Slashdot Mirror
Steve Ballmer Directing "House Party 7"
theodp writes "What are you doing on Oct. 22? Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout, launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new OS. People accepted as official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and a chance to win a computer. Host spaces are very limited, so apply now, kids. Hey, what could possibly go wrong?"
Once upon a time when the zune was first coming out, there was a box put out in the courtyard of the microsoft grounds, or some other common area (i can't recall which) where employees could ditch their ipods in a show of solidarity. If I recall correctly, there were only like 2-3 ipods dropped off from the whole of microsoft. I wonder how many "House Party 7"'s there will be? Although the ipod thing wasn't backed up by a show of chair-based kinetic force.
I think the issue here is that I'm not getting Windows 7 so I can have a new operating system; I'm getting it to do a particular task. In this case, a home media center. What I've noticed:
It has native support for SATA3. Disk operations, specifically file transfers, are MUCH faster. Big improvement over previous version.
It recognized my HDTV card and supported it without me having to dink with it. Big improvement. Same with memory card multi-reader. Very nice.
Network seems faster. I hope to do some more testing this weekend.
Windows 7 supports my multi-core proc natively (no driver necessary) and seems to do a better job of task management. Big win here.
However:
Graphics on games fail in the same way -- Spore, for instance, tears and flickers as it did before. I didn't expect Windows 7's new graphics features to fix this, but was hoping.
S/PDIF ceased working after installing Windows 7. It sees the device but no sound comes out. This is a bummer. I hope there is a fix for this.
Media Center does not recognize video in mkv containers, even though media player will play them. Previous version would play them fine. Don't have a solution for this yet.
Desktop improvements? Not interesting. Winders is an OS, not an application. When I get time, I will be turning off all the fancy-dancy eye candy. I want the CPU to work on my applications, now how they are presented.
So, for me, Windows 7 gave me some very welcome compatibility with my existing hardware, (but not the video card, unfortunately) at the cost of a couple of hiccups. Generally positive, especially if I can fix the last remaining issues. But... $300? You're kidding, right? Throw a party? Gimme a break.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Okay, you probably don't want to host one of these parties. But I do.
You make it seem like hosting a party is a big, bad thing. Like dropping $250 on food is a big deal. That Microsoft is EVIL for thinking you might be a normal person who has friends, and who regularly invites those friends over to your house so you can get together and have some fun. With friends.
The ONLY thing Microsoft is asking you to do, is to have a machine running Windows 7 at your house. They will give you a copy of Windows 7. They will also give you some other things (napkins, balloons, etc.) that you can use if you want.
You can also win a new computer for yourself.
I don't consider that to be such a bad thing. I regularly have parties anyway. The only difference here is that Microsoft is giving me a copy of an operating system (which I can choose whether or not I want to use) and a few other things.
And if you have friends...real friends...it is easy to say, "Hey, come on over to my party...yes, it will have some strange decorations, but that is no big deal."
For my friends, it won't be much different than my burger building parties. Or my 'Throwdown' (cooking contest, not WWF) parties. Or my Rock Band parties. Or anything else.
It's just a fairly flimsy excuse to get together with friends.
If that seems evil to you, then I think we have vastly different opinions on life.
No reason to lie.