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> he was an idea man (even if taken from PARC)

Part of being smart is being able to recognize good things when you see them AND be able to figure out what to do with them. PARC was sitting on top of a handful of great technologies and was able to do exactly squat with them.

Oblig. car analogy: it doesn't matter how big your engine is--if you don't have wheels and tires to transfer the power to the ground, you'll go nowhere.

People always look at people like him and say "he's nothing special, all he did was take things other people made and change them a little and he was successful." If it's nothing special, then explain why there were no wildly successful MP3 players before the iPod, or wildly successful smartphones before the iPhone, or why MS and friends couldn't make a go of tablet computers for almost a decade before the iPad came along. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? If it was just style and marketing, then a few big checks to some designers and ad agencies would make every product a success, right?

and giving away the product sounds vaguely familiar....

http://www.winsupersite.com/blog/supersite-blog-39/commentary/hypocritical-google-lashes-apple-microsoft-140075?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Didn't Microsoft get sued for doing the same thing?

Longtime Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott just blogged his ideas for fixing Microsoft and getting it back into the game against Apple, Google, and Facebook. Start by spinning off Xbox, he opines. Then delayer the idea-killing corporate bureaucracy, starting with Ballmer...

I've never met a windows fanboy defending their faith in person (have met plenty of Mac fanboys at work though!). Most Windows users are normal people just doing stuff with their computers.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/

http://www.neowin.net/

http://www.winsupersite.com/

http://www.zunescene.com/

http://www.zuneluv.com/

I could go on and even mention the rabid Xbox 360 fanboys that ignore the flaws and after market costs of their console of choice while attacking anyone who buys a PS3 for any purpose.

I don't believe that statement from the MS exec - they can't stand not to put a placeholder entry into every item category. I think that statement was just more marketing, but almost like Reverse-Vaporware.

This post from Paul Thurrott says that MS is toying around with blending Windows 8 & Windows Phone code chunks. Somewhere in there someone will smash together a Windows-Something tablet.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/windows-8-secrets

I'm a regular listener to Windows Weekly, with Paul Thurott and Leo Laporte. He mentioned Microsoft Signature at the Microsoft store. Here is a link to the article. It is apparently a very Apple store like experience, and they clean the computers of all the crud that is on the laptops originally. They sell several different brands. Hope this helps.

I still fear that Apple will start to boil the OS X frog. They have code signing and an app store in place. They have a warning dialog if you try to run software downloaded from anywhere else. They're clearly repositioning OS X server versus the regular version in Lion. My fear is that the regular version of Lion (or perhaps the version after it) will have lock-in, and you'll have to buy a $500 pro version with the server stuff in order to get an open Mac. If that happens, I'll shed a tear and jump ship to Linux.

To be fair, that warning dialog isn't unique to mac, and I don't really mind my computer informing me of where something came from the first time I run it. It's kind of like when the credit card company calls me to verify after I make a big ticket purchase. Usually there isn't a problem, but it's nice that someone or something is watching to make sure that somebody sneaky isn't trying to do something nasty to me. And I understood the point was that the server stuff was all included in the one single solitary edition of Lion. And even Paul Thurrott thinks this is a good idea.

Overall, I don't understand what's the problem. Worse case - you'd have have to switch platforms again / you're willing to abandon bought apps anyway. Seems a bit like "concerned FUD", actually.

The problem is there are some things you should shut up about if you have not a planned and ready marketing plan to disclose that information. Ballmer's statement has many Windows Phone advocates worried, this concern is very well justified.

dual CPU with hyper-threading for 4 "virtual" processors

What part of physical did you fail to understand? What parent said is right: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/win7/windows-7-product-editions-a-comparison.aspx#performance

Where do you see an "orb" in this UI?

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/office/office2010_outlook_preview.jpg

It's not there. They removed it, precisely because people complained about it. So stop whining about something that's already fixed.

And if you think the ribbon takes 1/3 of your screen realestate, you either have a very small screen or a very large tendancy to exagerate. Even so, there is an up arrow in the upper right corner that hides the ribbon, or ctrl-f1. Again, problem solved, and that's been there since the beginning.

