Windows 7
With the much anticipated release of Microsoft's Windows 7 in October - it's easy to see why expectations for the 4 week old operating system have been so high.
The first reviews of Windows 7 are a mixed bag but on the whole they are positive. "Best Windows yet!", "Better than Vista", "Before long it'll be on every PC on the planet". But isn't that what reviewers initially predicted about Vista only 3 years ago?
When talking about Microsoft, it is important to remind yourself of the sheer scale of its reach. Windows powers virtually 90% of the worlds computers, and by the company's own admission, more than 1 billion people use it.
Windows Vista has a reputation for being unreliable. It is criticised for having a sluggish performance and has left many users with unusable hardware and software. This commercial disaster has undermined Microsoft's credibility with consumers and software developers alike. Today, Vista is still outshone by its eight year old predecessor, Windows XP which still runs on about 80% of PC's. However, Vista has advantages over Windows XP in that it is more secure, economic and easier to use. It was the best version of Windows ever released and there was no reason to assume people wouldn't upgrade. What the reviewers couldn't predict was the sheer amount of "bugs" and discrepancies that plagued Vista from the beginning.
In the initial planning stages of Windows 7 Microsoft undertook extensive quantitive customer research. They analysed the data from thousands of user computing sessions to find out exactly how and what people do with their computers. A spokesman from Microsoft explains; "we spent a great deal of time talking and engaging with our customers and partner companies in order to understand what's on their mind. Knowing where their challenges lie and what tools they need to be successful helps us deliver an Operating System that meets their needs and is a valuable investment, which is vital when IT budgets are tighter than ever."
In a recent interview, Bill Gates confirmed that the latest version of Windows was designed to be "more user-centric" as well as focusing on performance improvements. He explained the company was using a variety of new tracing tools to measure the performance of many areas of the operating system on an ongoing basis.
OK, so the first thing to notice about Windows 7 is that it looks like Vista. It also works like Vista, in the sense that it has the same plumbing underneath except for a much improved graphics upgrade. But look beyond the new Interface and you'll find Windows 7 is packed with new and enhanced features which taken together, deliver improved performance and productivity, better troubleshooting and battery management, stronger security as well as serving a practical functionality with the user in mind. Windows 7 also has a smaller 'carbon footprint' than Vista so it needs less computing power to run, so older PCs can run it quite easily. Many of the new features take into account multimedia applications and the fact that users are beginning to store their data on the internet with the growing popularity in social networking sites and online email accounts.
Throughout the Windows 7 developmental process, Microsoft have been commited to creating an operating system that is designed for the modern way people actually think and work. "We have learned a lot from what went wrong with Vista", is a mantra reqularly repeated by Microsoft spokespeople. So, are the experts right this time? Will Windows 7 fare better? We think it will. In our opinion Windows 7 is everything Vista promised to be and more.
