Official Windows 7 Review

Windows 7

As an MSDN member, I was immediately notified on my Burry (BlackBerry Bold) immediately on Jan 15th when PB/CR1 (Windows “7” release 7000) was available to me for testing purposes. My initial impression: DAMN!

I can emphatically report that everyone is in for a true treat when this new addition to the Windows product lineup is finally released by Redmond. Someone today asked me if this was “Mojave”… NOPE!

Mojave was actually a PR-blitz aimed at correcting most common mis-guided personal opinions of Vista – 7 accurately does this.

Streamlined Interface

This version is called Windows 7 because it really is – Vista was 6. Here is a screen-shot of the cmd version (note that it says 6, because Vista is 6; 7 is really Vista streamlined. These minor discrepancies will be corrected in later releases.

Command Prompt

I implore everyone to go pickup a copy of the latest PC Magazine and read more in-depth reviews of 7 – my initial impression is:

• It’s fast – Uninstalling something that took 15 minutes with Vista took less than 5 with 7.
• It’s beautiful – if one thinks Vista was a work of art, everyone’s in for a real treat with 7.
• Everything that works with Vista will work with 7 – because it’s really a streamlined version of Vista.
• It’s disk and memory foot-prints are much smaller: Ultimate’s ISO D/L size was 2.44 gb.
• User Account Control is less annoying, it doesn’t come up for every little change like it does in Vista.

Oh and by the way – I’ve written this post with my tethered BOLD. 🙂

For a more in-depth review, I’ve included today’s Computerworld review:

So which is better suited for netbooks? For the mass consumer audience, there’s little doubt: Windows 7 is superior. Installing new software and updating existing software in Linux isn’t for the faint-hearted, and most people won’t be able to figure out how to do it. In addition, Windows 7 has eye candy and extra features that Linux lacks. Most people also won’t want to tackle the learning curve they’ll face when moving from Windows to Linux.

Beyond that, Microsoft will spend countless millions of marketing dollars pushing Windows 7, and you can bet a good portion of that will go toward promoting it on netbooks. Since no one company owns Linux, there won’t be any marketing muscle for Linux.

With all that being said, a Linux-based netbook should cost less than a Windows 7-based one. The operating system costs will be less, and depending on the version of Linux installed, may be zero. In addition, Linux can work with lighter-weight hardware than Windows 7, and so the hardware costs can be less as well.

So Linux won’t completely vanish on netbooks, but Linux netbooks will become a small niche, primarily for budget-conscious technically oriented users. Estimates are that right now, about 30% of netbooks ship with Linux on them. Expect that number to plummet when Windows 7 ships.