Mossberg on Windows 7: It's all good | The Coffeehouse

Ray7

The steadfast pillar of the Mac community had been running Windows7 for a while now, and now comes the verdict:

Mossberg said:
In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple's Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That's no longer true. I still give the Mac OS a slight edge because it has a much easier and cheaper upgrade path; more built-in software programs; and far less vulnerability to viruses and other malicious software, which are overwhelmingly built to run on Windows.

Mossberg said:
Now, however, it's much more of a toss-up between the two rivals. Windows 7 beats the Mac OS in some areas, such as better previews and navigation right from the taskbar, easier organization of open windows on the desktop and touch-screen capabilities. So Apple will have to scramble now that the gift of a flawed Vista has been replaced with a reliable, elegant version of Windows.

wow Expressionless

RLO

Looks like the alien body snatchers got to Mossy first, run for the hills everybody.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

Who is this sock-puppet and what has he done with Walt Mossberg?!

Dovella
Go Microsoft !!!!!!!

Mossber.

Wilcox and more more Mac User aplaude and get Windows 7 Wink

I had already planned everything

stevo_
Human after all

Vista and 7 have had the most bizzare impact on the market, both are great versions of windows for their time and yet completely rated differently by the masses..

Goes to show just how much humanity 'sheeps'..

Harlequin
http://twitter.com/TrueHarlequin

I wonder why he says OSX has "more built-in software programs"....Microsoft isn't allowed to do this.

Charles
Welcome Change

In reply to stevo_

#Oct 8th @ 10:34 AM

Agreed. And it is really ironic that Mossberg contextualized Windows 7 as the OS to wipe away all memories of Vista. He must realize that Windows 7 is MOSTLY composed of Vista technologies and code. The key to 7 is the hardcore engineering discipline and efficiency and some amazing work done in the kernel, graphics, windows manager, search, etc. I still think Vista got a bad rap, but 7 deserves all the praise it gets: It is the very best general purpose OS we have ever made (and it would not have been possible without the Vista step).

Kudos to the entire Windows team and the Windows ecosystem who helped make Windows 7 into an OS that does what people want and expect.

C

spivonious

In reply to RLO

#Oct 8th @ 10:06 AM

By alien body snatchers, do you mean Dovella? Cool

Dovella
Go Microsoft !!!!!!!

In reply to Charles

#Oct 8th @ 11:22 AM

Windows 7 is not a ransom for Microsoft.
Windows 7 is a ransom for journalists (and idiot user)

intelman

In reply to Charles

#Oct 8th @ 11:22 AM

Perhaps it is because Windows 7 does not feel at all like Windows Vista. I agree, Vista got a bad rap, but 7 feels different.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft markets 7 by making Vista look bad.

stevo_
Human after all

In reply to intelman

#Oct 8th @ 11:51 AM

Back when vista came out you wouldn't have had 7 to compare against, in contrast vista was superior.. the point is both 7 and vista have had a snowball effect in media.. only they went down different sides of the mountain.. specifically why they went down different sides is bizzare..

I can only put it down which side you start on being completely open to whoever 'fires first'.. in vistas case, microsoft were so quit about it the only news people had was of its complete disasterous restart.. with no counter positive its negative spin got to big to stop.. with 7 it was clear they identified this problem, and kept everything about 7 quiet until they started blogging and generally talking 7 up.. in this case microsoft 'fired first' and managed to set 7 off with a positive spin.. the media being useless wankers that they are justified their stupidity and ran with it..

Not to say 7 doesn't deserve this credit.. it does, but so did vista.

Charles
Welcome Change

In reply to intelman

#Oct 8th @ 11:51 AM

Make no mistake, Vista and 7 are different, but 7 is iterative on top of Vista. That's the point. So, bashing Vista is in some real sense bashing 7...

