Windows 7: Great for Vista users, a huge fail for XP fans
Do you love Windows XP and hate Vista? Do you wish Microsoft would stop trying to tinker with things that don’t need tinkering and just leave them as they are? If you answered yes to both of these question then you may be in for a huge disappointment when Windows 7 is released.
Windows XP was, and still is, a brilliant operating system. It’s pretty stable, at least as far as Microsoft products go, user-friendly, and intuitive enough to use that anyone can learn the basics in a few hours. Yes, even your old gran who doesn’t know her Web from her Wii.
Unfortunately, all of the good work Microsoft did with XP was banished as soon as Vista was released, with the changes made seeming to have been done just for the sake of it. So realizing the mistake it had made, Microsoft went back to the drawing board and immediately started work on Windows 7, which could make its debut this year.
When I first heard about Windows 7 I was genuinely relieved, amazed that Microsoft seemed to be listening to its customers for once and trying to once again produce an OS worthy of the company name. Unfortunately, according to reports from technology bloggers who have been extensively testing the beta 1 version of Windows 7, Microsoft may have failed in its quest.
Jason Perlow at ZDNet is particularly unenamored by Windows 7, insisting that while Microsoft has addressed some of the many issues people have with Vista, it has also “gone even further down the user rejection hole.” He states that most people upgrading directly from XP to 7 and avoiding Vista along the way will be perplexed at the changes made to their favorite operating system.
Perlow’s ZDNet colleague Ed Bott doesn’t hate Windows 7 and actually views it as a massive improvement to not only Vista but only XP. The problem, as he sees it, is that so many people learned how to use Windows with XP (Perlow it seems is no exception) that the controls and interface are familiar rather than intuitive.
Bott may well have a point, and maybe we are all just being lazy when it comes to having to relearn how to use an operating system. But I first used Windows 98 and had no trouble then emigrating to Windows XP. It just seems to me that Microsoft is trying to drive through unnecessary changes in the name of progress. Whether Windows 7 does constitute progress or yet another fail remains to be seen.
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January 3rd, 2009
I fail to see the direction/opinion/point of your story. Without really providing any specific examples of the “interface” that would compare XP with Vista or 7, you leave me not only wondering what your ultimate point may be, and why I should even care to read this post.
I do read from this blog many times, but just felt empty with this one.
January 3rd, 2009
Agreed, what was the point other than regurgitating what other blogs have said in order to get credit for a post???
There is nothing new about this. It has been well and truly written about that 7 is being developed from the Vista code base.
January 3rd, 2009
I expect to upgrade from XP direct to Win7.
I also expect the move to be fairly easy – but that doesn’t mean I don’t expect annoying differences (but no more than people found when moving from Win98/ME/2000 to XP).
I don’t expect Win7 to look or be the ’same’ but I do want something that is better, something that is more stable, works well with my peripherals and is well supported with drivers etc etc.
I really don’t want another Vista – an O/S everyone could see was destined to be short-lived and problematic.
Companies might prefer rapid turn-overs in O/S but I’d bet the house most individuals and businesses don’t.
It’s pointless and counter-productive trying to force the pace
(as Vista, in part at least, shows)
Give us another XP, please.
January 3rd, 2009
Ooops, just to be clear, when I said
“Companies might prefer rapid turn-overs in O/S”
I meant companies like producers like Microsoft.
Not the using companies.
January 3rd, 2009
Hi Dave, just want to say I’m an old grannie – very old at 77- and I not only know the difference between my web and my Wii but I love both. I am addicted to Wii Tennis and use my Wii Fitness Coach and Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 to keep fit, I am doing my damnedest to get hold of a copy of Wii Fit with no luck so far. I also have a network of 2 desktops and a laptop which I set up my self, thank you very much lol, other than this I like you column.
Happy New Year
Jean
January 3rd, 2009
You could say the same things about MSDOS. If you don’t think folks didn’t hate the cartoonish XP theme and the difficulty of finding things in control panel, you were too young or not paying attention. I still put everything in classic mode with XP. A pity Microsoft doesn’t allow that with Vista
Not real sure of why the press is so continually negative of any move MS makes, while nothing Apple does is less than genius.
January 3rd, 2009
Ryan, the examples of the differences/similarities between XP/Vista/7 are in the ZDNet articles, which I linked to.
