The Hindu News Update Service
News Update Service
Thursday, May 7, 2009 : 0315 Hrs
Sci. & Tech.
Windows 7 really worth waiting for?
By Tim Anderson
GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE: With the launch of the Windows 7 release candidate,
anticipation is growing over Microsoft's new OS. So, asks Tim Anderson, is the
upgrade really worth waiting for?
The new Windows is edging closer to release. This week, Microsoft has made the
release candidate (RC) available to anyone who wants to try it; and although
the company has not announced the final release date, Acer's UK managing
director, Bobby Watkins, recently told the press that machines with Windows 7
installed will be on sale from 23 October.
Despite its name, there is no chance that the release candidate version will be
the final one. Rather, it is the last round of testing before completing
the software and issuing it to PC vendors. Acer's date looks plausible,
allowing two or three months for Microsoft to finalise the software, and the
same
again for vendors to prepare and distribute Windows 7 PCs.
Feeling positive
Early adopters are mainly positive. "Much better than Vista and just as stable
as XP," writes a user on the unofficial Windows 7 forums (sevenforums.com),
and that view appears typical. The sense is that Microsoft has done a better
job than with Vista, partly because the core operating system is little changed,
freeing resources to work on refining performance and usability.
"With Vista they were trying to do lots of major plumbing changes, but that
created lots of issues. Windows 7 is more [about] enhancing the user
experience,"
explains Annette Jump, a research director at Gartner.
Although Windows 7 has much in common with Vista, there is still a long list of
new features. The most obvious is the enhanced taskbar. In Vista, this shows
icons for programs that are running, but in Windows 7 you can also launch
applications, making it a single place both for starting programs and for
switching
between them. There are both thumbnail and full-screen previews as you hover
the mouse over taskbar icons, making switching easier than before. In the
RC this also works for keyboard-switching with the alt and tab keys.
Another area of focus is home networking. Windows 7 HomeGroup - which only
works among Windows 7 machines - is a shared group of machines controlled by
a computer-generated password, and enables sharing of documents, printers,
music and videos. A new feature in the latest release is remote streaming, which
lets HomeGroup members access media across the internet, though it depends on
correct firewall settings and a link with a Windows Live online account.
Microsoft has also realised many business users take laptops home, and allows a
PC to join a HomeGroup as well as a business network. Business documents
are protected from inadvertent sharing, though some administrators may still
forbid this.
"My absolute favourite feature would have to be the Libraries function," says
Peter Dzomlija on the Windows 7 forums. "I no longer have to manage four
different
videos folders." Libraries lets you create a virtual view of several real
folders, so that they appear as one. The snag is that users may struggle to
distinguish
the links from the real thing.
Even Microsoft is concerned about this. In the beta of Windows 7, you could
link a folder to a library by drag-and-drop. But what if a user thought a copy
of the folder had been made, and deleted the original? Since the library only
contains a link, they would lose work. Microsoft has therefore removed the
drag-and-drop method of linking in the RC - though links still have the
potential to confuse.
Windows 7 has a mountain to climb in persuading people to upgrade, though.
According to figures from Net Applications (http://bit.ly/winseven3), some 70%
of Windows installations are still XP, with just 27.5% on Vista, even though
that has been out for more than two years. There are several reasons why:
in the consumer market, the growing popularity and sales of netbooks extended
the life of XP because Vista was too resource-hungry to fit on them. Microsoft
claims to have fixed this with Windows 7, tuning performance for low-end as
well as high-end devices.
Second, larger businesses never upgrade in a hurry. "Enterprises usually take
12 to 18 months from the beginning of a new OS to the time when they are ready
to deploy it," explains Jump. The reason is not only caution, but also to give
time for custom business applications to be tested and upgraded. Third,
many users were simply not persuaded of Vista's merits. Many early adopters had
a poor experience, and although the latest Vista machines are likely to
work much better, its reputation remains tarnished. "A growing number of
companies are looking at skipping Vista altogether," says Jump.
But a key, and just-announced, feature in Windows 7 to persuade XP owners
reluctant to let go of their carefully managed installation is "XP Mode". This
uses an instance of Windows XP running on a virtual PC for near-perfect
compatibility. The main limitation is that the virtual PC does not have direct
access to hardware such as accelerated graphics or add-on cards, though it does
support USB devices. Performance is also compromised compared with running
XP directly.
XP Mode will not be part of retail Windows 7, but may be pre-installed by PC
vendors or downloaded as a free add-on for Professional or higher. It requires
hardware virtualisation support, built into some (but not all) recent CPUs;
Microsoft also recommends 2GB or more of Ram. Aimed at small businesses that
need to run old software, XP Mode lets you run XP applications seamlessly from
the Windows 7 desktop: only the application window appears, and documents
load and save from Windows 7 by default, not from the virtual hard drive -
though this integration can be confusing.
When Windows 7 does appear, there will be six editions, beginning with a
cut-down version called Windows 7 Starter - which will be hobbled so a maximum
of three applications can run at once - going up to Ultimate via Home Basic,
Home Premium, Professional and Enterprise. Microsoft is trying to compete
with free Linux in the netbook and budget market, while maintaining prices
elsewhere.
Brad Brooks, the corporate vice-president for Windows consumer product
marketing, says customers will be able to upgrade to Premium or Ultimate for
"less
than a night out for four at a pizza restaurant." It still contrasts with
Apple's OS X, however, where there is only one edition for all end-user
installations.
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