“How will Windows users transition their current computers to the new Windows 7?” Walt Mossberg ask for The Wall Street Journal. “While this latest operating system stresses simplicity, the upgrade process will be anything but simple for the huge base of average consumers still using XP, who likely outnumber Vista users. It will be frustrating, tedious and labor-intensive.”
MacDailyNews Note: According to the latest numbers from Net Applications, Windows XP sufferers outnumber their Vista brethren 61.54% to 24.35%.
Mossberg continues, “In fact, the process will be so painful that, for many XP users, the easiest solution may be to buy a new PC… In fact, that’s the option Microsoft recommends for XP users. (Conveniently, this option also helps Microsoft’s partners that make PCs.)”
MacDailyNews Take: How many will they lose to the superior Apple Mac platform? Strangely, Uncle Walt doesn’t mention that possibility at all.
Mossberg continues, “Windows XP users, including the millions who have recently snapped up cheap, XP-powered netbooks, will first have to wipe out everything on their hard disks in order to install Windows 7. on their current machines… And the pain doesn’t end there. If you’re an XP user, moving to Windows 7 on your current computer means you will also have to re-install all your programs and restore all the software drivers for your printers and other add-on hardware. That could require locating the original program disks, or downloaded program installers, and then re-downloading and re-installing the numerous updates that have been issued since these original disks or installers came out.”
MacDailyNews Take: Just Get a Mac and end the pain once and for all.
Mossberg continues, “And, there’s another problem: XP hardware drivers won’t work in Windows 7. Microsoft says it can automatically replace thousands of common older drivers with newer Windows 7-compatible versions, but admits that there may be some for which it doesn’t have replacements. The company specifically warns that some netbooks may include obsolete drivers.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This transition that sufferers of an 8-year-old Windows XP will soon face is a tremendous opportunity for Apple’s Mac platform which offers superior usability, the ability to run Mac OS X and also slum it with Windows (and Linux and more), and is just plain more fun than anything Microsoft can offer. If Apple plays their hand even just reasonably well, Apple’s Mac user base is primed to significantly increase with the release of Windows 7.
After all, if you’re being forced to buy a new computer so you can finally get off a substandard, insecure, ancient OS, why not get a quality OS-unlimited computer that runs not only the world’s most advanced operating system and best-in-class apps like iLife, Final Cut, etc., but can also slum it with Windows and run your old apps while you replace them at your own pace? Only one computer does it all: Macintosh.
Direct link via YouTube here.
It’s a no-brainer. Hopefully, Apple is prepared to explain repeatedly to the many millions who will soon face a big choice why they should choose to really upgrade this time and Get a Mac.
