Windows 7: Sure, it’s prettier; but is it better?

Well, it would almost have to be better than Vista, wouldn’t it?

Actually, according to C/D/H consultant Jason Sharp, Windows Vista wasn’t all that bad. It even had some strong points, security being the main one.

But functionality – the clunky task bar and speed-of-sludge performance, and the inability to interface with XP and Win 95 apps – dogged the platform until no business customers in their right minds would touch it.

But those days, according to Sharp, are done, and Mac can stand back.

Sharp and his fellow consultants at C/D/H have been beta-testing Windows 7 since it was introduced in December. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been – and more.

• The task bar really is pretty, much like the Mac OSX bar.
• The screen is finally uncluttered, even with multiple apps running and windows open.
• Apps that worked in Vista and XP will work in Win7.
• The constant prompts interrupting you to ask whether you really want to do what you just told the computer to do, ticking off Vista users in the name of beefy security, have been heavily edited. When Win7 asks whether you really want to risk a particular security breach, it’s asking for good reason.
  

How did Big Blue pull off this miracle of customer responsiveness?

According to Sharp, designers stopped telling customers what they wanted, and started listening.

“They’ve done a lot more data gathering to find out how people use their products,” Sharp said.

He said one blog he read indicated that the engineers actually read the data submitted through the ubiquitous “report this error” query. And they responded with a big shift in techie-think.

They learned, for example, that 55 percent of the users reduced their screen resolution so they could read text better when they had multiple apps up or windows open.

It seems the geeks in the garage had never tested text for alternate screen resolutions, because it didn’t occur to them that users might change resolution. So Win7 will introduce a type that works better with any resolution users may set.

So when can you get it, and how much will it cost?

Sharp said neither are known yet, but word is you can look for Win7 late in the third or early in the fourth quarter this year, but will largely depend on when it’s ready for a no-backlash release. Microsoft definitively does not want a repeat of Vistas debacle.

Sharp is not expecting a steep price increase over Vista.

Bottom line on Win7, according to Sharp: “I’m a Mac user , and I like this better.”