Entelligence: Seven on 7
By Michael Gartenberg 
posted Oct 24th 2009 7:00PM
posted Oct 24th 2009 7:00PM
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
Ready? Let's get the irrelevant stuff out of the way first.
Aero whatever: Whether it's Aero Glass, Aero Peek, Aero Shake or Aero whatever, it's gotten a lot of hype, but it's really just so much eye candy. After trying Aero Peek and Aero Shake I find I've never used them in any productivity setting. Sure, some people love gratuitous UI fluff but stuff like this is hardly worth shelling out money for.
Touch: First, you need a touch-enabled PC, which you probably don't have. Even then, the native touch features just aren't worth an upgrade on their own. TouchPack (which is cleverly branded as Surface apps) is nothing more than a tech demo. Give me a PC OS optimized for touch across the board and I'm all there, but this is just a gimmick.
Device Stage: Microsoft says this is "a new way to interact with your phone, camera, printer, or portable media player from the Windows desktop. Device Stage is new visual interface that makes it easy to find the things you want to do with your devices on your Windows 7 PC." I say, well, it doesn't do all that much. Perhaps in the future more devices will recognize the feature and help users do more advanced things, but for now Device Stage is more promise than delivery.
It might sound like I'm being negative but there's also four things in Windows 7 that I really like, and if you can make use of these features, they're certainly worth the price of the upgrade.
Performance and stability: Sure it seems like silly thing -- in fact high performance and relative stabilty should be table stakes for a modern OS. But the fact is that 7 is the best version of Windows Microsoft's ever produced. While Vista
Media Center is now best of breed for DVR and home theater applications. |
Windows Media Center: Windows Media Center has gone from being a pokey mess in Vista to something sleek, fast and powerful in Windows 7. With consumer-grade, user-installable cable card tuners available at last, MCE is now best of breed for DVR and home theater applications.
Home Group and remote access: Another winner. Home networking is a mess but Microsoft has made some nice efforts to tame the beast with Home Group. Setting up and configuring a home network has never been easier in Windows, and sharing media and content across the network to other Home Group PCs is just as simple. Even better, accessing your content like recorded TV shows from afar has never been easier on a PC. It's a must for anyone with a home network, multiple PCs who wants to do remote access simply and easily.
Eyefinity: Okay, this isn't a Windows 7 feature at all. It's an AMD feature that allows its latest line of consumer grade Radeon video cards to drive six monitors simultaneously.as one giant desktop of up to 268 megapixels. It offers a gaming and graphics experience that needs to be seen to be appreciated. And it works best on Windows 7.
Windows 7 is important and it's a big deal. Yes, under many circumstances it can be a hassle to get to, especially with no direct upgrades from Windows XP and many versions of Vista, but it's worth it. We've already seen the latest from Apple, and with the holiday season buying season officially on, it's going to be an interesting race with two strong and yet very different contenders.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net, and he can be emailed at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
the title reminds me of giz's title "27 on 7"
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Unfortunately, I don't think MS will be able to stop Apple from gaining market share, especially when (or 'if') they make an inexpensive computer under $500.
Let's just hope they can slow them down a bit... As I've always been told, competition is good!
Well I agree Windows Shake is somewhat of a gimmick, it has it's purposes. I may not use it often, BUT the rest of the new Aero features are highly worth mentioning and very useful. Aero Snap - I can no longer use a computer without it. It annoys me not to have aero snap. At first I was like..ok...but now it's so fast and easy to use. Snap to sides to compare windows is awesome. Typing in word while having the internet up at the same time is now extremely easy.
The new taskbar is a dream. Yeah maybe it's somewhat "dock" like, but it's still more like a taskbar than a dock, with added functionality and great window management.
I could go on and on, this author hit a lot of good points, but he definitely shouldn't dismiss aero the way he did.
Wait, did you just say typing in Word and having the Internet up at the same time is extremely easy? Is that normally difficult?
Aero Snap makes positioning my windows a trivial task. I don't understand why it took them so long to figure it out, but it's here now and I can't stand working on a computer without it.
