Windows 7 Is Clearly To Be The Best Windows Release In Years

For the first time since… well, let’s just say a number of years, I might find myself recommending Windows again if things keep trucking along as well as things have recently with Windows 7. Despite being a long time Linux users (even back in my own Windows days), I cannot help but think that there are a number of things that Microsoft is (finally) doing right with this latest release of the Windows OS.

In this article, we see that there are two things that people are getting pretty excited about. The first and most understandable, is the ability to smoothly run XP Mode within Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Windows 7. Yes, it sucks that this does little for the casual home user, but considering the money Microsoft is working to get at is from the enterprise, this does have a sense of logic to it.

Then we have the backgrounds. Really? While I think creative backgrounds with any OS are great, these are going to give me nightmares, quite frankly.

For most people, Windows 7 is going to be about speed and if all goes well, compatibility from the drivers down to the legacy applications so many of you have come to rely on. Speaking for myself, I foresee no reason for me to make the switch back. I would, however, be happy to install it on a friend’s PC without the reservations I had when asked to do the same with Vista. Windows 7 just “feels” better, last time I tried one of the beta candidates.

Will it finally win over those XP holdouts? Depends. Those who have not wandered off to use OS X or the power users who, out of disgust, are not using Linux might very well find themselves making the change when it comes time for a new PC. But there is the rub. Even for enterprise users, many of whom I see (banks for example) happily using Windows 2000 Pro still, seeing them spending new funds on the new OS is going to be a tough sell. On the home front, I would suspect this will actually be an easier sale as these folks lack IT departments to get older systems working. Maybe I am wrong, but honestly, I think the enterprise adoption will be mixed at best.

No matter what, despite what I still see lacking in the way of provided software, I think Microsoft has done a good thing here. Let’s hope it sticks this time.