I actually got the opportunity today to have a play with Windows 7. And wasn’t it just soo much fun.
Now to set the scene here, I am a Linux User, but I’m not that closed minded that I’m out to bag every other operating system out there just because Linux – in particular – Kubuntu is pretty good.
Every Operating system has it’s Pro’s and Con’s.
Let’s work backwards here. First of all, if you speak to anyone that knows a little about anything, the system that does get the most favorable comments is….Wait for it…. the Apple Macintosh and rightly so.
In the days of old when I was a Field Service Engineer and MS DOS 3.3 was still brand spanking new ( to remind you those were the days when all you had was a flashing cursor on a screen where you actually had to type commands. None of this graphical clicky clicky stuff…) But in those days of MS DOS 3.3 Command line heaven (I’m never sarcastic – I promise ) There were these Apple Macs with a Graphical Screen and you could hook them up onto a network with all their other Apple Mac buddies by just connecting a cable.
Even today the Apple Ipods, Itouch and Iphones are very user friendly and popular even though they are pricey. One mate of mine is very devoted to his Iphone ( see http://www.IWankers.com )
Who would have thought?
So here we were, in the computer business dealing with multi user systems using Green Screen Monitors and Serial cables ( DEC equipment ) to the introduction of the PC with it’s glorious Command line ( oh but you could do some neat ASCII Graphics – that’s making pictures with the letters and numbers on your keyboard and actually took some skill too) to this graphical Apple Mac that had a mouse, a nice user interface, a built in floppy drive ( 3.5inch ) and the insides were very minimal.
I know as I was a certified Apple repairer back in those days. The motherboards where a quarter of the size of the brand spanking new “Small” PC ones.Although as it had the screen built in the biggest board was the TV Screen controller – go figure – they still aint that small even today.
So the Macs way back then were MILES ahead of anything my Bill’s mob. I bet you didn’t know that.
Linux on the PC
Unix was already a very stable and popular system back in those old days, although you did need to be a super geek to install and set it up and write the nifty programs etc. So along came Linux – based upon unix created by Linus Torvalds and it was – FREE! Shock Horror!
And today it is still FREE. Now Linux has suffered a little in the past as being another one of those “you need an university degree” to use it. Today it’s come a very long way. Now before I get stomped upon by all the Linux Devotees out there who love their particular flavour of Linux, just remember- we all have our own preferences! Ok, so I’m a big fan of Kubuntu which of the time of writing this post is at version 9.10 and was released a few days after Windows 7. Don’t think Linux was trying to out do Windows… The Ubuntu gang release a new version every 6 months.
I’m thinking the MS camp were trying to make it look the other way…
Oh and this new version of Kubuntu has a new version of the desktop which is meant to be kickbutt wonderful. I’ve seen the previous version… I was hoping that the MS dudes would take something from that into their system…
So we come to Microsoft 7
Is it just a version of Vista that works? Or an upgrade to XP cause Vista was just the big brother to the ill fated ME version. You’ve never heard of ME? It lasted oh, for about 6 months before they brought out XP. So I’m wondering if Microsoft 7 is the latest case of “Oh Crap we f’ed up again – quick bring out a new version”.
Although the marketing has been interesting… Over here they had the Australian version of “The Apprentice” getting the two teams to create an advertising campaign for the Microsoft marketing geniuses to judge. They also had “house parties” ( see my other article on that over at http://www.nottherealnews.com/win-7-house-party-time ) which were meant to inspire bunches of people to gather and get all excited and buy lots of copies…..
Hmm and the Television advertising has been interesting… “Look how great this is now….the windows snap together – ” Umm yeah, well to Mac and Linux users that would soung like.. “Look we’ve just discovered Fire!” and we’d say – “Good for you. You’ve only got fire cause you saw us make it”
So back to my little look at Windows 7 that I had today…. On the greatness of their stealing the concept of snappy windows..and whats with the crappy slogan, “I’m a PC and Windows 7 is my Idea!”I could translate that but this is a family rated site. That’s an item for http://www.couchpotatocritics.com .
Hmmm, anyway on the basis of Snappy Windows, I was hoping that they had stolen , whoops I mean – “taken care in discerning what other popular well designed operating systems were employing” so that the thing was actually useable.
In all fairness, if you’ve ever got to use the latest Linux Flavors and there are a lot out there now ( cause people can customize it and not be stuck with 4 flavors that all taste like chicken) you’d find it really difficult to go back to windows. Seriously! Which is why I just had to have a play with it. And I was dissappointed ( insert sad face ) . I was hoping that they had gone a little further than the snappy windows… But the problem is, that once you start with something, you can’t go changing things too much or else your customer base might get grumpy. Enough said.
So the outlook is…
If you want to use your Computer to do serious stuff and you can afford it, definitely go with a Macintosh. They are more pricey, but they perform very well at what they do and have a very good user interface and their operating system is based upon a version of Linux. Are you shocked? Don’t be it works…
If you have a PC and can tear yourself away from Windows, something like Kubuntu of Ubuntu will do you well. As well as all the FREE software that is now available that replaces 99% of other stuff and is just as good if not better. And if you are asking “How can that be when it’s all Free?” ( yeah I know it rhymes.- not deliberatly!) Well , are you sitting down…. There are a lot of people out there who just love writing good software.
AND if there is a problem, it gets reported – (there are free bug reporting programs around – because people needed them to support these other projects ) – and it gets acted upon! AND as it’s all open source, anyone can contribute, everyone has a say and the world in the land of “Open Source” is a happy place.
They have normal jobs, most of them in the Software industry and much smarter than some other folk….So it’s community built. They ( they being the companies that support these things ) do make money in offering support etc. There’s big money in it. A completely different model , but it benefits everyone. So these companies have their Free Versions, that for you are I are just as good as the more upmarket corporate ones.
As an example – I’m not getting paid to write this for you, but I want to write about it – go figure!
And there is a Swagger of really great FREE software to use, which I’ll discuss another time. This has turned out to be rather long.
For instance – this WordPress Script I’m using for this website and all my other websites – how much did it cost? Nothing! And you want to see what you can do with it now for building websites…It’s crazy. No wonder the vast majority of people have problems believing Free is Good in the land of software!
So in all fairness – if you are a Windows user – then Windows 7 might be the way to go – I’ve not yet heard any “bad things” yet!. Which leads me to say, it never hurts to look at the other options. The world isn’t what the marketing folk would have you believe. In fact if you I gave you a PC with something like Kubuntu Installed and you had never used windows, you’d be like a pig in that messy smelling stuff!
I have to laugh when I see people who used Windows try out Linux and something goes wrong and they write stuff like – “This operating system is rubbish…. I’m going back to windows…” and back to the Blue Screen of Death and being all happy about it because they paid for it.
Let’s hope Microsoft have done the right thing – this time!
So again I must state for the record that I do sincerly hope that Windows 7 has fixed up a lot of the issues it’s predecessors had, because I’d be thinking, if it’s another blunder they are going to loose a number of their customer base. Or will they?…. According to what I’ve heard on the call I mentioned below – not necessarily…Interesting stuff.
Anyway, the clock keeps ticking and its ticked way past my bedtime so I had best leave it here.
I’d love to hear your comments on all of this. Try to be nice though – I do get upset easily- or do I?
Cheers
Tim Brownlaw
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