I must first admit to having a certain cynical attitude towards new operating systems from the folks at Microsoft. In my experience you should probably avoid any new OS for at least a year from its launch. The reason is simple. Over the last several decades it seems like the folks from Redmond Washington insist on doing their final beta testing on their actual customers. The new OS arrives and is immediately followed by a wash of patches and security fixes and other little bits of mending that just make having that new addition to the Windows family seem like more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. So I usually hang onto what's familiar till things seem to settle down. At the moment I'm still running XP on my machines because by the time Vista seemed to get settled in they were already talking about Windows 7. I just figured I'd wait.
If the early results are any indicator that was a good decision. But I may have to forget about my one year waiting period. I'm a regular reader of a very interesting blog called Lifehacker. It's aimed at the moderately to very geeky and covers not only technology issues but other cool stuff. Like how to make your own Thin Mints. A pretty cool and quirky diverse selection of topics.
Recently they asked their very computer savvy readers how they liked the new Windows 7. When I saw the answer my jaw about hit the floor. 72% gave Windows 7 their highest positive rating. Another 22% gave it the second highest positive rating. You heard me right, 94% of the readers who responded gave it an overwhelmingly positive review. Just to make sure I waited a couple days and went back to check the comments expecting howls of outrage. Nope, more love for the new OS. There were in fact a few complaints but they were so trivial (and so geeky. One person complained because they didn't like the anti-aliasing that was used on some of the graphics. If that means nothing to you don't worry. It's something only a geek would be bothered by. Not that there's anything wrong with geeks.)
Is it just because people are so unhappy with Vista (which, to be fair, turned into a decent if not spectacular OS by most estimations after the buffing and polishing was done)? Or did Microsoft finally get something right straight from the box for a change? There was a different process used to create this system, one that also worked very well apparently on the latest version of Office. That would make two flagship pieces of software getting high marks from the beginning.
Hmmmm, maybe it's time to start looking at some new hardware to run this hot new software. Never thought I'd see the day.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
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