Reviews of Windows 7 have been favourable, but they are no guarantee of success for Microsoft's new operating system, says Jack Wallen.
The big day for the official release of the latest iteration of the Windows operating system is 22 October. Many have heralded Windows 7 as the product that will bring the glory days back to Redmond. Many have said it will erase painful memories of Windows Vista.
But I, and a few others, think Windows 7 will not be the success most pundits are proclaiming. Here are 10 reasons why Windows 7 could easily fail.
1. Too much like Vista
I have yet to run into a PC user who likes Vista. There may be a few who have decided that Aero is the prettiest of all interfaces and that the User Access Control is the be-all-end-all of security.
But the truth of the matter is that Vista is a horrible operating system. And what will surprise the public is that Windows 7 is much like Vista.
Granted, Microsoft has made many changes under the hood. But ordinary users will not know that. They will see the Aero interface and user-account control and turn their noses up at the latest version.
Microsoft should have made a complete break from Vista. Instead of improving on it, Microsoft should have picked up XP, the best of its operating systems, and made it better at recognising hardware and perhaps added a prettier interface. Unfortunately, Windows 7 is going to suffer simply because it looks and acts too much like Vista.
2. It will cost too much
People are going to be put off by the cost of the operating system itself, as well as the cost of the minimum hardware requirements. Yes, if your hardware can run Vista, it can run Windows 7. But most people are still running XP, and that hardware will not cut it with Windows 7.
We are in an economy where people are cutting back. Having to buy an operating system and a new machine is going to be at the bottom of the list for most people. And most businesses are still clinging to XP.
3. XP is still too popular
Picking up where my last point left off, Windows XP is still the king of Microsoft operating systems. According to a survey done in February 2009, more than 71 percent of all business machines are still running it.
A survey by research firm Forrester suggested that Windows Vista would overthrow XP as the business operating system of choice, but that never happened.
And the only way Microsoft will pull XP off of business machines worldwide is when it reaches its end of life for support. But did that stop users from using Windows 2000 altogether? No.
In fact, some people are still clinging to that version of Windows. But overall, XP is still the keeper of the crown for Windows operating systems.
4. The editions are too confusing
Which version of Windows 7 do you want? You thought Professional sounded best, only to find it lacks the features you need. So, perhaps you should choose Ultimate.
Starter may sound as if it would be a good version to begin with — as in 'new to Windows' or 'cheapest version'. But no, Starter is for netbooks. So, you have to look at it like this:
- Starter is for netbooks
- Premium is for those who want next to nothing
- Professional is for those who need to work from home and office
- Ultimate is what Microsoft should sell and nothing less
I remember when Vista came out. Trying to find the right version for me nearly required the creation of a matrix or spreadsheet — and even using these techniques, many people still bought the wrong version.
5. No upgrades are available for XP
XP users cannot upgrade. Only a clean install will do, which, of course, is smart — but it means you have to pay full price.
6. Poor for netbooks
The Starter version of Windows 7 is a joke. Yes, Microsoft did remove the 'three apps at a time' restriction. But there are other limitations — beyond the hefty hardware requirements — that make it a poor candidate for netbooks:
- No streaming media
- No desktop customisations
- No legacy app support
The first point is the real killer. Because most users do not want to clog up their limited...
Talkback
Tiresome. Another Ill thought out "10 reason" article.
1) Actually those people that ignored the press and MS knocking forums and used Vista in real life actually liked it. ALL other articles say that Win 7 is what Vista should have been and praise it.
The bit that says "But I, and a few others.." makes my point.
2) People will pay for it just like they always have done.
3) People are still on Vista because they got scared off Vista and MS made a mess of the launch.
4) A high percentage of people will get Win 7 pre-installed on their new PC and they'll be choosing the PC for all sorts of reanson OTHER than the Win 7 version installed. So lots of people wont actually be confused by the choices
5) OLD information. The European thing is resolved and standard versions will be shipped NOT ones without IE so upgrades are possible. Just done 2 in the last week.
The upgrade from XP is a pain but there are lots of frre MS tools to help. And a clean install will ensure that no old rubbish is carried forward so it will be worth the extra effort.
6) With the price difference between a Netbook and a Notebook diminishing we'll see people buying Netbooks for what they were designed for - browsing the net and not much more so the legacy app thing is not very relevant. Can't comment on the streaing media but if true it's a good point.
7) It's not like people haven't had time to update their apps to be Win 7 compatible. How many commercial companies haven't done so already or will have done shortly after 22nd Oct ? Most companies wont be starting migrating to Win 7 until next year so there's plenty of time to get apps compatible.