I think paul thurrott is on slashdot? He should take care of it... http://www.winsupersite.com/mobile/wp7_emotion.asp

Oh and most of the UI for XP Media Center Edition. From here:

The greatest challenge was taking the complexity inherent in the new technologies we created, and from all the partners we worked with, and integrating it in a seamless way. We worked with a very sophisticated and complex set of technologies--the user interface is done in DirectX, most of the Media Center code was written in state-of-the-art C#, and we worked with a ton of partners, all of whom have their own code--and integrated it all together in an attractive, simple and straightforward package

From a technical standpoint, Media Center user interface functionality is almost entirely written in C# managed code, on top of native Win32 and DirectX Windows XP components. These operating system components render video and draw fluid animations smoothly on the screen at 60 frames per second, with hardware acceleration and MPEG decoding provided by 3rd parties. Getting all these technology components to work together well was our biggest challenge.

There are other examples that you could find with a simple google search.

It was stupid then and it's stupid now. I haven't seen many excuses yet.

How about the aformentioned Paul Thurrott:

http://www.winsupersite.com/mobile/wp7_love.asp

The multitasking is limited. Users will only be able to get apps from the Marketplace, and not from third parties. Gasp! Is it true that there's no copy and paste?

No matter. Windows Phone combines those very few things that were right about Windows Mobile -- primarily some business functionality -- with a much wider set of new functionality that is exciting in both scope and possibility.

You can read what Paul thought about Apple's lack of Cut & Paste at Daring Fireball

If you're not familiar with Thurrott, take a look at his reactions to the iPad. After having had my own iPad 3G for eight days, I'd say that the impressions that he wrote in this article almost had to be based more on hatred for Apple than any real evaluation of the iPad itself. In his summary in the last couple of paragraphs, he makes clear that he doesn't see the iPad as anything important. He wrote: "Anyone who believes this thing is a game changer is a tool. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is." I honestly just don't think he "gets" what Apple is doing. Of course, when Microsoft releases its copy of the iPad, he will praise it to the heavens. http://www.winsupersite.com/alt/ipad_firstimpressions.asp

Create a variant install disc with the drivers slipstreamed in. In fact, the odds are pretty good you can get away with just slipstreaming Service Pack 3 (assuming you mean Windows XP).

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xpsp3_slipstream.asp has full walkthrough.

From the original post:

James Kelly shows how easy it is to build a computer and install a complete software suite for US$200 excluding monitor, keyboard, and mouse. You can't even buy the operating system and anti-malware protection for Microsoft Windows for that, let alone have any money left over for hardware and productivity software!

I can buy a retail copy of Windows 7 Home Premium for $179.99 at Newegg, with shipping for another $1.99[0], and Microsoft Security Essentials is free for download[1], and a very reasonable product for many users.[2]

Also, I can get an Acer Aspire REVO at Bestbuy for a nickle under $200, with a copy of Windows XP SP3 included.[3]

I can't wait to see the specs on the $200 computer build outlined in this "outdated before it was published" book... Also, didn't this book come out a while ago? At least 4-6 months ago - are the parts listed even still commonly available?

[0] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116716&cm_re=windows_7_home_retail-_-32-116-716-_-Product

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/?mkt=en-us

[2] http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/mse.asp

[3] http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Acer+-+AspireRevo+Nettop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Atom%26%23153%3B+Processor/9535434.p?id=1218120545008&skuId=9535434

Compiler for Windows

Therein lies the problem. Why were you running an OS originally written for x86 (as in 8086) on a RISC processor?

What, somebody was running MS-DOS or Windows 95 on Alpha? (Windows NT was originally written for the Intel 80860, and later MIPS, and for 32-bit x86, according to this article.)

The Alpha was supposed to run Unix - Tru64 Unix in particular. Running in a proper 64bit environment the Alpha was an incredible chip.

Well, Unix plus OpenVMS, but they both supported a 64-bit environment.

Considering that just about everything this guy has ever written has been anti-MSFT FUD, I agree that it would be fitting to put one more line of bullshit as a disclaimer at the top of his post.

I would say the bigger questions is "What did InfoWorld know, and when did they know it?" because according to Thurrott pretty much anybody who spent more than 2 minutes alone with the man knew he was full of shit, InfoWorld knew he was full of shit and basically said "we don't care, his FUD equals lots of traffic".

