Windows 7 – What Must Be Done

From ZDNet this morning, an article that speaks of the changes that must be made to Windows 7, in order to make it palatable to the masses, lists 5 things at the top of the heap.

Jason Hiner makes the case for big changes starting with speeding up the execution of code, noting that, shutting off the Aero interface still results in slower performance than an install of XP on the same hardware. No matter what tests are considered, the very best I’ve seen, on any test that lends itself to real world expectations, is performance on par with XP. Hiner is not accepting of par performance across the board, he calls for significant improvements, and I heartily agree.

His next point addresses various compatibility problems, and although this would be nice, I really can’t see this happening, as Microsoft has never had great compatibility with a wide variety of hardware from the release date. Simply stating that most of Vista and 7 are the same should guarantee much greater compatibility, but somehow Microsoft always manages to weasel out of this – no matter how many pre-release promises, or preview versions are done. Beyond that, the latest from MaryJo Foley, elsewhere on the site, promises yet another artificial barrier to compatibility, Device Stage. To hear the Microsoft spiel, one would think it came from heaven on stone tablets, but then, according to Microsoft, so did the original Plug’N’Play.

Mr. Hiner makes his third point an economic one, stating that the next revision must be one of reduced cost. Yeah, that will happen. He states that the cost of 7 must be less than that of OS X – this is nice to wish for, but will never happen until OS X becomes installable on any and all x86 hardware. What’s that saying? Wish in one hand…

The fourth point is making only one version of the Operating System. This point, too, is guided by the way OS X is sold, and this might be good for Microsoft, as only one set of everything (install disks, small and flimsy manuals, and retail boxing) would be needed. Microsoft could do this, while making the Media Center pieces an add-on, and this I believe, would be met with great approval. This could help offset the possible price reductions.

The last point is where Mr. Hiner and I diverge diametrically, as he calls for it to be the last shrink-wrapped operating system from Microsoft. I think this is a terrible move, and would argue that since so much of the country, and the world, for that matter, doesn’t have FiOS, downloading an OS would be a ridiculous proposition. While I am fully aware of the many Linux and BSD revisions that go out as downloads, I also know how long it can take to obtain the full system (usually 3-7 GB) when things are new, or the entire internet is slow. No, things should move in the opposite direction, with a full set of Unix-like man pages, revised as necessary, along with every applicable driver that can be found on the Microsoft site. Microsoft has gotten away for too long with putting just the thinnest help, in paper or binary form, in the box with the OS, and this needs to stop.

Microsoft will have to be very careful with the next release of their main operating system, as the Vista debacle has made many people wary, not to mention that with the current economic condition of the planet, those ever-better revisions of free operating systems are harder to resist, and the expenditure of money for the latest from Microsoft harder to justify.

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Quote of the day:

Committee–a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done. - Fred Allen

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