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How Vista Mistakes Changed Windows 7 Development

Posted by kdawson on from the expensive-education dept.

snydeq writes "For the past several months, Microsoft has engaged in an extended public mea culpa about Vista, holding a series of press interviews to explain how the company's Vista mistakes changed the development process of Windows 7. Chief among these changes was the determination to 'define a feature set early on' and only share that feature set with partners and customers when the company is confident they will be incorporated into the final OS. And to solve PC-compatibility issues, Microsoft has said all versions of Windows 7 will run even on low-cost netbooks. Moreover, Microsoft reiterated that the beta of Windows 7 that is now available is already feature-complete, although its final release to business customers isn't expected until November." As a data point for how well this has all worked out in practice, reader The other A.N.Other recommends a ZDNet article describing rough benchmarks for three versions of Windows 7 against Vista and XP. In particular, Win-7 build 7048 (64-bit) vs. Win-7 build 7000 (32-bit and 64-bit) vs. Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 were tested on both high-end and low-end hardware. The conclusions: Windows 7 is, overall, faster than both Vista and XP. As Windows 7 progresses, it's getting faster (or at least the 64-bit editions are). On a higher-spec system, 64-bit is best. On a lower-spec system, 32-bit is best.

20 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. Will run on netbooks or drag? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have talked about W7 performance on netbooks which will only allow to run 3 apps. Perfect for an antivirus, a firewall, an antispyware, the WGA... oh crap!

    1. Re:Will run on netbooks or drag? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      We have talked about W7 performance on netbooks which will only allow to run 3 apps. Perfect for an antivirus, a firewall, an antispyware, the WGA... oh crap!

      Is this the ultimate trump card for emacs over vi? One app is all you need!

    2. Re:Will run on netbooks or drag? by SL+Baur · · Score: 2, Funny

      Therein lies the problem. Although XP is several years old, it actually does every single thing a user needs from an operating system.

      Actually, no it doesn't. It's klunky looking and slow. On my corporate issue Lenovo T60, I was amazed at how fast a machine it really was when I was permitted to wipe the "Enterprise" XP and replace it with RHEL.

      I found it difficult to give up the multiple desktops I had become accustomed to in over a decade (starting way back from olvwm) and I also found it difficult to customize. It takes a few seconds and no internet access to fix the large key to the left of the `a' key issue (should be control not capslock) on both MacOS X and KDE.

      The only thing I ever found pleasurable about Microsoft Windows XP was how I felt when I turned the machine off.

      I despise the citrix applications I am forced to use, but at least I can run them on a decent desktop system.

      Huge wall of text? Check.
      Microsoft sycophantry? Check.
      High userid? Check.

      Lord and Lady pair, I love the smell of astroturf in the morning!

  2. Re:Let's see it against Ubuntu 9.04 by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, instead of throwing a chair at you, I've decided to take your challenge! I had Netcraft test our Microsoft Office benchmark suite with Office 2007 running under Wine on Ubuntu 9.04 32-bit and under the latest 64-bit build of Windows 7.

    Unsurprisingly, Windows 7 wins by a longshot! Ha! *throws chair* I'm gonna fscking KILL Mark Shuttleworth! Muahahahaha!

    -- Steve Ballmer

    --
    My blog
  3. Re:Let's see it against Ubuntu 9.04 by Jurily · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can't wait for those results!

    Let's pitch those against my Gentoo. Next month, when I'm done with the compiling.

  4. Re:release date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Done with the OS X.6 already! Why don't they call it OS XI? Or OS Y? Or iOS?

    At least Ubuntu has cute names I can rely on!

    Such as, Tiger, Panther, and Snow Leopard?

  5. Re:Captain Obvious descends by MrKaos · · Score: 2, Funny

    You got it wrong: Vista was the mistake that caused Windows 7 development.

    Nu uh. Vista was the feature that caused Windows 7 development. That's why Windows 9 will be the bestest windows evaaaaaah!!!

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  6. Re:Captain Obvious descends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So Vista is the broken condom that resulted in the bastard child....

  7. OK, so we fucked up. It's good now, really! by Trip6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    MS deigns to send the message that they care about the customer and the community. It would have been nice if they did that the last time. Sorry, I'm already on OSX.

    --
    I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
  8. Re:release date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    OS 10.7 - Schmoopy
    OS 10.8 - Schnookums
    OS 10.9 - Mr. Fluffles
    OS 11 - Richard Scarry

  9. Re:release date by Joebert · · Score: 1, Funny

    You forgot the part about you banging my wife in the back seat of your Pinto because I'm soo worried about my Ferrari that I never talk to her anymore.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  10. Fool me 7 times.... by syousef · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 7 or 8 times, shame on me ;-)

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  11. Re:release date by slyn · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least Ubuntu has cute names I can rely on!

    Yea, they should come up with a naming convention that empathizes cats to jump on the LoLcats bandwagon. Everyone loves cats!

    OS 10.7: Garfield Y/N?

  12. He didn't test anything! by Dead_Smiley · · Score: 4, Funny
    He was just backing up his porn...

    ***
    4. Move 100MB files - Move 100MB of JPEG files from one hard drive to another

    5. Move 2.5GB files - Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from one hard drive to another

    6. Network transfer 100MB files - Move 100MB of JPEG files from test machine to NAS device

    7. Network transfer 2.5GB files - Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from test machine to NAS device

    8. Move 100MB files under load - Move 100MB of JPEG files from one hard drive to another while ripping DVD to .ISO file

    9. Move 2.5GB files under load - Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from one hard drive to another while ripping DVD to .ISO file

    10. Network transfer 100MB files under load - Move 100MB of JPEG files from test machine to NAS device while ripping DVD to .ISO file

    ***

    --
    I know what the Internet is, what the hell is this Interweb business?!
  13. Re:release date by Tr3vin · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.virtualbox.org/register

  14. Re:Vista SP2 by NeverVotedBush · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bet if you do a uname -a at the C> prompt, it will say something along the lines of:

    Windows 7 Desktop 2.6.27.19-3.2-default #1 SMP 2009-02-25 15:40:44

  15. Re:Vista SP2 by Dreadneck · · Score: 5, Funny

    I propose calling it ReVista

    --
    Power does not corrupt - power attracts the corrupt.
  16. Re:Vista SP2 by Slorv · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, Vista ME seems more proper

    --
    Bikers.....The only people that understand why a dog hangs his head out a car window.
  17. Re:Vista SP2 by shri · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or Hasta La Vista? :D

  18. Re:Vista SP2 by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's actually Vista XP, because they learned from experience.