Also, I didn't find Aero Shake useful in "laptop" mode (especially trying to shake the window with a TrackPoint). I find it easier to hit Windows+M then bring up the window I want. But in tablet mode it's really handy. Sheds all the background clutter, fast.
@Greg: I wouldn't call it difficult, but if you've used Windows 7 and Aero Snap, you know what I'm talking about.
how anyone can call aero snap a gimmick is beyond me. at my computer i swear i used it at least once a minute unless i'm watching a movie or video
Wait what? Did someone actually use the word cheap and Apple in the same sentence? Not in this lifetime dude. Apple's wares will always remain expensive and overpriced because they know people will buy it. Period.
Aero Snap is not just "eye candy" like the author of this half assed article says, its actually extremely useful.
I have friends who will ask me to fix their computer, but anytime someone has an Apple, I'm completely useless. User-friendly? Not to me, I don't get it... I find it be completely confusing. Probably that's just cuz I've always had Windows... but no right mouse button? that's crazy
@ burnz: I've always used Windows as well, but I was in a video editing class that pretty much forced me to use a mac (they specifically ordered a new iMac just to get a more powerful system), so I was forced to learn how it works. Sometimes it got confusing, and it, like Windows, had its own share of issues. You just have to google stuff to find solution, at least thats that I always do :)
This is also how I learned to hate iMovie XD
Nice read, I enjoyed it.
Indeed. I can't wait for my upgrade disc to get here. I find that I've enjoyed Vista in the short period of time that I've used it, but 7 promises to be better. Should be easier on my single-core ULV processor.
... But I think there's a missing decimal point in that spec about Eyefinity. The max resolution is supposed to be 7680x3200, or six 2560x1600 monitors. That's 24.6 megapixels, not 268.
really? I thought this piece was pretty craptastic myself.
I have to agree with bandigolo that this article was pretty craptastic.
His first three points sound ignorant. And his last point isn't even a feature in Windows 7! Did he only test it out for a day? I've been using Windows 7 for months now (MSDN Subscription) and I have to say that Aero should not have been dismissed so easily. Like many others have said, I find it hard to use any machine that does not have it.
I agree. I was hoping for something a little more in depth.
I just started using 7 and I'm up to my eyeballs in annoyances. Why not talk about those!
Windows 7 FTW!!
I agree with a lot of that. I hate how much Microsoft pushes Aero, when things like automatic-driver installation and improved compatibility modes are way more useful, and will make a big difference to a lot of people.
The thing is most users don't notice that now that it works together, they are going to notice the usability and speed increases of the UI. I use all the Aero effects and to power users with 20+ applications open having the quick UI with previews is a must.
Did you guys notice all the driver updates recently, not sure what they did, but I presume everyone just released even more Windows 7 drivers all at once.
Agreed, but you have to keep in mind that the UI is the very second thing that most prospective buyers see (the first being bootup times or possibly hardware).
Apple does the same thing, they wax on about how pretty OSX is, and only start talking about the technological advantages once punters are sufficiently wooed.
I'd disagree with the statement that Aero Peek is useless. I find it's such an intuitive part of the new OS and love how it's also been intergrated with alt-tab as well.
take it like this.. you don't buy a car just because it has a fancy engine you mostly buy it because you like it's shape. same with cell phones you don't just get it bcs it has the whole bunch of technology inside but looks like a brick. you pick the fancy looking one (mostly)... so you need the eyecandy to make it appeal to the "dumb" user who says wow this looks pretty. you need both the fancy shiny gui and the fancy engine to run it ...
@CJ
Apple usually start off with a solid technical base, and build nice software on it.
I don't think the Mac OS overly pretty, Apple have actually tuned down some of the effects, the first version of Front Row for example was way to snazzy for what it offered.
On another note I think Aero looks really good, but I find myself not using shake and peek.
I rarely use shake (because it doesn't work that well when the mouse sensitivity is low (when using high dpi mouses)), but peek is almost indispensable for me now.
