Windows 7 - Behind The Talk
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I must admit that as a fellow full time Linux user myself, I find myself in a similar position as the individual behind this column.This being said, I do disagree with him in a couple of areas. First, while it is true that Vista started off as what I like to call Windows Me part 2, after a while people began warming up to it. The sales numbers reflect some limited success, even if it is nothing to write home about. Another area I disagree with is the notion that “desktop Linux” is collectively easy for most people. That is absurd, unless they have nothing to “unlearn.”
So what about Windows 7, then? Is it the cure to Vista/XP and so on that we have been waiting for? From a speed perspective and with resource usage, oh, my, yes — no question in contrast to the floating steaming pile of slow that is Vista. But for most people, I am not sure it will stack up that well against XP in this area. Bundled with new PCs, I see Windows 7 doing great. Same for tech-types that like to stay with the latest stuff. But for Joe Average, I promise you they don’t care.
The biggest challenge that Microsoft is facing right now is this: people do not run operating systems. Rather, they run programs. And for some individuals, there are legacy apps that bind them to the OS that best supports them. XP, in contrast to Windows 7, does not really show me anything commonly used running so much better that people are going to drop heavy coin to upgrade. In this economy, I just don’t see it happening. Until XP is locked up without an alternative, I see scores of people continuing with XP happy as clams.
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One Comment
Ken McAvoy
September 14th, 2009
at 5:57pm
I can tell you that this opinion is absolutely right on the money.
As an IT Director and user of PC’s in the SOHO Market not one person I know sees ANY benefit in shelling out hard earned cash for W7. I do not even think the very slight speed gains count at all. What does count is the notion that Microsoft have provided NO DIRECT UPGRADE path from XP to W7 , they have removed the classic start bar menu , and removed the repair/restore option previously relied upon a lot in XP. To some extent people DO CHOOSE an O/S but obviously if you have an existing suite of programs that work fine in XP you would not want to shell out even more hard earned cash to replace many of them just because you changed the OS.Then there is the bully boy approach from Microsoft taking away features XP Users are telling them loud and clear that they want retained and Microsoft just ignores them - so in that environment why would any potential upgrader from XP want to play ball. Here comes Vista Mark II ..
Ken