So I think the bigger question is how many supposed "OS Experts" at InfoWorld are really nothing but paid FUD spewers being kept by InfoWorld for the traffic? IMHO there is a BIG difference between someone that while occasionally full of shit truly believes what they are saying and a professional troll which is what RCK was/is. I think pro Trolls like RCK need to be outed and their parent magazines should be seriously looked at to see if it is "one that slipped through the cracks" or an internally known FUD spewer. I don't care which OS we are talking about-Apple,MSFT,Linux, whatever, there are enough differences to have discussions about advantages/disadvantages without promoting FUD and lies.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/07/28/browser-ballot-screen-isn-t-just-for-windows-7.aspx

who has time to do that? I'll just point to something that's more than 6 months old (albeit this one mentions just 10, other sources shortly thereafter were mentioning 11 or more such as
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/12/18/0210240/How-Europes-Mandated-Browser-Ballot-Screen-Works
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142416/FAQ_How_the_IE_ballot_screen_works
which listed:

The first five are Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Microsoft's IE, Mozilla's Firefox and Opera. On a second screen, the ballot will list AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and SlimBrowser.

so ...)

It also would appear as though Microsoft wanted to do a "top ten" http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-24statement.mspx so I believe that they are using the "top ten" plus IE8, thus making 11.

Also, it's important to note that three or four of these browsers (at a minimum) are rebranded IE experiences, using the IE rendering engine. A couple are rebranded Firefox builds.

Also:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/24/1927255/Microsoft-Agrees-To-EU-Browser-Ballot-Screen?from=rss

Windows 7 Resource Monitor marks memory like this
"In Use" (2.97GB) (Memory used by processes, drivers, or the operating system)
"Modified" (122Mb) (Memory whose content must be written to disk before it can be used for another purpose)
"Standby" (944Mb) (Memory that contains cached data and code that is not actively in use)
"Free" (154Mb) (Memory that does not contain any valuable data, and will be used....)

screen shot

* The update is voluntary. * They're doing a better job than they did with XP. * 32% of all counterfeit Win machines have malware. See http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/watu.asp or http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1759&tag=col1;post-5242 for more information.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winserver2k3_gold1.asp

You mean the N-Ten the Intel i860 emulator. Funny how people listen to marketing and treat the meaning of something can change :)

I always hated how the Windows 2000 startup screen said "Built on NT Technology", because "NT" itself stood for "New Technology". I guess it's just another case of RAS syndrome.

Alright, I'll bite. Those people who stupidly purchased DRMed music with PlaysForSure have until the end of 2011 to backup their music to CD. Microsoft Java was supported for 8 years after Microsoft were forced to discontinue the product as part of the settlement of Sun's lawsuit. COM is still in use today. I don't understand why that is on your list.

Microsoft Vodka? Isn't that being a little harsh?

This did get a major under the hood improvement with WinFS, didn't it?

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winfs_preview.asp

They're not dropping support for XP, they have added it unlike it was missing in XP and it will be fully supported now.

Screenshots of it.
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/xp_mode_pre_shots.asp

Windows 7 Feature Focus (mehhh but still)
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/ff.asp

We will upgrade because that's the nature of the business and I think MS has really got it this time with performance and security. Nothing impressed me with Mac's and any other OS's. Laptop prices are coming down like crazy and saw a nice mini laptop for $210 and 15" screen one for $410 with Win7.
My boss is 'tighter than a frogs ass under water', but that is smart in this economy.

XP you have to tiptoe around with and be careful what you handle, Vista/Win7 are pretty damn sandboxed in and secure. It also nice to have that sense of security by not getting hit by drive by downloads and random downloads out there.

Got a cheap($149) presale OEM copy of Win7 Ultimate at FRY's so I hopped on it since I figured might as well get my moneys worth out of since day one and I kind of pirated my way through with XP. OEM is fine because I can change all the hardware, you just might have to call them up and basically tell them "yes, this is the only computer that is running Windows now".

They're not dropping support for XP, they have added it unlike it was missing in XP and it will be fully supported now.

Screenshots of it.
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/xp_mode_pre_shots.asp

Windows 7 Feature Focus (mehhh but still)
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/ff.asp

We will upgrade because that's the nature of the business and I think MS has really got it this time with performance and security. Nothing impressed me with Mac's and any other OS's. Laptop prices are coming down like crazy and saw a nice mini laptop for $210 and 15" screen one for $410 with Win7.
My boss is 'tighter than a frogs ass under water', but that is smart in this economy.

XP you have to tiptoe around with and be careful what you handle, Vista/Win7 are pretty damn sandboxed in and secure. It also nice to have that sense of security by not getting hit by drive by downloads and random downloads out there.

