7 x The Windows

Raise your hand if you love Windows 7?

Brazil! Put your hand down immediately. You too China. And Finland if you don't stop playing up you'll be sent to the CEO's office!

Microsoft has been working on making Vista stable for a few years now and they've finally accomplished it. It's called Windows 7. I haven't had the mis-fortune of having to use it yet and I'm hopeful that my blissful ignorance will last.

Why you might ask? If you put me in front of a Windows 2000 system I could tear that thing a new one. Windows XP wasn't too far from it so it wasn't that hard to hit the same notes. Windows Vista was a whole new operating system. Not just an update (like everything else for the previous 20 years) but a completely clean, spanker. I'm so glad that I never had to seriously touch that bloated piece of ripoff merchandise. Unfortunately the big M has gone and built another operating system that's just like it .... only more bloated :(

Apparently Windows 7 has a fast install, a handful of nice features (like keyboard window arranging, a useful (taskbar) menu system, some nice updates to included base software) and quite a few updates that make little sense. The Control Panel looks even less accessible than it's been since default XP, the start menu is being forced into a configuration designed for people who don't bother managing their applications, the security system has got all-new bypasses built in so people don't complain to Microsoft about endless security warnings (and malware has a new entry point... thank god!), there's a new 'ribbon' API and yet another device management interface that is incomplete, inconsistent and basically unusable.

If (when?) companies don't upgrade to the 'new' API's (ie. stop building custom device management tools, installation software, VPN tools, Wireless access software, virus scanners, menus, windows etc. etc. etc.), what happens? How do you spell fragmentation again??

Here's the problem with the Windows... are you ready? Yep, OK. It's not a platform like any other operating system has ever been, it's actually everything to everybody. It just doesn't do any of it well. A mediocre media player, a dodgy firewall, crumby browser, combustible security system, horrendous menus, non-existent support... this could go on for days.

I don't WANT to use Windows 7. I never even thought about using Windows Vista and even everyone's favourite, Windows XP, looked bad to me. I'm downright sick of learning all about and then wrestling with Microsoft's latest 'technology', the time would be much better spent learning about Linux / Unix, where knowledge is power and it's usefulness doesn't fade. And this is a dilemma I've been wrestling with for a long, long time.

Mac hardware doesn't seem to be currently very usable, Linux has never given me goosebumps like it seems to give other people and Windows has always sucked. What's the alternative? I could run OS X86, freeBSD, Ubuntu... I'm going to have to try a few different operating environments.

Kick the tyres so to speak.... because I need a beacon to shine the way ahead. Are you also lost in the murky comfort of Windoze?