8) Wasn't this the point of a previous "10 reasons" article. I lambasted that one as well. Interesting the ZDNET piece the other day about 9 out of 10 MAC homes also had a PC.
9) There are other options to MS virtualisation and this is mostly a company problem not really a home user issue. Companies are coming up to their hardware refresh cycle as they delayed it when they chose not to move to Vista, most new machines will handle it.
10) Surely DRM is about staying legal and not breaking the copyright for, say an iTunes download or a DVD you rented. So surely it's only a problem if you want to break the law. If you don't agree with the copyright restrictions on iTunes or a DVD you bought that has nothing to do with MS or Win 7.
My turn
I've already upgraded the 2 Vista machines we have and the XP machines will be upgraded as soon as we get the time.
Hmmm, let me guess, you are a Apple lover of some description?
1. Too much like Vista
Um, it's easier to use than Vista. And Vista is actually quite a decent operating system (if you have powerful hardware to run it that is). Win 7 is what Vista should have been.
2. It will cost too much
Yup, most people are still running XP. There won't be expensive hardware upgrade costs though, if you can XP you can run Win7 on the same hardware. Maybe not with all the eyecandy turned on, but it will work just fine. I tested this with an aging AMD 3200+ & 1GB of RAM. It was just as snappy as XP was.
Your argument is invalid anyway - most people will upgrade OS when they buy a new machine anyway. They won't purposely go out and buy a copy of Win7. That's the average home users I'm talking about, and I guess you were too.
3.
Yes, XP is popular, however, there are many businesses that skipped Vista due to hardware expensive hardware upgrade costs and the fact that Vista got a lot of negative press when it was first released. They skipped a generation and will now proceed to upgrade.
4.
The only people that care about the flavours of Win7 or Vista are people in the know, businesses and hacks like yourself that love to write biased articles. Average Joe Bloggs will walk into a store, point his finger and say "that one" without a second thought to what version they are buying. If they do know about the different versions then they can ask in store. Not so difficult.
5.
Again, average home users will upgrade their OS when they purchase a new machine and anyone that is worth their salt will know that upgrading can lead to instability. Clean installs are the way forward.
6.
Who would want to stream media to their TV from a notebook in the first place? That's not what they are built for.
Windows 7 Starter Edition does NOT require "hefty hardware" - It doesn't include Aero and without Aero it performs just as well as XP does. You have completely missed the point here.
7.
There is plenty of time for companies to upgrade their software, companies won't be upgrading for some time well into next year. If they don't, you can hardly blame Microsoft. And again, as I said before, average home user will upgrade both computer and machine at the same time.
8.
Oh god, not this argument again. Linux is no way near ready as a Windows replacement, no matter the distribution - and that's coming from someone (me) who has tried nearly all of them. Average home user installing drivers in Linux, pffft!
Mac OS X on the hand, is a decent OS, no argument there. Lets look again at Netbooks again shall we? I could buy 3 or 4 Win 7 Netbooks for the price of the MINIMUM spec Apple Air.
Mac's price themselves out of the competition, but most people that own a Mac purposely seeked out Apple.
The Air isn't strictly a Netbook but it's the nearest thing Apple have got.
9.
Don't really know enough about this functionality in Win7 to comment, I can tell you though that I'm running software written for XP on Win7 as I type this and it's ticking along fine.
10.
What? That means that the way I've got my machine set up at the moment won't work? I have several sound cards spurting output in multiple directions through amps, mixers, effects units, recording devices etc both digitally and via analogue (I produce music and DJ) - I haven't come across one problem yet.
Everyone I've spoken to thinks Windows 7 is the mutts nuts. You would be foolish not to upgrade to 7 - if you are coming up from XP you will be blown away. If up from Vista you'll notice a difference and be thankful of the progress from Vista.
Die troll.
It's a fact that Vista is up to 22% slower than XP and although Win 7 feels snappier is still the same 22% slower than XP.
This slow down is glaringly apparent to the gamers out there. A game that run at 30fps under XP becomes unplayable under Win 7 - fact.
Then there's businesses. One of my clients is a construction company with 10 workstations and a server 2003 box. Like every other construction company in the UK, they are struggling in this economic downturn and their margins are being squeezed mercilessly. They are not considering upgrading to Win 7 at this time. In fact, of the dozen or so clients I work with NONE are considering spending £150 per station for the new OS.
