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Windows 7 Is the Next Windows XP
snydeq writes "Windows XP's most beloved factors are also driving business organizations to Windows 7 in the face of Windows 8. 'We love Windows 7: That's the message loud and clear from people this week at the TechMentor Conference held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash. With Windows XP reaching end of life for support in April 2014, the plan for most organizations is to upgrade — to Windows 7,' indicating 'a repeat of history for what we've seen with Windows releases, the original-cast Star Trek movie pattern where every other version was beloved and the ones in between decidedly not so.'"
You probably won't have to wait long, because Microsoft already has a fall back.
The Windows 7 interface worked acceptably well in early windows 8, even if you had to registry hack it into making an appearance.
I predict this will be their fall back position when they see sales tanking on everything except tablets.
They will flip a switch and presto-change-o the start bar will reappear.
People are not going to be reaching across their keyboards to smudge their screen on anything except tablets.
Its not going to happen.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
'We love Windows 7:
Somehow they forget to add compared to Windows 8
At first, I thought it was just a silly conspiracy theory that they released an intentionally crappy OS every other cycle, but I'm really starting to think they do it on purpose:
1) Release good OS with an expected lifespan of around 4 years
2) At 2 years release crappy OS. The people that bought the OS at 1) are not going to upgrade. All of the people purchasing new computers have no choice but to buy crap. While OS sales take a dip, it's not unmanageable.
3) Release good OS. People from 1) now upgrade, and people from 2) are desperate to get off the turd they bought. Money now pours in.
4) See 2.
Windows 8 isn't big and scary. It's just horridly designed.
The issues with the bootloader are one problem, that might pose a problem for linux, but are actually a relatively small part of what is problem with windows 8, because windows 8 is a badly designed mess.
A good overview of some of what is wrong with it http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/why-i-m-uninstalling-windows-8
This isn't a DRM issue, a compatibility issue (although there is some of that), it's not even particularly evil, at least not any more than anything else MS does. It's that it's a nightmare to use because the design is wildly inconsistent for no apparent reason, and it doesn't seem to actually get you anything for that. If you want to use 10 GB of my RAM that's fine if I actually get something out of it, if you're going to change how to shut down the machine, or how apps work etc. it's just unnecessarily confusing.
One thing to consider is that for a large company every major upgrade of the user interface causes a lot of costs while people are learning the new features and how to find how to do it when their old familiar features has disappeared. I'm still annoyed by a few things in the new Office UI.
And the statistics Microsoft has collected saying for example that the Start button could go away - I don't think that they have realized that the statistics they got is skewed since many advanced users and company admins intentionally unticks the checkbox allowing Microsoft to collect data about your usage. That leaves them with statistics from a large number of home users that are more or less computer illiterate.
So if you look at how a moron works and design your tools after that then you will make tools for morons. But then you are actually a moron yourself.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Actually, yes.
The reason large touch screens are not cheaper is because it is a relatively rarely-wanted feature. It just isn't useful in the cases of most desktops and large screen deployments.
I honestly don't know if that will help. After all by SP2 they had worked most of the bugs out of Vista but you still can't get most people to even think of taking Vista on a bet, once the public has made up its mind that is usually it.
That said after running DP,CP and RP unless you are getting it on a touchscreen tablet or phone I really don't see any real selling points, especially not for business and average consumers. I mean why did XP last so long? Because it worked, by SP2 all the major bugs were out of the way and it did what people wanted which was to boot up and GTFO of the way so they can run their programs, and Win 7 does this even better, with better memory management, jumplists and breadcrumbs make it insanely easy to get back to where you were working the day before, its just a nice OS that works well for businesses and gamers, so why put up with the Metro bullshit? So we can get fingerprints on the new touchscreen we'd have to buy? No thanks.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
You know what's hilarious? The fact that MS Office documents often don't open correctly even between different revisions of MS Office.
So, you're fucked either way, but in one case, you are fucked for free and in the other it's $499 to get fucked.
Sysadmin here:
We've migrated about 50 users (salesforce, most are aged 40 to 60) to Win7 from XP about 2 months ago. Here's what's happening for us:
* No major problems adjusting to Win7 (I've had a couple of quick questions, that's it).
* Running users as standard users is almost viable (we're having a lot of pain and suffering from all the crapware we have to install (Adobe Flash, Reader, Shockwave; Quicktime, iTunes; Java; etc, etc) -- almost everything on this list wants admin rights to update itself). Users can't install much or tweak much, so much less user-induced OS failure/slowness/malware. We're trialling SCCM for this, so we'll see...
* Win7 seems less prone to malware infection. I doubt it's anywhere near secure, but it's already doing a lot better than XP. (I'm forced to use Symantec for AV, which is about as much protection as a pincushion condom.)
* Device drivers for modern PCs on XP is a royal pain; Win7 is ok for now (a couple of bad device drivers for Win7 x64, but much better than XP x64 and good enough for use), and updating device drivers from Windows Update works about half the time.
* Imaging tools are much nicer.
* Sleep and hibernate seem to be more reliable. XP would fail to resume 1 in every 200 resumes or so.
So for us, Win7 is a major step up -- it isn't that it's good so much as it sucks much less than XP (which sucked much less than 98, etc.). Furthermore, ReactOS (last I checked) is far, far, far away from being a viable replacement. MS could sit still for 5 to 10 years and ReactOS would still be far away. Give those guys several more good programmers and the story might be different...
The AC's comment was downvoted because he's an obvious Microsoft marketer (or allied company). Especially in his last sentence when he says Win8 is "slick" and he "likes where this is headed" and can't wait to get a Surface Tablet and Windows 8 Phone to "bring it all together".
Who talks like that? Bring it all together? Bring what together? The last time I heard those vague-type phrases was during a voiceover for a television ad.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
XP worked and does work. It worked from the beginning.
Oh boy. No, it didn't. At the release it was just a bloated, slightly more unstable version of Windows 2000. However the biggest problem was the malware explosion, and Service Pack 2 finally got things at a sane level.
That leaves them with statistics from a large number of home users that are more or less computer illiterate.
Which is the group they are bleeding right now. That's who Windows 8 is aimed at, not losing that group.
Conversely the "computer literate" are (by numbers) the ones that have the strongest ties to Windows and Windows software. They are the ones who just stay put on Windows 7 for another 5 years or so while Microsoft works through the transition. They are the ones that once Metro apps and Metro hardware become widely available and heavily used switch. They are also the ones who while the most upset about UI changes, are the most able to adapt if they have to.