“It’s a given that Windows 7, scheduled for release in two weeks, is an improvement over Vista,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “But how does it stack up against Apple’s Snow Leopard?”
Elmer-DeWitt reports, “The definitive word comes in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital from Walt Mossberg, the diminutive dean of tech journalists and a man who takes his software reviews seriously. After testing Windows 7 for nine months on 11 different machines, he has pronounced it ‘the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced.'”
“Anybody who is seriously interested in using Microsoft’s latest operating system should read the whole review,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “But if you want to know what’s wrong with Windows 7, we’ve excerpted the juicy bits from Mossberg’s review.”
Here are a few of Walt’s own words to whet your appetite:
• On a couple of these machines, glacial start-up and reboot times reminded me of Vista.
• On a couple of others, after upgrading, key features like the display or touchpad didn’t work properly.
• Windows 7 still requires add-on security software that has to be frequently updated.
• It’s tedious and painful to upgrade an existing computer from XP to 7
• The system for upgrading is complicated, but Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place. Unfortunately, XP owners, the biggest body of Windows users, won’t be able to do that.
Many more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s marketing department needs to pound that last bullet point into the ground and then pound it some more. Also, the more help Apple can give to Windows PC users looking to make the upgrade to Mac OS X, the better.
It’s windows and it’s from Microsoft
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So, if you’re buying a new net book get a Windows 7 net book.
Got it.
Microsoft’s PR machine is working overtime to convince everyone that Windows 7 is great, really it is! Honest! Even MDN seems to have swallowed the hype.
And yet, Ballmer himself admits that Windows 7 won’t fix sagging PC sales. Of course he still adds the delusional salesman talk, and he still blames the recession instead of the boneheaded moves he’s made which put them in a very problematic position going forward.
You’re going to hear a lot of rosy Windows 7 talk, even unfortunately from this site it seems. Just keep in mind, the Windows Enthusiasts are working overtime spreading this stuff, and even they don’t believe their own hype anymore. Like the pre-Chernobyl Soviet Union, Microsoft still insists it’s fine. But the rot that’s been festering within Microsoft is going to result in a major meltdown before too long.
Would would you like to buy our Maaco finished Windows 7!!!
Shiny. Pretty. No- no need to look inside! Shiny! New! Er… Improved Vista.
Think of it as the “New Coke-cola.”
Any OS that requires add-on security software is a joke and needs to be stayed away from.
It’s just a cleaned up Vista. Same POS and people still think its all new crap from MS. Geeez.
I hate to say it but, Vista has the same type of glowing press reviews. Because they all used a preview or as MS likes to call them Release Candidate. The fact is until the actual release hits the streets all the reviews and hype is just BS, that can’t be trusted.
Windows 7 is going to be as big of a failure as Vista. Why do I say that the facts are all the reviews are based on a build Microsoft did 6 to 9 months ago, They added back in all the DRM Stuff that was removed from the Preview releases. Plus, Microsoft continued to tweak and expand stuff. The Preview releases were not even as fast as XP so, I’m guessing that the final release is going to be even slower.
So, if you are looking for a faster computer go buy a Mac and avoid the Microsoft speed limits and bottlenecks and traffic jams of Windows Vista and it’s unwanted bastard child Windows 7.
I had totally left upgrades out of my last comments. I NEVER do an in-place upgrade of a windows install. I always back up and wipe the drive. Fresh is the only way to go with windows, because you need a clean registry to operate efficiently. The registry naturally accumulates junk over time, and it is a big text-based database that the system is totally dependent on. Businesses like finallyfast.com exist solely because of that, but nothing beats a fresh install for restoring speed to your computer.
I swear, if windows would just provide better registry monitoring and self-cleanup, and secure its browser more, and include a better background defragger, most maintenance issues would be resolved.
The main problem with Windows 7 is that it’s from Microsoft, that should be enough for even retarded XP and Vista users.
Hooray for competition! The ball is in Apple’s court now, which is always a good thing.
True- I remember when Vista first came out, it got glowing reviews, even from some Mac punduts like Pogue and Andy Inhatko- who called it “not too shabby.” Mac 360 said it made parts of OS X seem “dated.” I remember this well, for I was concerned at the time. Of course, Vista then turned out to be a disaster once people actually started using it. Windows is still Windows. Apple is still where all the innovation and excitement is. Can’t wait to see next version of OS X now that Apple has strengthened the foundation with Snow Leopard.
It’s still Windows.
“The system for upgrading is complicated, but Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place. Unfortunately, XP owners, the biggest body of Windows users, won’t be able to do that.”
This is obviously the key piece of information that every Windows XP user should know before purchasing Windows 7. Sounds like a potential nightmare to me.
“• On a couple of these machines, glacial start-up and reboot times reminded me of Vista.”
The first bullet point is the key. Speed sells. If 7 isn’t a lot faster than Vista, it won’t sell.
We need a new birth for the mini, which should be the ultimate Switcher weapon. I want to see a commercial like the old Jeff Goldblum “3 Steps” commercial.