In my opinion Microsoft well and truly dropped the ball with Vista and this will almost certainly have a knock on effect with Win 7.
I can mention that some of our customers are still using DOS.
Last time I tried, my post vanished :(
A lot of valid point have being raised in the article most notably around things like the splintered versions for very aggressive prices, and of course how the final deployment of DRM will be implemented in the final versions.
However people will not shunt it because of how the user login screens & Aero interface looks/works, but rather the cost to different versions ratio/confusion or the DRM if anything depending how that will unfold.
Although win 7 is built on the same framework as vista but now having most the bad points remedied thanks to the year long trial, this just leaves some applications with comparability issues left to resolve but I dare say no where near the same amount that vista brought with it.
The technical hop over required this time around is far smaller than the previous one but they are some issues that cannot be ignored, they most notably are the cost per package and the fragmenting of the OS versions along with the how the virtual machine part will function.
I've been on it (Windows 7) for about 3 months (MSDN license) and it rocks! I'm no fan of MS the company and specificially resent the way they make you pay for everything twice - version 1 to whet the appetite and frustrate the hell out of you so that you are happy to pay again to get it the way it should have been done the first time.
In the case of Win7 it does beat Vista hands down, bringing rock-solid 64 bit with excellent out-of-the-box driver coverage (at last). The whole UAC thing is far better thought out and much less intrusive than Vista's.
I reckon the first round of Win7 sales will be to the many, many Vista users out there who really need to get off it and their (undoubtedly positive) response should be sufficient to get the ball rolling. As a Linux enthusiast with (yes, reality-check I'm afraid) a Windows-only client base, my money's on Windows 7 adding back some of the polish Microsoft's reputation has lost in the last 5 years.
Pretty obvious you haven't used Linux recently. The only driver I have had to install, in the last 3 years, has been video drivers, and my distro tells me there is a proprietary driver available and would I like to use it. I press the yes button and it is downloaded and installed automatically. I have to logout of this session and log back in, but I don't have to do a full re-boot, as with Redmonds POS. My present distro came with the latest video driver already installed.
"<i>If up from Vista you'll notice a difference and be thankful of the progress from Vista</i>"
It seems a bit odd to me that one should be "thankful" for Microsoft making them pay, again, to replace the broken operating system they were already sold. There a a LOT of companies who would love to have such "thankful" customers.
jw
if this indeed does happen, If you have used the latest Beta of Ubuntu 9.10 you might be singing a different tune. My brother has been using Windows 7 too and for some reason it has started to slow down and he does not have much installed other than Dreamweaver CS4 and a trial of SQL server 2008. The PC is pretty powerfull too, DELL 4GB of RAM and a DUO core 3.0GHZ processor but yet IT IS STARTING TO CLOG-UP and SLOWDOWN. So like I said lets wait and see buddy.
I agree with everything the author has written, the issue here is that most of you fanboys want it to be successful period and want to ignore some of the issues. It is a very stupid mentality to have because instead of demanding better you simply say "Well it is what it is so lets go out and get it". No you should not be suckered into spending more money, instead like I said demand that the company(MS) gives you a free upgrade if you bought Vista. I sure did buy Vista and I'm royally pissed about that. So guess what I now run Ubuntu 9.04 which is great and does everything I want DRM FREE and with ZERO money down. So you can try and say I'm biased due to my past experience but before that all I ran was windows XP and nothing else, and yes I tried windows 7 RC and no it can't touch Ubuntu 9.04 even if it tried. You fanboys can cry all you want about it but those are the FACTS.
... and an anti-MS article, Never!!! If he believes that more than about 10% of OS sales are box product he must be mad.
This is a fact! It slows down just like all the other versions. Boot up, shut down, and starting programs all get slower after about 2 months use. All my Linux distros remain as fast from a new install to a year later. Period.`
Windows 7 has been streamlined massively from where Vista was. It is a massive improvement in efficiency. Processor activity, boot up times etc are all usually less than Vista SP2 on the same hardware, especially on lower spec machines. It even competes with and beats XP on the same hardware.
On your American version of ZDNet Ed Bott looks at installing Windows 7 on old XP machines:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1375&page=2&tag=col1;post-1375
I think you should have a look at what the rest of the companies doing before posting poor though out bullet point style blogs.
I'd love to know the numbers too... how many OEM installations, how many off-the-shelf and how many volume licenses through corporates? I get to play with whatever I feel like on the MSDN menu but my clients are in the last category; when their IT department says so, 20,000+ users will find a new OS in control of their hardware in 3-6 months.