DavidB, I haven’t regurgitated anything, simply given my opinion about an ongoing debate as to the quelity or otherwise of Windows 7. I’m also not taking credit for anything, hence the linkbacks to the ZDNet articles.
Jean MM, wow, way to make me look like a generalizing idiot! I’m glad there are some grannies out there embracing new technologies, nd I’m sure your life is better as a result. Do yourself a favor though, get rid of the Wii and buy a PS3 instead ;)
January 7th, 2009
You are not alone in generalizing Dave. Re PS3; why, how is it better IYO? other than the sneaky marketing tactics, I,m interested. Have you done an article on that subject?
Carry on the good work!
January 15th, 2009
Dude, all you do is bash Microsoft all day long. Granted most of there products are not up to par. But for you to whine and complain on something thats not even out, on something you probably havent even used is just absurd.
The bottom line is, things move on. Change happens. The human population as a whole dosn’t like change. Personally I love Vista over XP (I’ve used computers and Macs since DOS)
If things didnt change, we would all still be getting pulled by horse drawn carriages, and ridding a train that’s powered by a steam engine to get to place to place. Not saying those things are bad, just that we made improvements in transportation, Thats the same with Vista and XP.
XP Was great, and still is good. But I have Vista on a new desktop I built my self (so I didnt get any of that crap that HP Downloads to your computer to load 50 different unnecessary programs at start up) and it will run laps around XP all week long.
January 19th, 2009
I install windows 7 and Vesta on new built computer Vesta sucks am sorry has a lot of issue in lots of company’s.
I install winows 7 and it is better then Vesta but not as great as Windows XP.
Now I heard that Windows 7 was base on server 2008 it’s not I wish it was then it would rock.
Vesta and Windows 7 needs to work with the drives and third party program to make a living.
Here is some of the issues-
Good
• The view of the windows 7 looks outstanding it so detail
• Internet download files is awesome with in seconds
• Web page start is ok
• Boot Up is better then Vesta but not as good as XP
• I like the tool bar very nice Just like server 2008
• Media decoder major issue
• The shut down has been slow but faster then Vesta
Bad
• The rate the computer doesn’t work at all I think it’s the Bois upgrade?
• The Internet Explorer has a few issue start up and refresh
• Network is a little too open need to set the Domain then should see the network
• Install the windows took for ever almost 5 hours Geeeeee
• Drivers support Microsoft got to work with the people on this one
• Clean disk is fast but is it cleaning all is says?
• Defragment very long time for a new install it should be defragment when finished install
• Windows 7 has a few lock up for the windows update
• The refresh is faster but not stable
• USB drives Windows Explorer will not start up
• The down load depends on the web site for down load speed
January 21st, 2009
I am a windows programmer and i am currently testing the Beta of Windows 7. My first impression of it is that it is great! (Compared to Vista at least). The interface is a totally different thing from XP and frankly i think its just as or more intuitive. MS has done a much better job of this than they did with Vista. My hardware is 1GB RAM, 128MB Video Card, 100GB HDD, 2.0 GHz CPU and windows 7 runs almost as fast as XP did. I havent timed it but it think the boot time is around 28 – 33 seconds also, i never had to install any of my drivers from CD. Windows 7 recognized the hardware and whatever drivers it didnt have, it got through windows update.
I am currently playing some games and writing small programs to deploy on other operating systems (2K, XP, Vista etc..) to see how they hold up.
Overall i think Windows 7 is great and consumers are likely to get more bang for their buck than they could ever get with Vista.
Great Article Dave but maybe you should try the beta before you begin to give your opinion.
January 23rd, 2009
I have been a programmer since Dos and windows 1.1 and I have used every version of windows extensively. With this note, I have to attack some things in these comments.
This article was written on windows 7 BETA ONE; I am using the latest public beta and I think, as mentioned in the article, it is a massive improvement on XP and, of course, vista. I hated the problems with vista but before vista was released, I knew it was going to be terrible. How? Because I am not too lazy to read, unlike DavidB who posted the comment above “It has been well and truly written about that 7 is being developed from the Vista code base.”
Windows 7 is NOT being developed from vista. IT IS THE VICE VERSA; Vista was developed from Windows 7.
Microsoft finally decided to listen to us hybrid users who think linux has been more stable than windows for the past 10 years. They decided the new Filesystem, winfs or EXNTFS, would be build off of linux.
