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Microsoft Brings 36 New Features To Windows 7
Barence writes "Microsoft has unveiled a slew of new features that will appear in the Release Candidate of Windows 7 that didn't make an appearance in the beta. 'We've been quite busy for the past two months or so working through all the feedback we've received on Windows 7,' explains Steven Sinofsky, lead engineer for Windows 7 in his blog. A majority of these features are user interface tweaks, but they should add up to a much smoother Windows 7 experience." In separate news, Technologizer reports on Microsoft's contingency plan, should things not go well in EU antitrust, to slip Win7 to January.
.. how many of them are actually useful?
Do you D?
Anyone who uses VPN knows the pain of accessing network shares. You go to the server you want, wait while Windows loads all the contents of the folder, click on a folder, wait until Windows loads all the contents of that folder, and so on.
It would be nice if it could let you select an item as it appears in the list, instead of having to wait for the whole folder to be enumerated. It would also be nice if it didn't lock up Explorer when the network is slow.
Beta is a test phase before rolling your RC and then retail. You don't add features that late in the game, you fix bugs. You fork features into the next release, service pack etc.
Oh, in OS X (at least Tiger), I hate this "needy" state of constantly jumping up and down like a student wanting to give an answer. It's usually an app wanting just to be clicked on like it needs attention with absolutely no reason for it. I know way too much of Vista also tends to be needy out of the box pestering you with bullshit. After a few flashes, why don't they just silently invert the colors on the icon or rectangle (or give it a halo or something) on the task bar so that it sits there quietly, STFU, stays still, and lets you get to it in your own time?
Its kind of funny because I wasn't trolling. Look at those 36 features. They're fine additions, but I'd rather read how MS is spending more time/energy addressing fundamental problems in Windows like security. 8 of those 36 features are about WMP, for god's sake.
I'd vote for another "feature" to be removed even before DRM: activation. Granted, Activation is DRM but it's specific to Windows registration.
Why?
Activation has not deterred "piracy" (arrr!) in the least; if you visit any torrent site you will see many torrents of "activation cracked" Windows XP and Vista. When I reinstall Windows XP or Vista and need to install updates for testing client projects, I need to activate Windows; This requires a 20-minute call to the Activation hotline each time. This is even with the MSDN version, which allows for 10 concurrent installs on separate workstations (PER subscription - I have three subscriptions, which allows me 30 seats). I should never, ever have to call in to activate Windows for a distribution which is intended to be frequently reinstalled.
Every time I have to call Microsoft about anything, or any time they ever call me, I rip the rep a new one about the activation scheme. I refer them to the torrent sites and pointedly ask them why I should be penalized with this activation scheme when I paid literally THOUSANDS for Microsoft Windows while non-paying ("pirate") users don't encounter any inconvenience at all. I ask them why I should buy genuine Windows when the counterfeit is actually SUPERIOR to the "genuine" product.
I also drop the L-word every time they call me; it is a five-letter word which has Microsoft shaking in their boots. I inform them that Windows only hangs around for Quickbooks, Adobe's creative suite, and for Windows development projects, and that our servers and the workstations for day-to-day productivity run Linux. It's a better solution which requires less downtime (er, "scheduled maintenance windows" in Microsoft-speak - redefining "downtime" is how they boast less downtime in their marketing drivel), requires less resources, and maintenance can be fully automated - and administered remotely via a command line shell. In fact, I have scripts running in nagios to automatically correct many minor faults and warning conditions should they occur.
The reps are usually apologetic but does upper management have ANY clue?
We sell systems with Windows preinstalled - many to the DoD however I flatly refuse to become a Windows OEM. I'd rather pay $10 to $15 more to continue buying from the distributors I'm buying from because the OEM agreement is 100% one-sided. Why should I give Microsoft permission to enter my office at-will? They won't find license violations - they'd probably claim 'patent infringement' however since I run the F/OSS distros I don't have RedHat or Novell covering my back.
My mail server is currently scalix (probably going to switch to Openxchange soon since Scalix has stagnated with Xandros' buying them out - I needed a single support incident but they sell them only in blocks of five - forget Scalix! I dug in and fixed the problem myself, although it probably cost me more time than it was worth).
Microsoft really needs to consider long-term impact of how "anti-piracy" features devalue their products compared to the counterfeit options. and how IT personnel recommendations are going to affect adaptation of their future offerings. Hell, as it is Vista was as close to stillborn as a monopoly OS can get. People buy it only because Worst Buy, Circuit City, etc. did not offer a choice. I've had quite a few customers call me and ask if I can still get Windows XP (Yup! Sure can, and because I didn't ever sign the OEM agreement I can legally purchase OEM Windows and resell it without hardware, per first sale doctrine) and I've UP-graded (not downgraded) them from Vista to XP.
Having said that, I'm ordering a new notebook - either a Dell E6500 or M4400 (the Precision is tempting because of the workstation chipset and I'll still get decent runtime with the power slice!) and it's going to come with Vista Ultimate + Windows XP down^H^H^H^Hupgrade rights. It's more than enough to run Vista well (It should run even better than my desktop workstation runs Vista) but 300GB of the drive will be L
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
The poster (I wouldn't have modded you troll) has a point... Windows (any version) is still the most violated / open to violation operating system out there.
The security problem isn't easily solvable. The computer illiterate will keep getting infected almost no matter what MS does. Remember from last year's OS hacking competition which we talked about on slashdot that when people are actually targeting each OS, OSX was the most easily violated, and Vista was equivalent to Linux. However, no one targets OSX or Linux because of market share. Argue about details all you want, but with Vista already having been shown empirically to be more secure than OSX yet having basically infinitely higher infection rates than OSX, the solution on the OS side of things is anything but obvious.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Wow, a mindless bitching fest. These aren't new features as in "hey look! New features!" These are direct responses to customer feedback.