Bottom line: folks argue about which horse must win or lose the desktop/server operating systems races for no better reason than they worship in the church of Operating System X. It's hilarious reading one guy's account of his brother's experience with a beta of an OS that's barely seen the light of day ranting about "THE FACTS". I say "Keep up the provocative journalism Jack; even if as food for thought the nutritional value may be (subjectively;-) lacking, the amusement factor keeps it tasty and we all love junk food don't we?" And for the rest of us: "Keep up the ranting but prepare to find yourselves in the half that was wrong". No not that half the other half dimwit!
Win 7 doesn't beat XP. It's slower than XP for video rendering, audio encoding, gaming, network file transfers, hard disk access and number crunching.
It may feel a little snappier on the desktop but when it comes to actual performance it's as bloated as Vista was.
Yes, just like all the other versions of windows, people like adobe will do all they can to make sure that their software auto runs at boot. It's easy to end up with lots of apps doing this and slowing you to a near crawl. On top of fragmentation and registry errors which occur by default. Yes Windows 7 is still high maintenance.
Why on earth are people comparing windows 7 with XP?
Surely the relevant comparisons should be against other current operating systems and applications.
The REALITY is that most people have ZERO interest in the other OSes on offer. They buy a PC, it's got Windows on it, thery know how to use it - END OF STORY. There's a minor interest amongst techies about improvements that have been made (Joe Public doesn't give a hoot about them - they just bought the nicest looking PC in the shop).
Corporates stick with what they know and what all of their workers and techies are familiar with and what their entire infrastructure is geared up to support.
What evidence do you use to back that up?
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/os/soa/Benchmarked-Windows-7-RTM-versus-Vista-and-XP/0,139023442,339297768-5,00.htm
and
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236&page=2&tag=col1;post-3236
Clearly supporting my point
I certainly agree that this appears to be another "Ten Reasons To Bash MS Today"...please stop these pointless articles.
I prefer Vista over XP by a long margin. Does this count as? I am an experience developer (yes using MS technologies) but I do not take a view of technology with a religious fever. My current client has XP clients and I work with Vista on my machines. I find XP dreadful (like most previous versions). More evidence is that my wife, whom I have no chance of persuading otherwise, prefers Vista too. She does not work in IT. My 12 year old son is the same. My 6 year old daughter is oblivious so I she cannot add weight to either argument.
Perhaps the next list can be entitled "Ten reasons why people have lost respect for journalists".
I never said XP booted up or shut down quicker.
In fact the only actual real world performance test that you linked to is the PCMark Vantage test for which there are no XP results, only Vista and Win 7...
For a grown up real world test of XP v Win 7 look here - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-xp,2339.html
You can't fail to notice that with very few exceptions Win 7 is indeed slower than XP.
Does your laptop or desktop machine have the limitations of a netbook? No, thought not. I have been benchmarking myself with the Win7 RC, I find it quicker than Vista for everything, and I don't bother with XP anymore, as I migrated everything I use a long time ago. What you are saying is not completely true, I admit that with audio encoding, the removal of the HAL for sound drivers means I can't make use of Audio processor hardware in Vista, and may slow down, and the Aero GUI uses more GPU power to run. But there are work-arounds.
Also, there are implementations that increase performance in machines of adequate spec, such as prefetching, I don't mind Vista/Win7 using 2 of my 4GB of RAM, when Firefox snaps open, whilst XP chugs along as it never preloads regularly used programs into memory, only using 400MB. You mention games, yet I have never noticed a dropped frame, it is all about adequate specs, and my games and work machines are a good few years old
The real point to what you are saying is that a machine that hasn't the spec to run Vista/Win7 is being throttled by it's own hardware, not because the operating system is too "bloated", I recently loaded XP onto an old 700Mhz celeron notebook with 256MB RAM. It ran like a snail. Is XP too bloated? Or is the machine just too old for the Software?
Also I am not a MS fanboy, my netbook runs puppy linux 4.3. I have just come to a conclusion by observation, and disagree with your assessment.
Does your laptop or desktop machine have the limitations of a netbook? No, thought not. I have been benchmarking myself with the Win7 RC, I find it quicker than Vista for everything, and I don't bother with XP anymore, as I migrated everything I use a long time ago. What you are saying is not completely true, I admit that with audio encoding, the removal of the HAL for sound drivers means I can't make use of Audio processor hardware in Vista, and may slow down, and the Aero GUI uses more GPU power to run. But there are work-arounds.
