesn't compare on any level to the new Windows 7 taskbar. In Windows 7, I can find every instance of an app in a matter of seconds, thanks to outstanding usability and design. In Mac OS X, I'm required to right-click on the icon to find the window I want or resort to using Spaces. When going back to that after using Windows 7, I felt like something was missing. Something was: ease of use. Suffice it to say that Microsoft has totally changed the "Dock Game."
It's fast. Very fast.
Whenever you perform a clean install of an operating system, it's fast. Windows XP was snappy when I installed it on my machine and so was Vista. Mac OS X is still fast and responsive. But after using Windows 7 and comparing it to a clean install of Vista, I found it noticeably quicker.
Windows 7 and Windows Vista differ greatly in the amount of time they take to boot. Windows Vista generally takes too long, in my opinion. But Windows 7's boot time was significantly improved and matched the boot time on my Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard machine.
Beyond that, Windows 7 did everything else quicker than Vista. It opened applications faster and it shut down sooner. It loaded documents quickly and it took less time to open my music and listen to some tracks. Is the difference major? No. But it's noticeable. And that's all I ask for.
User Account Control is (almost) gone
When I used Windows Vista, one of my biggest complaints was the almost constant annoyance from Microsoft's attempt to hold my hand in making computing decisions: User Account Control. It was everywhere. "Do you really want to open this application?" "Do you really want to download this program?" "Do you really want to sit that way? It might hurt your back." It was extremely annoying.
But in Windows 7, the UAC has quietly stepped back into the shadows and I only saw it once or twice over the course of a week. I can live with that.
A shocker
After using Windows 7 beta since its release, I can say that I'm genuinely impressed. For the first time in well over a decade, I have the desire to own the latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft. There was a time when I thought I'd never say that again. But finally, that day is here.
That doesn't mean I don't have any reservations, though. Sure, these four features (and a slew of others I didn't mention) get me excited about Windows 7, but there are still some question marks that scare me about Microsoft's latest OS.
I'll detail those Friday on The Digital Home.
Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
After switching to the mac due to vista's unprecedented blatancy, I coped myself to think that it will take Microsoft
bringing Jesus back to earth for me to even look at a window's environment again and heck (Jesus aint here, will he ever) but windows 7 is giving me so thoughts on them again. After hearing all the buzz (something like this post by Don Reisinger i decided to tryout my boot camp and also windows 7. The installer was very quick like Don mentioned although i originally though it was due to my macpro's 2.4ghz plus 2gigs of ram that were capable of that magnificent speed but after reading this i guess windows seven is just very fast, think a la mac. All the drivers where also there minus only my altech which i later got via my mac's osx disc for boot camp that includes all the drivers for the mac. I'm very happy so far with the new ideas being implement (and stolen) sneeze!!!!!(excuse me) by Microsoft in this new outing of their operating system. Although i would say this, i do run in to some unexplained crashes mostly with Firefox. I can be doing some random web browsing using Firefox and the computer will just crap out on me, simply freeze. That's the only thing that has bugged me about win 7, other than that, all peripherals are recognized the minute they are plugged and work just as advised. I guess i will have to hold my breath for snow kitty (snow leopard) to see how much better the mac can get if not, if not, lol, i will just dual boot like i do now. There is no going back to windows, although im not a hater and will say this (Microsoft has officially stepped in to the grounds of decent and perhaps fascinating operating systems right next to our champ OS X
Specs -
Intel P4 2.4Ghz
1.5GB RAM (333Mhz)
64MB Nvidia graphics
40GB 5400rpm HDD (lol!)
Aero graphics work fine and it hasn't given me any errors yet. It runs nearly equal with my much newer Vostro 1400 (with Vista prem.).
The Vostro's specs -
Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz (800Mhz FSB and 4MB cache)
3GB RAM (667Mhz)
128MB Nvidia graphics
250GB 7200rpm HDD
Windows 7 flies on this thing.
Microsoft may just win me back to the fold from the white walled aluminium house I've been in the past few years.
Except for the phone - yeah iPhone still beats the pants off of everything that windows mobile runs on...the palm pre however may change that. Though the Storm was supposed to change that and rather just failed horrribly.
I digress.
Windows 7 = beautiful.
But SP1 fixed allot of the bugs in it.
In any case, I don't see how Windows 7 is any better than XP. In fact, I find XP more reliable and compatible with my hardware and internet surfing habits than this beta.
I'm just saying Windows 7 is just copying the KDE4 environment because no one is going to sue Microsoft for doing so.
(back on topic) My experience w/ Win7 has been everything I've hoped for. I will not repeat what the article author wrote, but can confirm! Win7 is very exciting and I hope MS continues this trend. I would love to keep recommending the OS that runs on hardware most people can still afford.