Got a cheap($149) presale OEM copy of Win7 Ultimate at FRY's so I hopped on it since I figured might as well get my moneys worth out of since day one and I kind of pirated my way through with XP. OEM is fine because I can change all the hardware, you just might have to call them up and basically tell them "yes, this is the only computer that is running Windows now".

What on earth are you talking about? The steps required are:

1) Click on the "Get Windows Live" link in the start menu (http://get.live.com)
2) Click "Download", "Run" and "Accept"
3) Choose which applications you want to install from a very clear list (Mail, Messenger, Writer, etc)
4) Click "OK"

That's it. No sneaky installs, nothing dubious, nothing more than you need. Just uncheck the boxes if you only want Mail. There's a screenshot here:

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/ff_wlessentials.asp

But Enthusiasts? Is it the same sort of person who joins the College Republicans, and the Comcast Fan Club?

Pretty much, but they certainly exist. They also appear to be the biggest zealots in the industry - much worse than Apple or Linux fanboys. Only Richard Stallman could possibly top them. A good starting point for investigating this species might be the commentators at Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows. It's super!

I work in the AAA game space... even though I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro, with an iMac to my left and an (old) MacMini hooked up to my TV in front of me, there is not a large enough market share for most AAA studios to support the time/effort for a native port. Those that do so, do it out of the goodness of their heart. (Thank you 2dBoy for "World Of Goo")

I didn't believe this myself until someone told me to look up the #s and a few short Googles later showed the sad truth. I could have sworn they were wrong, as half of the computers used by attendees at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) the past 2 years have been Mac based, but 3.36% is small ( SOURCE http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/22/mac-market-share-in-q1-2009-3-36-percent-apple-earnings-strong.aspx )

Well, you are flat out wrong.

Office 2007:
http://www.mangoorange.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/putting-the-powerful-excel-to-word-step-2.png

Office 2003:
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/office2003_beta2_02.gif

The intel atom cpu is 32 Bit. Shipping no 32 bit whatsoever would eliminate you from this very popular market.

Paul Thurott says Windows 7 will be the last 32-bit Windows although with the popularity of Atom I wonder if this will be true, even if the next Windows release takes another eight years.

He said that about Vista as well. It will not be the last 32 bit OS from MS. No way

The intel atom cpu is 32 Bit. Shipping no 32 bit whatsoever would eliminate you from this very popular market.

Paul Thurott says Windows 7 will be the last 32-bit Windows although with the popularity of Atom I wonder if this will be true, even if the next Windows release takes another eight years.

Microsoft have said (in the video here and on here) it supports Firefox and Safari (so presumably Chrome) just as well as IE. No mention of Opera but I see no reason as to why it wouldn't work. I think the video mentions that it works on Macs too.

May be confusing it with the next version of Office with will have box 32 and 64 on same disk.
Anyways the retail package of WIn 7 will ship with 32 and 64 bit versions of the product, except for home basic and lower.

It looks like "Languages" check mark refers to the inclusion of MUI Language Pack support. According to MSDN, this is for dynamically switching the language of the user interface.

So, you can choose what language you want to use when you install the system independent of which edition you have (well, except maybe Home Basic, but that's a different situation entirely), but only with Ultimate you can change the language on the fly.

So they're offering you a discount if you purchase before any reviews of the OS are released. Maybe they did learn from Vista...

The idea of preorders has been around in the gaming world for quite a while. Also, the Windows 7 Beta/RC has been officially downloadable for a few months now, so people have had quite a good opportunity to get an idea of whether they like it or not.

You do understand that they removed that feature, right?

Windows 2000 was never intended to be a "general user" or "home user" platform and it's original launch date was intended to be in 97 or 98. When the NT 5 beta 2 was released, Microsoft was finally hammering home the notion that Windows NT 5.0 was being designed solely for businesses, not for individual users at home. Microsoft's Jim Allchin spoke of releases that would follow NT 5.0, such as NT 5.1 "Asteroid" and NT 6.0 "Neptune," which would feature a consumer edition. Post-NT 5.0, Windows would receive a maintenance-free user interface and a unified Web/Win32 API. "NT everywhere" was the theme of the show. (of course NT 5 is windows 2000)

In line with the Asteroid release containing a consumer edition, it was something like service pack one or two in windows 2000 before some of the more major problems with consumer level access was addressed.