Also, there are implementations that increase performance in machines of adequate spec, such as prefetching, I don't mind Vista/Win7 using 2 of my 4GB of RAM, when Firefox snaps open, whilst XP chugs along as it never preloads regularly used programs into memory, only using 400MB. You mention games, yet I have never noticed a dropped frame, it is all about adequate specs, and my games and work machines are a good few years old
The real point to what you are saying is that a machine that hasn't the spec to run Vista/Win7 is being throttled by it's own hardware, not because the operating system is too "bloated", I recently loaded XP onto an old 700Mhz celeron notebook with 256MB RAM. It ran like a snail. Is XP too bloated? Or is the machine just too old for the Software?
Also I am not a MS fanboy, my netbook runs puppy linux 4.3. I have just come to a conclusion by observation, and disagree with your assessment.
brill i love it can.t do winzip and winrar on my super ubuntu,
NOW I,M GOIN TO MAKE A STATEMENT YOU GUY,S @ ZD.NET LOVE MS., I DO FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES i,ve been putting ms., 98/98se/me/xp on p/cs for 10 years free of charge ,for less fortunets and the disabled.
microsoft as charitable as they sound[charity foundation crap] have never once offered to help in fact sent me deliberate virus type worms ,because they new i was distributing iffy copies of ms., op.,sys., now the new i was only a learner and times are changing so i now put ubuntu on the free machines , it runs faster cleaner dosent need anti-virus dosen,t need cleaner and has a few problems but in the 7 months i,ve been running it 24/7 it,s only crashed once ms., crashes every month for the last 10 years it crashed that much i always had a backup disk hdd., of 7g ready NOW REVENGE IS SWEET and i,m watching bill worry about his renumeration from his shares he,s worrying don,t you worry, and when i poke fun at his new systems you guys go mad , i love it you,ll be turning sooner than later MARK MY WORDS and if i,m wrong i,ll eat bills hat lezlow nb sys7[win7] will flop as soon as all the kids get there sticky fingers on the tft,s and its slower than vista needs 4g ram to run it,its another damp squid replies always appreciated
brill just can,t wait to see the worms run this one
Worms propagate on windows systems, because they are written 'for' windows systems. Before it's mentioned, I admit that the kernel protection for Linux is vastly superior. However, I bet that if Ubuntu (which I have used a few years ago on my work machine) had been the predominant OS for the last two decades then malware would target Linux preferentially.
Also soon more malware will be written for OSX, because that OS is a ticking malware timebomb, people critisize Windows. OSX will come next, it's security at all levels of operation is a fallacy.
If Ubuntu had a better GUI than KDE etc... Then I might use it as my main OS, if ubuntu has Windows compatibility with apps and hardware, I might use it as my main OS, if it didn't require tweaks and workarounds or WINE for every little thing, then I might use it as my main OS. But I spend all day writing and rewriting code, I don't fancy having to do it to use actually use my leisure time. (However, I have had to manually create and sign those stupid digital certificates on Vista, because a driver hadn't been signed and would not install without disabling integrity checks though the command line. So I admit that winblows is not all user friendly)
On my main home machine I don't want to be fiddling constantly, I want broad compatibility. Functionality that extends to making music, and playing games, and non- PC related stuff. As yet Linux cannot offer these things, in time it can mature into a fine OS, but an OS of the people? We are yet to see.
may i point out that with super ubuntu which has been modified by the likes of the hackersclub.net[where i first got ubuntu] there are other alternatives to wine ,there is a tweak section where you can download all sorts of tested but not finished software, it,s cool the software is yours to use or alter freely your point about the games , is unique i,ve not found any that can run [correctly] probably due to the debian? but i successfully run chicken invaders a win 98 game thru wine .now thetrials packages in the tweak section have some really cool gadjets like nero and gui/firefox trials ther,s also live magic which is a debian live system i haven,t got my head around this yet , but will try again ,time permitting and there,s aMSN and your normal internet gui,s which are better than ms gui,s but not better than mac still trying some mac software ie., vlc and the like when you need a copy drop us a line and i,ll forward a copy lezlow@hotmail.com
Yes, I do agree with you, I regularly end up in heated discussions with friends and co-workers about the good ol, can Linux replace MS in every system debate. But although I do run puppy linux on my netbook, it's because it can do everything I need. When Ubuntu runs counterstrike through steam, or Mass effect and Unreal, I'll be there. But I have a friend who has his entire network, (and workstations running Ubuntu, in an enterprise setup), I also need to pick his brain. But I may drop you a msg when I get around to my next Linux build. But on to the original point I am looking forward to hacking up Win7, and seeing what I can do with it.