I really enjoy and use the SNAP feature all the time! I love when either do work or just organizing files from one folder(USB) to another.
Currently using XP and SORELY miss aero peek and aero shake/fit. Being able to drag a maximized window and restore it without having to click on the restore button was a huge godsend, and not having it makes me cry..
I love Aero peek, and find that when I'm on Vista I keep forgetting that it's not there. On the other hand, Aero shake is pretty useles, why don't I just maximize the window if that's the only thing I want to see?
You don't realize how much you miss those features until you get on a computer without them. My work laptop is still XP and it drives me crazy not being able to use shake and peak.
Enjoying it so far. No change from vista to me.
As much as aero is a bit gimmicky, i find i use the side by side windows by dragging and the dragging up to maximise all the time now.
As for performance, i haven't found it to be too much better than vista, but that is probably because i never actually had a problem with vista
Yeah, Aero is very a bit gimmicky.
The side-by-side thing is sweet, but having dual monitors the feature I use most is being able to drag a maximized window from one screen to another. You can do this by simply dragging the window's title bar on the top to the top of the other monitor. It's a pretty handy feature! Also, being able to vertically stretch the windows automatically is nice, too.
It's made even easier by the fact that you can do Windowskey+up (/left /right) to do the same without involving the mouse at all.
@ Dual monitor-support guy: also: Windows+P = holy shit batman!
I love that key-combination, saves me at least 15 minutes of killer catalyst-craze each day.
I don't use dragging up to the top at all because I can still double-click on the titlebar to maximize. But putting windows side-by-side is very handy. (And I didn't know that about windows+arrow keys. That's faster than alt-space x, which is what I used to do to maximize with my keyboard. Thanks!)
Have you guys tried pressing Windows+Arrow Keys? Left snaps the window to the left, up maximizes, etc. It's SO useful!
i like win7. but im still an Ubuntu fanboy and that wont change:)
I've been an Ubuntu user for over 2 years now and I'll always love the speed and responsiveness of a Linux distro but I very much prefer the polish and app support/availability of the big dogs - Windows and Mac OS. I always find that I need AND want to switch back to Windows whenever I use Ubuntu for an extended period of time and this has always been the case for me.
@BeeQAL: You need to try this version of Ubuntu: http://ultimateedition.info/ultimate-edition-2-3/
No. I love Linux and really hope it takes off as a Desktop operating system, but that particular distro looks like the Geocities homepage of a 1998 Quake2 clan. Something only a basement dwelling pre-teen wannabe metal-head could ever possibly enjoy.
@Wine Country Mike
Holy shit that looks terrible. Seriously, who designs that and thinks to themselves "Yeah, not bad"?
Is that a HP monitor or a computer? Touchscreen?
I don't know what "utter git" means, but I presume it means he states the obvious while trying to put a controversial spin on it to strike up conversation. Meh, not my style of writing, but gets the readers so can't knock him one.
It's a shame you didn't mention the Internet media streaming built into media center and the Play To feature. Unique features built in not available elseware.
Wait till Apple copies them for Rain Leopard and labels it an innovation.
instead of rain leopard, maybe they'll go for extinct leopard...
Can't they hire some attractive geek-girl to be the PR face of Microsoft instead? Why do we have to see Steve Ballmer? EVER?
Anyways, I love Windows 7, but I hate people named Steve.
My least favorite article from you, Mike. Not necessarily because it is poorly written, but I don't agree on some things. More than anything on Aero. The aero snap features are great, and Aero Peek(and subsequently the new taskbar) IMO is the best idea in UIs since Expose, if not better than that. Plus everything is revertible, should you not like it. Desktop preview is also immensely useful for me, too.
Oh and no one ever mentions desktop slideshow! For undecisive people like me, it's a godsend ^_^
Yo Michael, I'm really happy for you and imma let you finish, but Aero Snap is one of the best features of all time.. OF ALL TIME!
Having a built in wallpaper changer is a huge plus for me in 7. I have a tendency to collect wallpapers and it's nice that 7 just changes them for me, every time I minimize a window or go to some other program there's a new background looking at me!