Dear dtpape,
Really, Linux won't run 'any' programs? Seriously, it won't run 'any' program? I can tell you have a great deal of experience using Linux. But I must correct you, signing up will not be necessary. You must be thinking of that other operating system that requires signing up, activation, signing over your sole, etc. But, really, seriously, Linux won't run 'any' programs?
linux and mac trolls? Yes Microsoft has it's problems, and yes it is an monopoly. Do you really think that Apple if given the chance would be any different? I have been running Windows 7 for about a week now, and I think that it is superb, give credit where it is due, too much to ask?
You may want to read the comment and know exactly what it says before posting. He said, and I quote "Windows programs don't run on it." Notice what kind of programs don't run on it? Windows programs are not the only programs around. Try running a Windows program, built for Windows, on a Mac without setting up a virtual machine, in the Mac OS. Do you really think they'll work? What was left out is the part about running WINE or running a virtual machine for any "essential" Windows programs. Many programs will run with WINE as a native Linux program would. Others can be ran through a VM with no problems. Some Linux users have found that a program run through a VM on a Linux distro actually runs faster than the same program run in a Native Windows Environment. Maybe you should go back to school, looks like you didn't learn anything yet.
Better a Linux or Mac troll than a Microsoft lemming.
Back to gnome, I installed Avant Window Navigator. While it looked better than the KDE4 taskbar, it has even less functionality.
So please FOSS and GNU/Linux fanboys, before saying nonsense, at least try to see what the competition is offering before bashing it and making wild recomendations. Regardless of any other attributes, visually Linux (any distro) sucks and as the old adage says, There is no second chance for first impressions.
PS: I am under a lof of stress and tons of coffee today so apologies if it sounded like a personal attack... it's not
Linux is ONLY cheaper than windows if your time is free. Just because you get the OS for "free" doesn't mean it has no "cost." There is a reason Microsoft is on top... They make BETTER products. The desktop OS can be debated. The server OS cannot. Can you imagine ripping out all your AD servers and replacing them with NIS? Can you imagine a company asking for new employees to have experience with Linux desktop? These things all have COSTS.
Microsoft is the industry leader in support as well. Those of you that have actually called Microsoft Product Support know what I'm talking about. There are a number of articles I've found comparing 0-day vulnerability response and Microsoft does not do worse than Linux or Apple.
Linux nuts may enjoy spending 5 hours trying to figure out how to compile a driver for the video capture card the bought. The time you loose fixing linux is the real price of a "free" OS.
Personally, I'm a gamer. Microsoft is destroys the other Operating Systems in this regard. My Geforce 8800 GTX is not going to work in Linux. Neither is my copy of Battlefield 2142......
So next time i feel like making a shell script to parse the output of (insert something inane here) or crack my neighbors WEB key, I'll go ahead and fire up my Linux box. But the rest of the time I'll be using my copy of a windows OS.....
I apologize for the linux highjacking of this thread - but had to answer the KDE4 over-enthusiasm. It's great, but no replacement for main stream OS's quite yet.
Why do people use Linux on servers then
even Apple runs Linux on many of their non-US servers
Win7 is not just Vista SP2, Vista doesn't even run on my old computer and Win7 runs just fine (potentially better than XP).
If you actually read the article, you'd notice how incredibly biased it was, all while assuring us he's a Mac lover. If you're a Mac lover, why would you say something like "would it bring me back to the golden days of Windows and whisk me away from the clutches of Apple?"
Notice that's an exact quote from the article, not taken out of context. I drive an Oldsmobile because it was cheap and it runs well and more smoothly than many newer cars I've ridden in. I use Ubuntu because it works better than XP on the same machine, more smoothly with more perks than Windows ever gave me and, in fact, it runs better than Vista on a system with 4x the RAM.
I watch a television I bought 8 years ago because it has good color and good sound, upgraded with a converter box to give me clear picture. I'm not crazy, I'm smart. Why buy something just because it's newer? New does not equal upgrade.
I won't say he shouldn't like Windows 7 because I didn't try it. I will say that he should give ubuntu a shot and be honest about it. The native capabilities are already more impressive than Windows and I haven't seen the UAC in close to a week. In other words, Windows is finally catching up to Linux abilities from several years back. We're already lightyears ahead.
And as someone who uses Ubuntu & Windows 7, let me say that Windows 7 poops all over Ubuntu for the same reason XP poops all over Ubuntu: Applications that people want to use run on it.
Have you ever noticed that GIMP, Evolution, Open Office and every other piece of OSS software is available free of charge on Windows, and people still choose to pay for the alternatives?
When you can't give away a version of a product that your competitor sells for hundreds of dollars, it means you suck.
"completely free of charge" ha ha ha ha. Again, only if your time is "free." See my posts above.
Linux is NOT a good desktop OS for the average user. Show us how easy and better Linux is. Convince 5 computer UN-saavy people - Maybe your Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Crazy aunt, etc. Then offer to be their support. Let me know how well you like Linux after that.....
Though I usually use Win XP for gaming , etc. Express Gate is great for Web , Chat , email , Skype and more. And is safer than OSX because it can`t be written too. Thanks , ASUS !