It opens on a windows screen crashing, then zooms out from the screen to show a big old generic tower, keyboard, and mouse on a white desk w/Apple white void background. A person walks behind the desk and places a (powered) Mini on the other side of the monitor from the tower. The person then pulls the monitor and keyboard cables out of the tower and plugs them into the Mini, and then plugs the Mini into the old PC via ethernet and boots the Mini. Zoom into the screen again, where we see SL boot up, and “Windows PC” appear as a volume on the desktop. The cursor pulls an email file from that volume onto the Mail icon in the dock, where the mail message opens.
It reads “Ease and Security for $500: the new Mac Mini.” with the Apple logo.
“This is obviously the key piece of information that every Windows XP user should know before purchasing Windows 7. Sounds like a potential nightmare to me.”
Yeah, it’s probably much worse than trying to upgrade your three-year old PowerPC Mac to SL…oh, wait. That’s not right. ;o)
“Why do I say that the facts are all the reviews are based on a build Microsoft did 6 to 9 months ago, They added back in all the DRM Stuff that was removed from the Preview releases. Plus, Microsoft continued to tweak and expand stuff.”
Sorry, but the DRM for HDCP and BluRay was in both the RC and RTM releases. As for what’s been added since the RC, the RTM was final back in July and free to test from M$.
All that said, no need for Apple to be concerned about their share or margins, though there seems to be a disproportionate amount of whistling through the graveyard here at MacDefenseNetwork.
I notes that it does not wake up. you have to set the energy saver settings to never sleep. Looks like it is in come, not sleep
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I think it’s a mistake to repeat, time and again, that old mantra “it’s still Windows”. Not that it isn’t true, but it isn’t sufficient. “It still uses the Registry” is better – for those who understand that the Registry is one of the primary reasons why “it’s still Windows” is a Bad Thing!
Apple has some basic cards to play against this “new and improved” version, but the best is still TIME. No, I don’t mean the time it takes to boot up or to launch a program – though SL does a great job at that and 7 can be expected to lose a step regularly. I mean the time it takes people to realize a) the malware is still a problem, b) the upgrade from XP to 7 or to OSX are equally lengthy, c) the initial, welcomed, speed bump is temporary, d) you still need to spend Mac-class money to get Mac-class performance, e), f), g) (etc.)
Point of Order:
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The first Intel Macs were shipped in January 2006, the last “consumer” Macs using the PPC chips shipped in August 2006 – and those were the Pro-sumer Power Macs. The MacServes switched to Intel in October.
Vista was initially “released” in November 2006 and made available to the public in January 2007.
Thus, Intel has been available in a Mac for about a year longer than Vista has been available as an upgrade for PC owners.
That said, my beloved old dual-G5 is now warming my son’s basement, not mine. It served me well, now it serves him instead. But, still, “well”.
@SIPGrinder –
Wrong, speed does not sell for most of the market: corporate computing. The IT guys buy their new equipment based primarily on initial purchase price and legacy requirements. Rapid change is intolerable in IT departments. Gotta be able to run the old proprietary junk software written for Windows 95, you know.
Back off Apple fanbois. Let m$ have their little day in the sun. Quit sounding like someone just stole your bike.
windoze will improve with time, it always has. Mac will also. The difference is that Mac improves faster and goes further. Let m$ have their little party. Heck, lets rejoice with them and then let the little (and maybe not so little) problems start to fester as they show up in w7.
If w7 were better than OS X I still would not buy a PC anymore than I would buy used underwear from a homeless person. I like the clean feeling of NEW cotton briefs that are not soiled underneath.
I’m no fan of Windows7, but it is, for Doze, an ABSOLUTE revelation. Any Apple fan that dismisses the effect this improvement will have on the masses are drinking the kool aid and will have their ass handed to them.
Sure, it isn’t as good as OS X, and it’ll have it’s share of viruses, but I think the large switcher numbers we’ve seen in the last couple of years will slow down. It’s that good to Dozers. Get used to it; the heady days of large increases to OS X from Windows are over.
“I’m no fan of Windows7, but it is, for Doze, an ABSOLUTE revelation. Any Apple fan that dismisses the effect this improvement will have on the masses are drinking the kool aid and will have their ass handed to them.”
Revelation? It’s Vista with a fake moustache. Both experience and benchmarks prove it to be overall just as slow. XP is still way, way, way, way faster.
After initially being suckered in by the fawning praise and false promises, like they were with Vista, the masses will be left livid. Like they were with Vista. The only exception being that Windows 7 will be an even larger trainwreck with even larger ramifications. You know the saying. Fool me once, shame on me…
I like how UAC won’t be “as annoying,” yet it will be just as useful (useless).
Do you want to install this virus? Cancel or Allow
Considering that Mossberg beleives that there is little difference between Windows 7 and Snow Leopard I reckon that there cannot be too much wrong with Windows. MS appears to have yet again thwarted Apple’s attempts to surge to 6% world market share.
Don’t give up, Apple. I fully expect Snow Blind, Snow Job, Yellow Snow, or whatever the next non-feline version of Apple’s OS is to be called, to reach the magical 10% threshold in my lifetime.