Sunday 29 May 2011

Windows 7 - Love or Hate?

I have been a Microsoft fan for quite some time. Just look at the modern pc, notebook and netbooks around you. They all have one common feature - The operating system is powered by Microsoft's product. It could be either Windows XP, Vista or even 7 which comes in both 32bit and 64 bit flavour.

Personally, I don't really like to use Vista at all right from the beginning when it was launched. I had to use it as the notebook which I purchased then came with Vista. As I do not want to spend more money, I had to stick with the pre-installed operating system. Microsoft has admitted their mistake of releasing Vista as it was much slower than XP. Well, the question here is why Microsoft wants to release Vista despite knowing that it is not better than XP? Isn't it because they want to keep their fan base and attract more customers?

These days, we are talking about open source operating system. It started off with Red Hat, then Debian and now there are lots more Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and the UI of those distributions are getting better as the day goes by. However, the only problem with Linux is that it is short of drivers. Apart from that, it is almost free and so unlike Windows 7 where it could cost you up to £120 if you want to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to the Ultimate version where it will allow users to install other languages on their system and the use of Virtual PC (basically Windows XP in Virtual Mode).

After the disaster with Vista, Microsoft went back to the drawing board and released Windows 7. Initially it was just a rumour that it is better than Vista but benchmarks showed that Windows 7 is not only better than Vista but also overtook XP!

We have to set aside Vista and look at the bigger picture here. Windows XP was released in 2001 and it is now 2011 and it is showing its age. Microsoft would need to refresh their product line. Up comes Windows 7 and it is suppose to support more drivers than the combination of XP and Vista not taking into account that it will have less crashes or BSOD. Is this true?

I made a purchase for a copy of Windows 7 before it was launched so I got it cheap at around £35. My initial reaction was that it consumes a lot of disk space. I think in the end, I would be much better sticking on to Windows XP for the moment until the support expires in 2014.

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