What do you think of Windows 7?

[The Big D]

With the release of Windows 7 forthcoming, I'd like to know what you think
of Windows 7. The ability to remove Internet Explorer (though only the shell
and not the underlying rendering system), is a pretty big improvement over
the 90's "Internet Explorer can not be removed from Windows" crap that they
spewed out. Is Microsoft getting less evil? Or perhaps, more evil?

[Marti van Lin]

The Big D wrote:

Well, I installed W7 RC1 (build 7100) twice. The first time I was rather
disappointed. Almost none of the hardware in my Acer Aspire 7220 laptop
was correctly recognized. That was probably because I had no Internet
connection during the setup process.

Odd, because according to the Microsoft Windows enthusiasts, it is user
friendly and suitable for Average Joe Sixpack.

Second time I installed it with a CAT5 UTP cable connected to the
Ethernet adapter and almost all hardware was correctly recognized. I
guess the correct drivers could be installed, because there was a
Internet connection.

I /never/ got the Atheros Wireless adapter correctly working under W7.

The only reason Microsoft releases W7 by now (IMHO) is that it needs
(financial) compensation for the Vista disaster.

So what does Microsoft do in this situation?

Simple: Come up with a Vista Reloaded (SP3), tweak it a bit, give it a
shiny new paint job (which is clearly highly "inspired" on KDE (or
borrowed from it)).

Next create a huge media hype and give the Lemmings a chance to try your
shiny "new" OS periodically. Make sure you get the most expensive
version out of the door, because you have crippled all the other
versions in the hope that the Lemmings will finally buy your most
expensive version. Otherwise the results of the "independent reviews"
will be unsatisfactory.

Now let one of your "Technical Evangelists" create a myth that
$VERSION+1, is more secure, faster, and more reliable than current $VERSION.

Bribe your press, known bloggers and your thankful Lemmings will parrot
your myth in choir.

This is Microsoft's business strategy: Sell the same old garbage over
and over and over again.

Microsoft: it's all about repetition!

Cheers

--
|_|0|_| Marti van Lin
|_|_|0| http://ml2mst.googlepages.com
|0|0|0| http://osgeex.blogspot.com

I ain't no Vole and I don't live in a freaking hole!

[The Big D]

> Well, I installed W7 RC1 (build 7100) twice. The first time I was rather
> disappointed. Almost none of the hardware in my Acer Aspire 7220 laptop
> was correctly recognized. That was probably because I had no Internet
> connection during the setup process.

All of my hardware, except for two devices (a TV tuner and my Via Envy24
sound card) was automatically detected on every release of 7 I tried (The
beta, the RC, and the RTM). I've never had a version of Windows do that
before, but I'm not runnning bleeding edge hardware (just a simple Athlon 64
X2 4050e, Radeon HD 3870, nVidia nForce 4 chipset, and at first the included
audio on the board, Realtek HD Audio, and then after that died, my Via
Envy24).

Though, virtually every modern Linux distro has done the same, and even more
(it detected my TV tuner and Via Envy24).

> Odd, because according to the Microsoft Windows enthusiasts, it is user
> friendly and suitable for Average Joe Sixpack.

Only computer enthusiasts will be installing Windows 7. All the rest will be
getting their copies on their new machines starting October 22. They'll have
very few hardware compatibility issues, I'm sure, as the manufacturer will
probably use compatible hardware.

> Simple: Come up with a Vista Reloaded (SP3), tweak it a bit, give it a
> shiny new paint job (which is clearly highly "inspired" on KDE (or
> borrowed from it)).

Considering that Vista was, to put it bluntly, a piece of shit, anything
would be better. Also, the the new Windows 7 interface did remind me A LOT
of KDE 4.

> Next create a huge media hype and give the Lemmings a chance to try your
> shiny "new" OS periodically. Make sure you get the most expensive
> version out of the door, because you have crippled all the other
> versions in the hope that the Lemmings will finally buy your most
> expensive version. Otherwise the results of the "independent reviews"
> will be unsatisfactory.
>
> Now let one of your "Technical Evangelists" create a myth that
> $VERSION+1, is more secure, faster, and more reliable than current
> $VERSION.

This is one point where the newer version of a Microsoft product is indeed
faster. Rare yes, but it has been done. With other products, a lot of times
it's true.

> Bribe your press, known bloggers and your thankful Lemmings will parrot
> your myth in choir.

Got to agree with you there, I even think some of these "small-time
bloggers" are Microsoft employees told to write praising reviews of Windows
7.

> This is Microsoft's business strategy: Sell the same old garbage over
> and over and over again.

It's a tried and true buisness startegy for Microsoft. All the PHB's hearing
about the new version of Windows requesting that it be installed on all
company computers because "It's the most secure version of Windows ever!".
Wait, hasn't almost every version of Windows been called that?

[artc...@gmail.com]

Really, it's the same old crap with a new layer of sugar-coating. Let's face it, the entire data model, security model, and kernel design of Windows is fundamentally flawed and cannot be fixed.

If Microsoft were truly interested in delighting its customers instead of trying to force more and more lock-in, they'd abandon the whole thing and make all of their legacy and current API's (from Win32 to .Net to Metro and whatever else) available as a layer that sits on top of Linux, just like Novell did when they finally came to the realization that Netware was an architectural dead end.