C

ZippyV
Fired Up

In reply to Charles

#Oct 8th @ 12:32 PM

Even on Steam Windows 7 64-bit is getting a good uptake (sept 2009):

Windows XP 32 bit (-1.38%) 52.10%
Windows Vista 32 bit (-0.10%) 24.67%
Windows Vista 64 bit (-0.03%) 11.71%
Windows 7 64 bit (+1.05%) 6.46%
Windows 7 (+0.54%) 3.50%

exoteric
I : Next<I>

It's definitely annoying to see but from an end-users perspective a couple of less great parts made them blind to the good things. So the more lean and clean Windows 7 finally makes all the plumbing built into Vista shine through spotlessly - at least without distractions.

As for vulnerability: if there are no thieves in your neighbourhood, does that mean your house is theft-proof? That's kind of what Mossberg is saying. He's right of course, that in practical terms, you're less likely to be attacked if you use a very obscure and rare operating system than if you use Windows but that is a very shallow kind of safety: kind of like safety due to lack of popularity. A self-defeating security metric. "our product is safe because next to noone is using it, yihaw!"

A house of cards...

brichpmr

In reply to exoteric

#Oct 8th @ 12:47 PM

"Practical Terms" are the terms that matter most to end users...obscure and rare are inaccurate descriptions of OS X. Those of us who run both platforms over the past decade have experienced and observed the difference between swiss cheese and a safe neighborhood.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

In reply to Charles

#Oct 8th @ 12:32 PM

I disagree: Windows 7 improved upon things that were introduced in Vista and fixed some other issues. Bash Vista for being slow, Windows 7 apparently fixed a lot of those slowness issues. It's a fair complaint to be critical of Vista for things now fixed.

Similarly, I'll bash both of them for various UI gaffes that embarrass Windows. Just what is with the intentional ugliness in Classic Mode, exactly?

Ray7

In reply to brichpmr

#Oct 8th @ 4:53 PM

I see what you're saying, but it still seems a little odd to rely on low share to save you from threats. Does this mean Apple's best defence is ensuring that OSX remains an unpopular choice for the majority?

joechung

In reply to stevo_

#Oct 8th @ 10:34 AM

Remember Windows Vista Capable? Remember what it was like to get Vista drivers back in 2006?

I suggest that you read http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/132891.asp and http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/vistaexhibitsone.pdf before calling everyone who didn't like Vista "sheep."

Dovella
Go Microsoft !!!!!!!

In reply to joechung

#Oct 9th @ 1:07 AM

Vista in time became rock resolving the initial problems

Windows 7 Born Rock thanks to Vista suffering

end question

Ray7

In reply to Dovella

#Oct 9th @ 1:58 AM

Yup, that about sums it up.

stevo_
Human after all

In reply to joechung

#Oct 9th @ 1:07 AM

Windows Vista released in 2007 young lady, and even then I used it well before that, sure it had driver problems at first, but by release nobody saw that.. sure the 1999 agfa scanner you still had laying around didn't work.. xp had the same "problems".. these "problems" don't explain mass hatred.

So no people didn't really have problems, backed up by the fact months before vista released people were "waiting for sp1".. thinking that like xp, service packs would be some magical fixfest.

Off you trot.

intelman

In reply to Charles

#Oct 8th @ 12:32 PM

Fair enough. It seems that every subsequent release will have its roots in Vista. At some point that analogy has to fail.

Harlequin
http://twitter.com/TrueHarlequin

In reply to stevo_

#Oct 9th @ 7:21 AM

http://gizmodo.com/373076/nvidia-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-2007

NVidia was a root cause of Vista's grief...30% of Vista crashes were because of NVidia and I'm sure the regular Joe out there blamed Microsoft.

Joechung is bringing up the fact that the NVidia drivers weren't just bad when Vista was in beta, but were just as bad when Vista was released...and it took Nvidia 2 years to stabilize them. I think it wasn't until Feb 2009 when I noticed my Vista didn't crash anymore because of the video driver.

kettch

In reply to Harlequin

#Oct 9th @ 8:45 AM

NVidia was the worst, but not alone. During the entire time that I ran Vista, I had to use XP drivers for the ATI video card that I had in one machine. There was one version that worked. If I went any newer, Aero would break and the system destabilized. There never was an updated version that worked.

stevo_
Human after all

In reply to Harlequin

#Oct 9th @ 8:45 AM

I don't see how percentages of crashes mean anything..