For those of you who have come to know, love (or loathe) me for the
general deep-rooted HATE i have for windows Vista and most things
Microsoft .. I can only say this : Enter www.porn.com in your browsers
address bar and leave now. For this post is going to be bitterly
disappointing for you. Because I’m in a special mood today. I’m about
to say something GOOD about Microsoft. Relax, you won’t see me running
around on stage, wearing a shirt with sweat stains larger then the lake
district, shouting DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS like some neurotic
baboon on crack. But chalking up a bonus point for the guys in Redmond
is probably as close to insanity as I’ll ever get. Before you call me a
apple or linux fanboy (i am neither) I’ll explain just what has gotten into me.
Over
the last few days I have been playing around with a beta version of
Windows 7. A beta version that has been made available to the whole
Internet to download. No I’m not talking about some sleazy Russian
torrent site that offers up an ISO of some cracked shady version of the
latest Microsoft operating system, that will probably infest your
computer, your network and your pet hamster with spyware. No I’m talking about a legit download (WITH A SERIAL) straight from the site of the Balmer empire. Now, what kind of opiat they served up in the board meeting that made this eventual descision, is beyond me.. But coming to think of it, its a brilliant idea. Many people have said Microsoft should just open source XP
and give it away for free. But when you think about it, that is
pie-in-the-sky-thinking. But the fact they are giving away tryouts of
Windows seven is a pretty smart marketing move. Like the dealer shoving
his soon-to-be-junky his first free crumb of crack only to monopolise delivery later, Ms is putting out Windows 7 for all to use.
I
could go out there and make the comparison with the whole Vista
debacle. Over-pimping an operating system that proved all most equally
shitty as Windows Millennium, was probably the worst thing MS ever did.
The bad reputation it got them needed to be fixed and in order to do
that they needed something awesome. When you think of it, Vista is the
"child of its time" it is a very clear resemblance of the state of
Microsoft at the time of its production. Late in arrival, over-hyped,
underpowered, full of compromises, sluggish and probably put together
thanks to an orgy between the sales guys, the girls from the
programming department and the midgets from the hardware companies (and
the midgets always get to be on top in thee things) Vista was blessed
with baaad baad DNA from day one. Sluggish, Mocked, Over-hyped, Disappointing and unloved are just some of the terms that come to mind.
So
after playing around with Windows 7 I am starting to wonder at what
point i slipped into the "mirror universe". Somewhere over the last few
months Scotty
must have beamed me up one time to many during a fierce magnetic storm
, because this cant be right. Not only am I presented with a version of
windows that is FREE to use for downright everyone, it is also a
version of Windows who’s release date has been moved FORWARD from 2010
to october 2009. The last time i checked the guyz at microville
where shoving release dates BACK in terms of years. But the other thing
is the operating system its-self. Even the beta version of Windows 7 is
pretty darn stable, but most of all its lean and mean. First of all the
interface looks like its freaking Gnome. No longer do we have giant
buttons in our task-bar, nope, just icons and that’s that. A quick
mouse-over gives you enough Eye-candy to see what apps you are running
and that is that. Somehow I’m confronted with a Microsoft OS that is
available to everyone, well designed, lightweight, fast, efficient on
both CPU, memory and battery use. Its as lean as an XP
install but packs the eye-candy of a ‘vista done right" and to me it
feels "light-years ahead" of Vista. Some say its "vista done right" but
I beg to differ. Windows 7 feels like a whole new start from the whole
Vista experience. Its like they chucked out their team of coders (the
one who had the orgy with the intell midgets) sacked the " Operating system crappification " task-team and cremated the "bling boys" to make an OS that would glide on a Netbook and soar on a desktop. In one word : Whaw. Well done MS !
Now
I know this is just the release candidate, and when this baby goes to
prom there will be at least 5000 holes in its chastity belt , but darnit
, this is an operating system like its supposed to be. With Vista the
OS was the GOAL , with windows 7 the operating system is the MEANS to
get things done. Shoving the release date forward is probably a sign
that the pissing competition between the developers and the sales guys
ended in favor of the latter. The netbook market is picking up, XP
is growing old, Vista is the unwanted fat kid at a basketball game and
Microsoft needs to have a fresh answer to the dawn of Linux on a
developing market. So I think that i’ll
pass on using it outside a firewall until service pack one comes
along.. But still, this is a step in the good direction. So let me
finish off by saying that this is the first MS operating system that I
like in a long long time. Well done Redmond. If the RTM is as good as this, and the security is OK .. we’ll see if you can turn the tide.