can i add a further point XP in particular BILL took ms dos 6.22 altered it to i think ms dos 7 and then changed win nt to ntfs and he done this with a purpose so, it couldn,t be utilised with other systems no one has ever fully cracked ntfs beause there,s machine code mixed in so crackers make the worms to throw his system as for vista ,being greedy he took dos 7 altered it to 7.01[dr dos] and changed the fat to fat 12 ,this means it w,ont play ordinary disks and to stop crackers he put a 50mb gap after the loadup so instead of first mb being for op., instuctions and sys ., then p/c commands its now got a 50mb gap ?what for? hidden agenda but ms has said on SKY its a flop so many have return it but i couldn,t get a refund ha ha
As above, I might be wrong, but I though the gap was for error correction ops?
well microsoft could have 50 mb of error data could it not
This post has been removed by a moderator.
I agree these 10 reason articles are pointless. I am also a Mac user who has two vist machines and one XP plus two linux. My two vista machines are running fine, one is a laptop which the wife uses so I not messing with that it works. The other vista setup is my games machine, it works running vista utimate I don't feel the need to upgrade that either.
My Mac is running Snow Leopard and is the work machine... linux I just trying to get to grips with.
Oh I also have an XP netbook no need or wish to mess with that either I only browse the net and email on the move with that and that is about to be replaced with a N900 when I get it by the nd of the month.
So to summarise I have no wish to spend cash when everything is working just fine as it is. Vista may have been poor but MS has got it to a place where it working just fine.
nice reading ur article you seem genuine would you give me your honest opinion comparing mac v windows/linuxubuntu i will value ur response lezlow@hackersclub.net
Wow... thats a big question.
I love my mac I have to say, it was expensive but its reliable and I upgraded the ram so I find photo/movie stuff is easy.
I play games, I don't want a Xbox/play station vista was horrible but its stable now and as I do a lot of stuff on my mac the vista machine I can use to flash mobiles (nokia mobiles keep backups on ect...and as I dont overload it with apps its snappy and boots reasonablely quickly.
Linux, i still a new user but Im steadily getting used to it. Its come a long way, I can remember years ago trying Red hat on a old pentium 3 and not finding drivers for creative sound cards!
In short i use the Mac the most, followed by vista, my XP netbook i only use out and about. Linux on the desktop I not sure I could depend on it for my main PC and I think I need to keep a windows machine for some of the jobs you still cant do on a mac.
i have a G1 mobile and I very impressed with android (linux!) on that although I have the N900 on pre order (err linux to replace the N810) and that may mean the XP laptop may start collecting dust...
In sort I hate to vote for one, I think many articles forget one thing that choice is a personal thing. Use whatever floats your boat, its a pity Macs are so expensive cause if they were not MS would have to start listening (or maybe they are as oSx has made gains). I would happily give my elderlyparents a Vista/Win7/OSX pc /laptop. I not so sure I give them a linux one. They live 300 miles away and are not tech savvy.
Not much help eh?
"It's slower than XP for video rendering"
Yeah - there is only one video rendering software in the world and only one hardware configuration to do it.
"gaming"
I hereby confirm that false. I am a hardcore gamer and have clearly felt the difference between XP and 7 - DX-based games have massive performance gains on 7.
"network file transfers"
Again, what software? Maybe explorer is slow but as a developer let me tell you that even Vista's network stack performs far better than XP's.
"It may feel a little snappier on the desktop but when it comes to actual performance it's as bloated as Vista was."
*sigh*
.
Hmmmm Bah Humbug....
As THE actual inventor of the term "Crapware" - about Microsoft Products of course...
THE best thing I ever did was migrate across to Linux.....
I think Microsoft is like buying a lemon car with a great (?) paint job........
I mean I can't just drive it, Nooooooooooooo I have to spend hours under the hood every day, day in and day out, just "looking after it" so it will keep on running....
The MS operating systems that require "going for a drive" not only with a boot load of spares, but also a tow truck and a van full of service technicians..... "OH yay! MS rocks ----- NOT.
And MS's security (anything) is not worth 2 dogs rooting in a blizzard....