*raises hand*
"Device stage" doesn't do much? Oh, I beg to differ... I would take the device stage screen anytime over some cheesy custom designed, RAM squatting utility that sits in the system tray at all times and does pretty much nothing except cry for permissions to download updates. It would also simplify a lot of things for novice or beginner users. Also, since when was Windows Media Center a complete mess in Vista (ignoring the general lack of hardware availability)?
Flip 3D is the only gimmicky part of aero.
After you get used to snap, shake, and peak you'll never want to go back.
I still use this feature from time to time, so I wouldn't call it useless, and it's must better than holding alt+tab with 15+ apps.
You know what they say Joe: Once you go snap ... You'll never go back!
Home Group and remote access: Another winner. Home networking is a mess but Microsoft has made some nice efforts to tame the beast with Home Group.
home networking is a mess? wtf is this guy on about?
Well he's right on that one, Vista and XP are not very home networking friendly. The network controls, especially the network wizards, give you so many choices that it is not very user friendly for those that don't already know about networking, which is really the majority of people setting up HOME networks.
Installed my Windows 7 upgrade today on my Vista box (Vista's fine but £50? Bargain!). I like it already - no issues, no conflicts and it's well... snappier.
I'm waitign for Apple to hurry up and release formal support for W7 so I can put my other copy on my Macbook. To be honest I think I'll be waving bye bye to OS X for good. It's a nice OS but just feels limited next to Windows.
It's good to hear from an honest Mac user.
yeah, it's nice that pretty much any vista driver will work fine with 7 (at least in my experience).
A lot of XP drivers seem to work too.
You don't seem like a very honest Mac user. Why pointing so hard at support that you don't need to install Windows7. If you so hardly want to wave OSX goodbye, why wait for Apple's approval? I tried Windows7 and actually don't see a reason to switch from OSX to W7. It's just windows and it misses all the stuff to really get you going. It's windows all the ways it's just snappier but it still doesn't make a nice total package. No incentive to switch at all.
I knew I wasn't the only one! I switched from Mac to PC because I was so happy with the Windows 7 RC. I sold my aluminum MacBook and was able to buy a gaming laptop with more power and more features, and I still had a bunch of money left over.
I'm now rocking Windows 7 Home Premium on an ASUS G50Vt-X5, with no problems, snappy performance, and some great gaming experiences. Microsoft won me back with Windows 7. I can't picture going back to OS X unless Windows royally screws up, but it's been rock-solid for months now, and I can't imagine the retail version being any different over time.
@iPriest: Maybe because he doesn't want or need to buy new hardware, he's just waiting for Apple to get off their ass and support a product that they could have spent the last few months working on getting support for. It's not that hard of a concept.
Microsoft should hire you two (ZeroCorpse and Mark Anderson) for their next commercial.
With all due respect, I didn't read anything uniquely witty or insightful in this piece. It seems like a breakdown any person who follows tech could write.
I agree with the essential. Everyone's all excited about Aero this Aero that... I couldn't care less about Aero, and my life would be just as good without it!...
What i care are these 3 things: Performance, Reliability and Security.
Windows 7 offers good boot up performance, about the same as Vista / XP once booted up, as long as you have 2GB... But offers better responsiveness, which is something i appreciate a lot. I also like that it doesn't eats all the RAM and processor and that my hard drive doesn't keep on working forever...
Suspend and hibernation are also pretty fast, and i like that.
But the thing i love the most is the start menu: i just type mess > ENTER and messenger opens... now i don't need to flood my desktop with icons... I know this is a Vista feature, but i just love it, i can't live without it anymore.
Watery-glowy-logo-thing: doesn't do squat, i know, but i just love it.
What don't like (and look forward to in Windows 8 :-D ):
- Homegroup: Why MUST windows try to share all my stuff??? My porno is sacred (yes i'm a perv and i like it, so f*** off)
- No performance increase in games: MS really need to work on this, i can run many games in Linux using Wine...