Windows ME however was the original 98 to NT transition plan that Gates was talking of back in 1998. It's release was behind then rushed too. XP was the first planned and first implemented consumer lever transition to the NT style Kernel. The NT numerical names would have been windows 2000 as NT 5.0, Windows XP as 5.1, and Vista or the 2008 server as NT 6.0.

There was a rumor that MS was going to combine the best of windows CE with ME to create a consumer level NT platform but it was scrapped as marketing feared the slogan would become windows "CE ME NT": hard as a rock and dumb as a brick. Anyways, in the middle there, MS did come out with the windows "really good edition". This version was one of my favorites and you can even run a demo of it on that site.

Also, they DID remove the 3 application limit. Your post is completely and totally wrong. http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/05/22/exclusive-microsoft-to-remove-3-app-limit-from-windows-7-starter.aspx

This is slashdot. MS can NEVER be seen as anything but evil here.

You're lying. Slashdot frequently has pro-M$ posts. M$ marketers and M$ marketing victims appear to have their very own reality distortion field and can't cope with a website that has any alternative points of view at all.

When websites like microsoft.com or Paul Thurott are fair and balanced then you might have a point. Until then any so-called bias by slashdot website contributers is just balancing out a tiny fraction of the incredible volume of propaganda coming out of Redmond and their client websites.

Oh, and to anticipate one snide comment: "M$" is a reminder that they are currently costing the world USD$50,000,000,000+ per year for a dozen programs mostly written decades ago with the most difficult bits, the device drivers, being written by third parties. It's also a response to them putting multiple marketing keys on general purpose PC keyboards.

---

Adopt an astroturfer. Make their life hell.

I'd like to point out that XP (or prior) has every single one of those features except for:
Restoring window positions after a cascade/similar.

After a cascade in XP, right-click on an empty space of the taskbar. You should see an option to "Undo Cascade."

However, the new window management features (called "Aero Snaps" during the beta and described in a December article) are a bit more than what XP offers and are much easier to use for novices.

In Windows 7, you can tile two windows vertically ("half-maximize" two windows side-by-side) by simply dragging each window to the left/right sides of the screen. Restore them by dragging them off (or do the keyboard shortcut). To do the same in Windows XP, you need to control-click two buttons in the taskbar, right-click one of them, then select "Tile Vertically." There's no way to restore them easily in XP (that I know of).

Windows 7 also offers a way to easily maximize/restore a window vertically, which I think could be useful in this age of wider screens with less vertical resolution.

The public beta will be out May 5th. Paying for MSDN or Technet gets you early access. I wouldn't have a Technet account except my work got it as part of their MS license deal.

Not neccessarily - all I get on msdn.com is

An Error Has Occurred
There was an unexpected error while attempting to retrieve your profile data.

You can try to:
Close your browser and retry the operation again in a few minutes.
Contact Support
Read the On-Line Self Help

Reference Id: D34DB33F

This error has been logged with the reference number noted above. Please use this reference number if you contact support.

Oh what fun - I pity those foo-s that wanted to download anything else off MSDN today...

np: Can - Aumgn (Anthology (Disc 1))

The public beta will be out May 5th. Paying for MSDN or Technet gets you early access. I wouldn't have a Technet account except my work got it as part of their MS license deal.

I think the most interesting new feature will the new Windows XP Mode which is
basically Virtual PC running Windows XP client seamlessly on the desktop. Most
likely it will gain interest in enterprises planning to upgrade XP installations.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx

You can now remove all of those things from the install (and more, including IE). You might be interested in reading this review of build 7048 by Paul Thurrott.

Yes, that is exactly what happened. Microsoft's previous comments on the matter basically boiled down to "What problem? This works exactly the way we intended it to."

from TFA:
"[...]Windows XP users will have to perform a clean install of Windows 7, however, while Vista users will be able to keep their existing applications and data with an upgrade install."

I guess many CIOs/expert users will balk at this...

from another FA:
"As for XP users, they can only "upgrade" by performing a clean install of Windows 7--Microsoft will not support an in-place upgrade--but there will be utilities to smooth the process and get data transferred over easily. It's not as straightforward as the Vista upgrade, but XP users should be able to migrate to Windows 7 on the same hardware without losing any valuable data."

I thought a "clean install" was the better option when upgrading from a previous OS with significant changes. Linux distros seem to handle "in place upgrades" well, but Windows and OS X can have annoying little bugs using this method.

