First Look: Windows 7 Beta

First Look: Windows 7 Beta. Part One.

 

 

My right index finger hurts from the constant clicking of the refresh button. Half the time the web page doesn't even load, I'm probably competing with a few hundred thousand people looking to get the same thing. My heart is beating faster than normal, my anticipation is overwhelming my senses and I nearly drop the cup of coffee in my left hand. What am I and thousands of others going after to cause such chaos as to have Microsoft put up a note that all new downloads have been disabled so they can add more servers? Is it some new hotfix we all desperately need, is Mr. Gates giving away millions of dollars or is it a glance of the future that will make or break Microsoft? Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 is indeed the cause of this mass hysteria and for good reason.

To put it lightly, Windows Vista of all favors, was a dud. The early marketing blitz of Windows Vista promised that the move from the matured Windows XP to Vista would be smooth, easy and most of all better for your computing needs. It was none of the above, the combination of legacy program issues, performance woes and a great advertisement campaign by Microsoft rival, Apple, show that Vista wasn't ready for the limelight. The trouble wasn't the brand new PC's loaded with Vista (those at least came with hardware, software and drivers that worked with Vista), the hurt came from consumers trying to upgrade from a Windows XP PC to Vista. The majority of programs that worked so great in XP didn't run as well or at all in Vista. While the blame could be placed on the developers of those programs, Vista was a brand new OS that included many new security features that hindered the operation of a lot of applications. Many XP users couldn't even get most of their hardware to work in Vista, a lot of drivers didn't work. Add to the mix that Vista in its early days (and arguably still does) runs much slower than XP yet requires more resources, gave many consumers headaches to the point most reverted back to XP. I guessing around this time, Apple's marketing division caught wind of this and those embarrassing but true Get a Mac commercials came out.

 

Right now, Windows Vista is a much different beast than what was ridiculed during its first year. While there are many programs that still won't run in Vista, we have plenty of native alternatives that work as great or better. There are a host of performance tweaks, tips and more to get Windows Vista running as least as fast as XP and Microsoft finally fought back with the “I'm a PC” and “Windows Mojave” campaigns, but is it too late? The public perception of Windows Vista is low. With poor media criticism and the bad taste lingering in the mouths of early adopters, Microsoft has to push beyond Vista in order to save its OS dominance. Windows Vista is no doubt the new Windows ME. Can Windows 7 reintroduce Microsoft to the public as an innovator instead of an aging software giant that seems to be copying & pasting what others are doing? Read on