Copy-pasted from the M$ $tore:
Microsoft Signature PCs come with full versions of the software you need, pre-configured and ready to run.* Included are:
Internet Explorer 8
Surf the Internet faster, safer, and more easily than ever before
Windows Media Center
Preconfigured home entertainment shell allowing users to watch/record TV and download videos/shows on PC, manage pictures, movies, music, play stored media from TV and handset; additional configuration included
Internet TV Update for Media Center
Software update which enables TV playback on PC
Playready PC Runtime (for WMC) Allows access to play-ready content
Microsoft Security Essentials
Automatically updated software that protects against malware, spyware, virus, worms, and other threats to your security
Microsoft Silverlight
Software for delivering rich Web applications similar to Adobe Flash; Web application run-time
Adobe Flash Player for IE
Software for viewing Shockwave Flash (SWF) animations and movies using Internet Explorer
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Software for viewing PDF documents
Bing 3D Maps
3D mapping program for Bing Maps
Zune 4.0
Music, video, FM radio, and podcast player; provides access to Zune marketplace for music and TV shows
Auto Collage 2009 Touch
Program for converting photographs into collages
Live ID Sign-in Assistant
Software utility to link Windows account with Live ID
LiveUpload for Facebook (for Photo Gallery)
Allows user to upload photos from Live Photo Gallery directly to www.facebook.com
Windows Live Essentials Windows Live Call
Allows users to make PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone voice and video calls
Windows Live Family Safety
Software for controlling and monitoring online activities of children
Windows Live Mail
E-mail client successor to outlook and windows mail; includes Calendar, Contacts, Feeds, Newsgroups
Windows Live Messenger
Instant Messaging, calling, and video chat program
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Photo-management software
Windows Live Writer
Blog-publishing software
Microsoft Office Live Add-In
Software allowing MS office programs to save files to and access files from a shared online workspace
Windows Live Sync
File-synchronization program
Windows Live Movie Maker
Movie-making software
Windows Live Toolbar
Web browser toolbar to facilitate connection with Windows Live
That's the spec list.....???????????????
I am now so thrilled with MS's offerings, or is that droppings, I think I have to get off line for a while and cry lest I feel overwhelmed with the urge to make a necklace of bricks and go swimming off a bridge......
Microsoft makes me feel suicidal...... Corporate Moron Bullshit to the Max.
Thankyou everyone who ever contributed in anyway towards making LINUX and all it's offerings so good.....
Thankyou that I don't ever have to go back to Microsoft EVER again.....
Microsoft Orifice 07? AFTER having tried it hard for a few days ??? - I wouldn't use it if I had a FREE version of it with hassle free upgrades for the rest of my life...... In fact if I was given a pirated version it would go in the bin......
All I can say is "I am SO grateful that there is Linux - Ubuntu Linux, and Open Office etc....
I am SOOOO pleased that I can escape from the cash cow for idiots by idiots.....
I am looking forward to the release of Windoze 07, as much as I am for dog terds to be made into corn flakes....
Microsoft software and operating systems?
PASS.
... as a 'NO' then :)
don,t feel like that j., ou,ve just been used for a few years i totally agree with all you said? now dont you feel much better and just think ,shortly you,ll be able to watch bill gates making a neclace of bricks ?// good on yer ,nice feedback try super ubuntu 9.04
.
Take that as,
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
NOT MORE MICROSOFT..................................................
PLEASE NO! NO - NOT MORE MICROSOFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The MORE I do Linux, the more Microsoft and it's offerings look like drinking a week old bucket of warm vomit......
Microsoft makes suicide look like a step up in a depression......
I am just so GRATEFUL that I do not have to USE Microsoft products anymore........
.
Let me see now have any of the post saying Windows 7 is good contained all this insulting nonsense ? Corporate Moron Bullshit, Cash Cow Idiots for Idiots.
Me thinks you do protest too much (as someone with a brain once (almost) wrote).
It's fine that you like your techie software - everyone has a choice - but just because people don't agree with you doesn't warrant all the invective. It just gets tedious and blurs any valid points that you might have to make.
Please feel free to post your comments on Ubuntu forums or give in to those desires involving bricks, bridges and swimming.
Yesssah!
Gottit!
Have you tried the Ubuntu Studio?
WOW.
I use Edubuntu cause I do lots of technical stuff......
To me Microsoft and all their IDIOT crapware, it's the emotional equivalent of using butt plugs so big you couldn't get a grip on a soccer ball....
I generally only make 2 comments when using Windoze stuff,
"Are you FXXXXXXXXXXX STUPID" - "Who is the idiot that designed this shit? and
"How come there is NO way to turn it off?"
I won't go into even a fraction of it, lest I start foaming at the mouth.
Oh well just a bit....