Right now everyone is talking about Google has this browser, Apple has that browser etc. Now everyone is becoming independent again and moving away from the standard. The standard soon became Anti-trust in the tech world because of whatever the reason IE bundles, money, hate, etc. As we all move forward we remain independent after the Anti-trust rather than collaborate with retrospect to this thread makes references the independent error. All the big players ganged up on Microsoft and cried Anti-trust now there is no standard and we have different browsers, different Operating Systems, etc.
Its has always been like that on the main frame side now the desktop and laptop having the power of the main frames of yester year we are beginning to see the software catch up to the power house laptop and desktop, that?s it.
[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
On a serious note, I too have been pleasantly surprised at how great the Win7 Beta is running. I've installed it on most of systems ranging for 3yr old Compaq, to my production Mac Pro/XPS 720 and my Eee Netbook. Needless to say, I've found myself logging into OSX and Vista very rarely now.
I'm looking forward to the Release Candidate and upgrade path because I doubt I'll be moving back to Vista.
If the install of MS - future - OS was fairly easy, the performance and compatibility did not boggle my mind on either machine I tested it on (Dell, HP and Parallels Desktop 4 on MacBook).
As for the features, they seem to have been imported then translated from the Mac world.
Again, Microsoft has a painful track record of announcing, showing off, then withdrawing some of the key features and functionalities they announced. How about we wait before we name an article "Why I can't get enough of Windows 7" and see what the REAL OS will look like?
We may be surprisingly pleased... or not... Remember Vista?
1. Windows 7 isn't the piece of crap that Windows Vista is.
( Well, there's a shock. It's better than a poke in the eye, too. But so what?)
2. It is about on par with Mac OS/X in some key user interface areas.
(Well, bully for you, Microsoft. You have finally, in a BETA, and years behind, gotten something that
competes with OS/X in some ways. Bravo. And by the time Windows 7 really comes out,
where will OS/X be?)
Excuse me while I go back to my poor, tired, old, BUT PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL, Windows XP
machine.
You summed it up well with #1. However he has said that it does surpass OS X. I use Vista and OS X (ironicly Vista runs like it should on the MacBook...) and they are about the same. Both have annoying things, both do some things well, and both seem to do everthing differently.
Thank you.
Sounds like a hack job to me.
Linux Mac and Google are farts in the wind on the Desktop. MS only competition comes from their own previous version.
Check the math again, MS was down to 80% last I checked. People are waking up and realizing there are options, better options, available.
As for the age of the underlying OS I don't think anyone seriously cares. The underlying OS in Linux and BSD is ancient as well, but I don't see anyone caring about the age there either. The only question is do the applications I want exist and is the OS reliable. If it meets both requirements I think most people couldn't care about anything else.
I have run XP with SP2 with no issues. I move between IE7 and Firefox, run AVG sometimes and never run into virus, spyware or malware issues.
When you have the largest share of any market you are bound to have more issues. Why write a program that only has the opportunity to affect around 10% of the total computer user base? There is no reason.
You Mac guys saying he is a M$ schill need to chill out. Your hipster latte sipping statements are getting old.
I too lament the fractured nature of operating Systems. Why, oh why, can we not all have the defacto standard that "Microsoft Windows became years ago"? Why do we need innovation to drive the operating systems market? Why must we have choice? If only we could have those spunky grey look alike uniform our Chinese brethren used to wear. But still I must chide you dear 'Spectator'. You seem to have lost your way. As you correctly point out "Microsoft Windows became the standard", yet you seem to want the latest version of this operating system, when you should be content with Windows 3.1. You must exercise more caution in the future lest we think you are one of the haters.
Excel was horrible till Quarto Pro showed up. Word Perfect is still better than Word...
I could never use Linux as long as it doesn't run the Adobe Creative Suite, Corel Painter, and Microsoft Office... at least not for work related things. The Mac OS X user interface hasn't changed much since the pre-release beta came out 8 years ago. I've been using it since then and every release has been mainly bug fixes. At least they finally got file sharing working kind of.
Anyway, I'm also very excited about Windows 7. For those who think it's a service pack, try it on a Dell XT Tablet PC with a multi-touch dual mode digitizer screen.
LOL? I guess that happens if you're still using 10.0?
The point is, Windows 7 is substantially different and genuinely worthy of excitement, especially if you're a Tablet/Netbook user or will be in the future.
I've played with Windows 7, and the taskbar is a nice improvement. The control panel on the other hand is an abomination.
Oh, and just FYI, the centered apple was dropped in the final release of 10.0.
- by ImIkeTheEighth January 22, 2009 2:18 PM PST
- I heard Microsoft is laying workers off. Will Don Reisinger's job be in jeopardy?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by indo_beau January 22, 2009 8:43 PM PST
- LOL! I always start to regret reading all the way to the bottom of these Windows, Mac, Linux battles but now I'm glad I did just for the comic relief.
- Like this
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Showing 1 of 6 pages (196 Comments)But I don't think his job will be in jeopardy now that he has fulfilled his part of the bargain.