Desktop platforms Toolkit

Story: Windows 7 — as good as it gets

• 
• 

Windows 7 is a Zune player in the 2009 'Ipod' World

Apple Mac OS X: Anyone would has had to support 'the fruit' know its not all rosy in the orchard. File Permissions/Missing/incorrect Kext files can cause problems causing the spinning rainbox of doom but overall it works as long as you don't try and be too clever on Apple's limited hardware.

Windows XP - which I like to call the swiss army knife of OS - its simple enough, nearly every bit of kit works with it - in terms of throwing things at it, it holds up well. It being around a while but its fundamental design mean its hard to rid of completely - its useful, even given its flaws. Its pretty stable now if you regularly image it - Trueimage (to revert it back after you get a virus) /use a good AV (Comodo-free&good.) - notice I don't use might get a virus - let your kids use it - you will.

One thing Apple is very good at is the intuitive interface, you only have to look at the ipod/iphone, its attention to detail, its simplicity, the app-store, the music store - they know how to build a good interface. If I were a competitor or worked for Nokia/MS - I think that first view of the iphone would have left me with an empty feeling in my stomach and sweaty palms.

Back to Win7.
Windows 7 installation (which is very straightforward), though still lacks drivers (Older Intel 82855/915/945 full Chipset support looks unlikely) worked well.
Once installed - the first thing I needed to do is connect to the wireless network - this turns out to be 5-6 menus deep to select the correct network , the correct 'security' tab and finally enter your Wireless password. Its awful, a combination of remaining bit of Vista/XP Menus, and as tedious as the guy in MacDonalds trying to change your order on the till, while you wait while your Happy Meal goes cold.

The MacDonalds analogy starts to show through - Win7 is designed for the masses to be uncomplicated and broken down into a series of steps so you are slowly edged towards the solution to your problem.
So in order to change the wireless password, you need to understand what a wireless password is (its a password!), so Win7 shows you first you don't have a network - a nice graphic - but I already know that from opening my browser.

Windows 7 RC1 is definitely more likeable than Vista (it would be hard not to), its fast, seems very stable and as a basic installation runs faster than XP on 512MB. IE8 is faster opening too. Its not crashed, but I wasn't expecting it to considering the competition.

But this is where I come back to Apple, as for all the good features Windows 7 is a bit of a 'Zune'
It's like comparing the Zune player with Ipod, and its the overall picture you get from the ipod - the halo effect is a perfect one.
Windows 7 is still clunky (though much more useable), its still too much like Vista (its is Vista underneath). MS have pulled out the stops to really try and improve things but the interface still isn't intuitive, its messy - drawn out and lots of small inconsistences.
The drivers are still a major problem. Talk of intel not providing drivers for 915/945 Chipsets even though they sold 14m netbooks with that chipset in 2008.

Windows 7 is a Zune player in the 2009 'Ipod' World/Generation.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Full Talkback thread