- Just 2 power options: why must i do a 1000 clicks (ok, maybe just 999, lol) just to change from Battery Saving to High Performance?
- Registry: it makes windows slower, period. Time to change, period.
- Internet Explorer, Media Player, Media Center, Windows Defender, etc: who in world needs this stuff? I mean, really, who needs that crap??? Make it Live, like messenger if you must...
You don't need to do anything but right-click the battery icon on the taskbar and select the power option you want.
@Burke:
No, it only shows the two most recent plans, for some dumbass reason.
yeah... i don't really understand why... there's one point where vista is much better than W7 :)
Here's a feature that I haven't seen much comment on... and yes, I am running windows 7.
A common problem for me when using my laptop is that I will run it from 100% to dead almost every single time I use it. What used to be VERY problematic (and almost bordering on something resembling the end of the world) would be when I was writing a paper for school, or posting to my online classes -- how IF my computer completely shutdown, or if the power was disconnected I would have a heart attack at having to RETYPE a 5 page paper because I forgot to save...
Windows 7 has saved my life... in the event of a major grind session on my laptop, if all power is suddenly lost or my computer shuts itself down after reaching 5% power, after I plug the thing back in and hit the power button again, EVERY SINGLE TIME WITHOUT FAIL it "resumes" my previous session from EXACTLY where I left off... thus no longer penalizing me for being forgetful and not saving whatever it was I was doing!
I loved Windows Vista, from launch date until the RC of Win7 came out, I used it 'til I took the chance on 7. Never had a problem with Vista, nor did I ever experience the dreaded BSOD (until my toddler threw my laptop down a flight of stairs and the hard drive crashed). Although I will gladly admit that I did catch a few iterations of the beloved "Antivirus 2009" virus while still having Internet Security protection from Kaspersky. Since running the RC (and now running the retail Ultimate), I have YET to get a virus or a single BSOD. I dunno if this is just luck, but so far, Windows 7 is the BEST operating system I have used to date. I am also using Ubuntu Jaunty Jackelope and haven't run into any problems with that either (though I am not very experienced in the tongue of Linux).
So yeah, there is my $0.02
This was one suggestion I sent as feedback to Microsoft during Beta testing. Leave all 3 power options on the first screen. I figured they wouldn't implement it, and most likely never read my feedback, but I had to at least do it.
My guess is they want people to use "balanced" more often as it kicks in high performance when needs it, but then cuts to power save when not processing much to save battery power. This increases battery life for those millions of people in the world who don't know anything about changing power settings.
I've gotten used to using balanced. It's a lot better in Windows 7 than it was in Vista.
For an untouched gallery of porn, simply right-click the folder the porn is in, click Properties, click the sharing tab, then click "stop sharing", or something similar.
Or you can unlink it from your library. Just move the files out of the folder watched by the library. Simple as that.
What pisses me off is the fact that at some point it was noted by MS that they were going to leave 3 options in there for the power settings. It never did happen. I don't know if someone forgot?!? Or what. But its annoying as hell since I use Low, Bal, high all the time.
Touch is gimmicky eh?
I'd like you to find me another OS with the built-in handwriting recognition as good as that in Win7 - it reads my handwriting and that of anyone else who has tried it on my pc without the need for any "training" and works just out of the box. The built in journal is brilliant for writing in, i used it in vista for my university notes and it worked perfectly, same with the win7 version.
I would hardly call that gimmicky, although you probably tested with a crappy touch monitor instead of a wacom enabled screen, which is the hardware making it gimmicky instead of the OS.
Mm...I could name you an OS that was released in 1993 that could recognize handwriting. But then again, I've had calculators that could do the same.
I agree with human_error.
I don't remember when and which operating system that started multi-monitors natively built in. Some time in the 90s I think and back then it might have been seen as a "gimmick". But it pushed manufacturers to take advantage of that technology and now, as the author praised, we have awesome multi-monitor setups. Multi-touch is just a new technology Microsoft is pushing for fast enhancement. When Apple sold the iPhone, now many phone manufacturers have touch-based phones. The pace may be slower in terms of multi-touch monitors but I see it having a fast producing future.
