From the integrated search functions to the reconfigured dialog boxes to the glowing Start Orb, users decried how alien the Vista UI felt compared to tried-and-true Windows XP.
One area that generated a great deal of controversy with Windows Vista was its revamped user interface. Along the way, I compare Windows 7's functionality to its immediate predecessor, Windows Vista, as well as to the real target of Microsoft's newest OS: the venerable Windows XP, the most successful OS in history. And now that the product has finally left beta - Microsoft is signing off on the final RTM bits as I write this - it's time to take stock of this new, improved iteration of the much-maligned Vista architecture.ĭoes Windows 7 really right the wrongs committed against the IT community by Windows Vista? And more to the point, is the product's combination of new features and long-overdue fixes enough to sway IT shops to finally abandon Windows XP? In this article, I take a look at Windows 7 from several angles, including critical issues like security, reliability, and performance. Windows 7 has already become an overnight hit, with each new review of a leaked pre-release build adding to a growing sense of anticipation for the product's impending Release to Manufacturing (RTM).
And true to his pragmatist reputation, Sinofsky focused the team on fixing Vista's ills - as opposed to adding lots of new features - and delivering a successor that would eliminate the usability quirks and the code bloat that had given Vista such a bad reputation.ĭid Microsoft succeed? Feedback from users who have tried the new OS have been uniformly positive, with most testers reporting a better overall computing experience than with Vista. As Vista was floundering in the marketplace, the Windows development team, under new leader Steven Sinofsky, was feverishly at work on Vista's successor. Of course, the Redmond giant had other plans.
These truly were heady times for those banking on Microsoft's demise. Apple, in particular, made hay with Vista's troubles, lampooning the unpopular OS in a series of well-crafted TV spots. Vista would be the albatross that finally brought the company down, ushering in a new era of platform-independent applications running on Linux or Mac OS X. It looked like the end was nigh for Microsoft's desktop hegemony. Then came the revolt, with users demanding that Microsoft extend the life of Windows XP indefinitely in a tacit rejection of the company's Vista road map. First, there were the instabilities - wave after wave of bad press about buggy drivers and spotty backward compatibility. Ever since the company shipped Windows Vista, it's been one public relations catastrophe after another. Few periods in Microsoft's existence have been as bruising as the past two-and-a-half years.
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