In a few months (October 22 to be precise), Windows 7 is set to be released. To some, this is a wonderful time, as Vista was none too well received.
Let me start by saying that Vista, from my view, had two major problems:
1) it was excessively bloated. The memory and power usage for running Vista was significantly greater than XP and don't even get me started on the graphics requirements (at least if you wanted all the pretty effects)
2) The User Account Control. This is the annoying pop-up anytime you wanted to do anything, requiring you to run it as an administrator. This one, I can at least understand a little better. In essence, it was made to stop people from doing things on thier computer without realizing it (such as downloading and installing malware unaware). And for the general populace of computer users, it's not such a bad thing. But for someone who is a little more proficient and understands and willing to take the risks, it's just an annoyance. There are lots of programs I run that HAVE to be run as administrator, and it may seem like nitpicking to complain about clicking an extra time to start a program, it tends to be a bit frustrating (Nit picking would be complaining about not having Telnet installed by default...come on guys, really? You don't think that's a pretty useful tool?)
As I said, all in all, Vista was not that bad in my eyes, half my Windows systems use Vista, the other half XP. But even though I never considered it that bad, I did advise more than 1 client to remain in XP.
So now, along comes the strangely named Windows 7 (should be Windows 6.1 truthfully,but that's just not as awe inspiring as that dominant number 7). And I've been playing with it and...it's nice. I have the RC installed on one machine in our office, and one of our developers is using it as his daily machine, complete with email, developmental tools, browsers (all the ones we normally test with) and every other day to day item. All in all, it takes a day or two to get used to the new task bar, but once you do, it's pretty smooth (There's a nice history and explination of the task bar at ars technica and Gizmodo expresses the opinion of Windows task bar beating Mac's OS X Dock). So this is one I will be encouraging companies to upgrade to when they are ready. (Still not clear reason to jump the first day, especially in this economy)
With that said, for those companies that like to or need to stay with a homogenized OS environment, there is one thing that InfoWorld points out:If you buy a new PC before April 23rd 2010, you'll be able to downgrade to XP and then upgrade to Windows 7 when you are ready. After April 23rd 2010, your only option is to downgrade to Vista if you want.
For some, this isn't a big deal, but for those who are still completely XP shops, it starts to put a damper on your days. Just something to be aware of
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