Copying the contents of Folder A to Backup folder B, and 95% of the 2977 files are identical... I am just not inclined to pick out individual ones... and copy them...
So XP copies across 2166 of the files and halts on:
Did you know that Thumbs DB already exists,do you want to write over it?
(We what was NO, YES and ""YES TO ALL"" for?, and how come 2 weeks back it pulled the same stunt for a different file????)
Sorry can't copy the file MSSHITSME.exe because the file name is too long.
(well it's backed it up every 2 weeks for the last year, so why is it jamming up now?)
(Oh yeah and forget EVER using anything MS backup - cause Backup rhymes with....)
And when I hassle the lame techs in MS, like how do I switch this crap off they say it can't be done, and so I say, "Well someone wrote it in there to make it be done, so therefore it can be undone, if you don't or won't or can't help - can you put me through to that person who did it?"
stone silence......
And there is NON of that crap with Ubuntu.....
Copy EVERYTHING from folder A to backup Folder B - even on NTFS drives..... it does it.
When I start thinking about MS and all the years of using their crapware, I want to drag people across the desk and beat them.....
They and thei crapware have caused me so much trauma, and such HUGE wastes of my valuable LIFE time.... because they are IDIOTS that pump out junk software and think that's just fine....
Are people really that STUPID that they release software onto the market that is THAT bad and has such idiotic functions?
Yes... it's all Microsoft.
I hate them and I hate their software......
And I am (almost in tears) sooooo grateful that Ubuntu and all the others have come onto the market and that I to can contribute to it all in ways that benefit others....
You wouldn't perchance be a reseller of MS-ware, and just happen to have to much free time on your hands - because the customers are not rushing in to buy Windoze 07?
i never said i,m anti widows i,ve even got an old win 95 p/c working here ,i,m stating the facts that in my true honest opinion we,ve all been ripped off by windows for years? hey i would be able to do half my downloads only for windows , i take all the winrar stuff and win avi stuff not forgetting winamp/ms dos/ and the like to my XP machine and convert it , now i know you,ll say XP can,t convert ms dos ? but mine can.
so in effect i,d be lost without it,its now doing a convertion from matroski avi-to avi to mpeg to dvd 3/12 hours but i can,t do this on ubuntu . hey but you bet were working on it
KIND REGARDS lezlow
j 1st no i have not tried the studio and will ,istill use xp for converting ms stuffs , now i have found when it gets stuck [cont alt+del] will let you close page , you probably know that if you didn,t have you got dos on your xp y/n if not go to jacarandabill.com and d/l it free it works [not that i,m promoting xp] but if you need it it works better, now j you sound like you know what your on about [help me] i only need my xp for converting 1 winrar files 2 win avi 3 win ms dos and the like ,i,ll try the studio but i can,t do those winsh..t on ubuntu
It was aimed at Jahm who, I see, has added to the diatribe of pointlessly rude comments. And his only response is to claim I'm a MS reseller ! That seems a good way of countering my points. More telling I thought was the fact that he writes
"And I am (almost in tears) sooooo grateful that Ubuntu and all the others have come onto the market and that I to can contribute to it all in ways that benefit others...."
So, in fact, it's Jahm that's coming from a biased point of view not me.
j got that few snags after loading coldn,t remember my sign in name
, but loaded and looks great , keep it coming. lezlow
due you realise that all our chats about ubuntu / linux+mac are seriously damaging windows ? whilst all those peoples are busy reading the gossip ?there not looking at the adverts and i,ve had a few comment deleted so someone is sulking
We are performing a public sevice then. Aren't we nice.
go 4 it ...?
i agree but there are more than 10 reasons it may flop
1 its crap
2 its cheap 79quid from m/chester free delivery no need to insure it the bloke said , no one will pinch it , no one wants it
3 its an upgrade from xp to vist and vista to sys 7 nowt between them
4its sad buiseness peoples are wise now to the need for new softwares
5its not tested
6they are relient on joe public to test it
7 its been reduced in price to 1 third the USA cost in uk
8 its a bit fishy and its crashed other peoples computers
9the likes of j:/ who know what there on about won,t buy it
10 i told this chap at the pub m/chester are selling sys7 for 79squid he pulled out a copy and said fiver mate its urs it wont run on me machine
i said for a fiver u can,t go wrong i bought it on way oyt i said wot kind of machine u runnin he pointed to a m/bike said that yamaha1200
11 need i go on the graphics arn,t write
12 the disk won,t copy its bloody coded
13 unlucky for microsoft now before u del this u shoul think before u ink