I would hesitate to use the strong language of "confirmed" as the sites in the summary just link to other PCPro articles and it's all PCPro. I can't seem to find any really formal news release or website with Microsoft's official stance on this. I think this is a bad decision but they know their business better than I do.

From Paul Thurrott's site (which breaks each version down by feature--don't ask me how he got them).

Here's the most reliable source I can find where it is revealed in a Q&A with the general manager for Windows at Microsoft.

The AP has picked it and quotes passages from the Q&A session. So I think the majority of this is coming from a Q&A session with Mike Ybarra, general manager for Windows.

Which gives me pause and causes me to wonder ... are they really going to use the same marketing strategy they did with Vista?

If it isn't a virus or hardware issue, perhaps you have too many memory resident programs loaded?

At the Start menu click "Run" and then type in "msconfig" it will allow you to see what services, processes, and start up programs are in use. Naturally you want your Antivirus to load at startup but not your instant messenger programs and other useless junk that clutter up CPU cycles and system memory. Get rid of a few startup programs first and then reboot and see if the system speed improves.

It could be a corrupted registry and that link is to Microsoft's site on how to troubleshoot that.

If you cannot resolve the speed problem that way you might have a bad system file or files that went corrupt.

First make sure that you have:
#1 The original XP install CD without any service packs.
#2 The slipstreamed XP install CD with the same service pack you are using.

Click Start and select "Run" and type in "sfc /checknow" and have those CDs ready when prompted for them.

Sfc is the system file checker and oddly enough it needs a non-service pack XP CD and an XP CD with your service pack on it. Best to make the slipstreamed version with SP2 or SP3 whatever you are using on it first. I hope you have the non-SP version of XP, if not borrow it from someone who does have it. This could be a tricky process but sometimes it works, but you need to reinstall all security patches after it runs.

Thank you ! I am serious...thank you. I am so tired of being treated like a nut and being marked "flamebait" and "troll" for saying that Win7 is going to bomb. I swear, it is like I woke up in an alternate reality where the past 3 years never existed. Does NOBODY remember the pre release hype for Vista? Does NOBODY remember how the press gushed on and on and on about how wonderful it was? The first time I loaded up Vista Beta 1 my first thoughts were "Oh...My...God. What are they thinking? This is going to bomb SO hard! The home users will hate it and the businesses will too. Who did this? It is awful!"

And here we are, three years later, and companies are offering machines with With XP Pro downgrade rights! in giant letters to sell their PCs. Why? Because the users have spoken, and the vast majority HATE Vista! Just like you they have either tried to like Vista(I did too. I used it for over a month and couldn't take it anymore) or they have watched a family member fight it and have decided not to go that route. I know that this will shock many Slashdot guys, but most of my users don't even want the "fisher price" look of XP. They want the "classic" that looks like Win9x.

With any other company, they would have in all likelihood listened to their customers and given them what they wanted. What does MSFT do? More bling bling! The majority of the public HATES your OS, in a large part because of the awful GUI, and your answer is to add MORE bling bling onto the GUI that they hate? Does that make ANY sense? And as for the earlier poster asking "why would they switch to Linux?" Simple-1. The GUI can be EXACTLY like XP,or even Win9x. That is what they know, that is what they want. 2. The OEMs are going to have to push SOMETHING if Win7 turns out to be another turkey, because I can't see Ballmer admitting defeat and allowing them to keep selling XP when Win7 comes out. Whether folks will buy Linux or go to guys like me to get XP machines, who knows.

But mod me down all you want. Say I am a troll, or flamebait, or whatever makes you happy. But mark my words, and mark them well. Windows 7 will B-O-M-B. It will bomb just as hard, possibly even harder than Vista, thanks to that confusing taskbar/quicklaunch with almost no way for anyone with even the slightest vision troubles to be able to tell if a program is running or not. And then when it does, just like with Vista, all those bloggers that were gushing over Windows 7 will be "I knew it! MSFT has another turkey on its hands!". But when even Thurrott puts out an article simple VS easy about how Win7 looks simple but isn't easy to use, and Mary Joe Foley is saying "If I wanted a Mac-like environment, I'd buy a Mac" then you know there are problems in paradise. Mark my words, folks aren't going to like Win7 anymore than they like Vista. Maybe the next one after that they'll listen to their customers and give them what they want.