The same goes with the way the SVChost, aka the kernel, accesses memory; it is similiar to that of the linux kernel. This, in the end, caused great stability in windows 7 build 7000 – greater than XP!
So, what happened? Why was vista so buggy being based off the new fantastic windows 7 made of linux modules? Microsoft Got greedy; they knew they weren’t done and weren’t going to be completely done with this new hybrid windows/linux version for ten years.
So what did they do? They pulled out the new svchost and the halfway-done features of 7, kept the window dressing, and released it as windows vista. Windows vista was a crossbreed of windows 7 and windows xp; they weren’t done with the core of 7 so they tried to go backwards quickly and throw in the things of xp to “complete” it – hence all the problems with Vista.
What is vista italian for? View… View of what? View of windows 7!
Stop being so jaded and commenting poorly on things you know nothing about!
January 23rd, 2009
I don’t blame you guys because of the way microsoft has been sneaky before but they have now realized their sneakiness will only go so far.
July 4th, 2009
Wow, John got emotional there but I gotta hand to him though. He’s right. Vista was a defective clone of Windows with Xp’s bits stitched on. Windows 7 is everything I wanted from vista and more. New interface, fast loading, vast FUNCTIONING drivers and driver pathways, stable performance etc. Vista for me was a complete nightmare for me. My usb ports wouldn’t work because the driver pathways in the regedit were wrong so I couldn’t get an internet connection or use most if not all my peripherals. Win 7 came with all my drivers pre-installed and working perfectly with any additional installs. I’m so impressed i think i’ll buy it on the day of release. Welldone MS.
July 4th, 2009
ignore my grammer and spelling, english is my second language.
July 23rd, 2009
Man, gotta love all the MS fanboys out there. Gaysoft has been roughting its users for to long, and now they are finally getting some good old medicine. Sure Windows 7 will be a great success, why? Because MS realized that they cannot create mediocre products, but i remember this is not an isolated incident windows 2000 was bugged to all F*(^ and so was ME, gay edition. Windows 98 also got reamed (by some) over win 95 but people forget and move on. Even in its beta and early stages XP was a little volatile before its first service pack. People just don’t take crap anymore like they used to. Originally Apple didn’t plan to run directly against MS in competition as doing it in the past led to /fail, however, due to the unsatisfying release of vista, some other products were able to lay siege on the market. People are actually considering other products. Its wonderful, people using linux, unix and other alternatives… However that still only accounts for 7% of the market.
Look give me a product that i can game on anyday, but ill use my imac and macbook for all other functions anyday.
August 1st, 2009
Hey Guys.
I Just wanna say im current using Windows 7, and after my extremely long years of XP, was looking for that something better in 7, and to tell you the truth ive got it! Windows 7 has totally blown me away, for once everything i touch on this operating system works perfect, smoothly & fast. I believe that EVERYONE should give this a go simply because it actually works! Ive been reading up on people’s thoughts and they all agree that this is a much better improvement than vista and a big big BIG upgrade from the good old XP. Hopefully if microsoft can keep this OS good to how it is in its beta at the moment then we have a winner! But for now, im enjoying my time with the beta… :D
Oh and Direct X 11 DOES make a difference on OLD graphics cards!
November 19th, 2009
Windows 7 = Epic fail.
Stick with XP.
I laugh at the guy above me…the guy who thinks he knows something about DirectX.
November 19th, 2009
this is the crappiest article I ever read… basically u are saying it is not good because xp users will need to adjust to a new interface…whatever
December 16th, 2009
To Mark : OLD graphics cards won’t make any differences in DX11 nor DX11 will improve the OLD graphics cards.
In order to run DX11 featured application with all the new features, you need a DX11 compliance graphic cards, and it is not something you can done with software tweaks to be able to run DX11 featured applications.
December 21st, 2009
I was a long time XP user and skippted Vista and now have been using 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate since it was released. XP users should find it almost completely intuitive except for a few things for which users can easily find answers for online. Windows 7 is an INCREDIBLE operating system, fast, stable, intuitive, user friendly and beautiful! If you use the professional or ultimate versions with a processor that allows virtual processing you can use XPM, virtual XP, for any programs or USB connected hardware that have no Windows 7 drivers. It is very conventient to use. I dislike Macs and only use a memory loading version of Linux (Puppy Linux) for emergency data recovery. Thank you Microsoft!!!