Windows Seven
July 16th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Although I normally avoid Beta Testing of new software – a real pain unless crucial to your business, I did download and install the Beta of Windows 7 and frankly was impressed so when the RC version came along, – RC stands for “Release Candidate”, the final product apart from minor tweaks if you like, I downloaded and installed that too, excellent.
I am not an over enthusiastic “fan” of anything from large “American Corporations”, they only think “our needs” not “my needs” and the only reason Microsoft is being “nice” is because they caught such a big cold over “Vista” the “Edsel” of the software world and gave their loyal customers nothing but “Vista Blisters” but perhaps, a Window of Hope beckons.
My Experiences:
In the long story of the Windows Operating System there have been two “breakthrough products” to date, Windows 95 and Windows 2000 and much in-between. I personally suspect that Windows 7 will join those two because it quite simply takes on the best of what went before and makes it both simple and intuitive without any fuss and that, not the “flashy features” is a sign of greatness.
With Vista it was a case of a “vaulting ambition” set against a background of very shifting sands. It really was not Microsoft’s fault, they started on a journey to produce a truly “great product” and the ground moved constantly under their feet in terms of the emerging technology. Ultimately and after 5 years, they released a totally crippled product which over the next two, they eventually patched to make it workable which, it broadly speaking now is.
Windows 7
Is exactly what Vista should have been in the first place but at least and for once, the hole in Microsoft’s self confidence has seen them delivering tangible benefits even to us consumers in the UK – that’s a first !
The high quality RC product, free to download and use until early next Summer despite the actual product launch being October this year is a big bonus. The pre-order pricing at 50% discounts on retail, is brilliant, I ordered 3 copies the moment I was made aware via Amazon. Two copies of 7 Business at £90 a time as opposed to £190 each, was a deal but the 32 bit Windows 7 Home Premium at £50 as against a £150 retail price was probably slightly better.
An Interesting Thought
In talking to my ever aware Sons, they made a number of serious and interesting thoughts which although parallel might be worth sharing.
My youngest son Michael is basically a technical journalist and as I am a keen amateur photographer, he has fed me “demographic” and customer “profile stuff” from time to time and pointed out some interesting stuff on operating systems. Very few people go out and buy a ‘retail copy’ of an operating system because when they buy a PC from Comet or PC World, the O/S comes with it.
Apparently and as I am a keen amateur photographer, I might find the following difficult to understand but most people who buy a DSLR do so with a short zoom lens and never ever buy another, what a funny old world that is !
I Can Remember…
NT4 Workstation cost about £220 including VAT at the turn of the century and so, even at full price of £190, Windows 7 Business is far better value but at £90 is a real steal but about what I paid for Vista OEM versions so not too far wrong.
Microsoft is lucky here, it took a wrong turn and seems like it is recovering from that, I am delighted but some further humility is required from Redmond, just a thought.
Posted in Baldy Tales
Yes, windows 7 is looking quite good at the moment but is still slow and feature poor when compared to a good Linux distro. It also lacks some vital drivers, in my experience, but most Vista drivers seem to work with it. I do blame MSoft for the debacle that surrounded the dreadful Vista product. It was a poor, ill directed and badly produced product that would have dragged any non-monopolistic manufacturer into bankrupcy.
To be honest Alfred, if my key Adobe products were ported to Linux, Linux is what I would use but frankly, I’m not giving up Photoshop for the GIMP ! I have a number of PCs on my home network with each dedicated to different tasks.
I suppose that I haven’t experienced any driver problems with 7 simply because I switched to X64 bit versions of XP and Vista sometime back and that was a bit of problem with drivers so in the process I weeded out quite a lot of non essential peripherals.
You are right about Vista, they should have got a grip earlier on and abandoned it, it was supposed to have a radical new file system etc ! What 7 is really is the bare bones system that Vista should have been. To be fair and although it took them far too long to do so, starting about 18 months back, through service patches, they have finally made Vista usable.
I am an unashamed GIMP fan but have never been able to afford or use photoshop.
I’ve seen some good Vista installs, but just try it on an older, resource limited computer. No, on second thoughts, don’t. Also, some of us cannot afford new peripherals, just because the manufacturer cannot be bothered to write a Vista driver. My computer peripherals work with every Linux flavour that comes along, I’m pleased to say.
Much of my work is done on a 10 year old laptop that runs quite happily on non-MS Operating systems.
No, you are right, Vista is death on wheels to older kit which is why I like 7, though not as nimble as Linux, like Linux, it seems to run on most things, a friend of mine put it on a netbook along with Open Office and Firefox !
My background is IT and really starting with NT4 and the Pentium II, every generation of Windows has required a new processor and chip set whereas 7 seems to break this mould or, perhaps it is that we have reached a plateau in terms of hardware and it doesn’t show (?).
With regard to Photoshop, I bought into it during the 90′s and have got the price advantage of upgrades ever since. It is a massive and multi-faceted program though and I am always on the lookout for alternatives if only because people who know of my passion for photography always ask for my advice.
The best alternative I’ve come across is Serif PHOTOPLUS X3 which at around £50 is a lot better value than PS’s £500+ and has pretty much similar features including being able to handle RAW. It looks sort of earlier PS and lacks the range of filters and so on but, it does layers, masks and so on and in terms of the main thrust of PS, is probably 90% there and higher if you just want photographic manipulation.
Serif Photoplus V1.0 was excellent, many years ago, but I haven’t kept up with its progress. Must go and reinstall my crashed Windows 7!