For bagel, Murray's on 23rd and 8th.
For coffee, Zibetto on 56th and 6th.
Hey GR, I just looked at Google Maps, my town only goes to 9th street, and there are no avenues. I'll have to keep looking, I guess.
By the way, nothing personal of course, but bagels: throw away food.
1. The man said he liked a New York bagel.
2. You've never been to Murray's.
lol, i love how they forget to lead off with, "Apple iMac KNOCK OFF" because anybody can see that's what this is. The only thing different is the material and color. Even the placement of the webcam is identical. Monopolysoft OS copies as much as they can Apple OS look and feel, and now this joke?
You're right, Apple should sue for this blatant infringement of their "rounded rectangle" patent.
I'm sorry, I usually never reply to apple fanboy comments, but this is too much. Not only are you talking about something that has nothing to do with the article itself, but you are saying that one monitor (or all-in-one) looks to much like another? You even admit that the materials and color of the monitor are different, so what else can you change on something that has an industry-wide standard aspect ratio? You can't change the shape, it has to be rectangular, you can't change the webcam placement because it has to be able to see the person sitting in front of it, and you can't change the aspect ratio. So basicly all you are left with is the material and color that the monitor/all-in-one is, which you openly admit is different from an imac. I seriously do not understand why apple fanboys like yourself always insist that everyone copies apple. Apple did not come up with the idea of a rectangular monitor or the idea of an all-in-one, so I don't see how anyone could think that this monitor is in any way ripping off apple.
/end rant
Yeah, wtf is up with putting the webcam in the middle? Definitely a lame ripoff.
Do you know how to read? Stop using bandwidth on the internet. Thanks.
/sarcasm in case anyone didn't understand
Is it just me who can't see the connection between *HP* hardware and MS ripping off Apple's designs? What the frack does that monitor have to do with MS or Windows 7? Go troll somewhere else...
"too many folks are still using Windows XP. Windows XP is like the "Jason" or "Freddie" of operating systems. It refuses to die no matter how many times Microsoft has tried to kill it."
It runs the current software I want it to run and is stable and fast with less than 2GB of RAM. I must get rid of this horrible aging zombie OS at any cost to appease the Gods for Microsoft!
One thing I like about Apple that I detest about Microsoft. Apple makes small incremental changes that drastically improves the user experience by being subtle. Microsoft is all about, look at this new flashy feature, it doesn't do much, but it looks cool.
donv69: You mean I have to buy an intel mac because I can't install sl on a powerpc and it's only for subtle differences?
@10minutehobo +1
Don't be fooled: Vista was not as responsive as Windows 7 but it was very stable. The reason why people like Windows 7 more is because of the transitions Microsoft put to the entire explorer and everything else on the GUI. It makes it so that people can "see" the system is more responsive meanwhile it's not that much better, only slightly. Windows Vista was necessary to transition to the 64-bit age we currently at now, hence making Windows 7 recognize Vista drivers is the one of the biggest reasons why it's being accepted by the mainstream.
Most of Vista's problems were because of the move to a newer, more secure kernel (except the UAC annoyances). Same thing happened when moving from Me(haha)(DOS based) to XP(NT based).
I largely agree with this assessment, but I'm going to disagree on Aero Peek. It isn't just eye-candy, but makes it easier to navigate to specific windows.
I'm surprised the window previews on the taskbar are not mentioned. I have just about stopped using ALT-Tab for window switching because of this. If I have five word documents and four explorer windows open, I can quickly see a preview of all word documents by hovering over the Word button, select the one I need, and even close some of them right from the thumbnail view. That is one of the major usability improvements for me.
Completely agree. I just left a job where I had to have several terminal sessions open at the same time, and in XP (still my employer's standard) it was a real hassle trying to find a specific window. Win7 would have been a dream.
Intriguingly enough, while my employer skipped Vista entirely, and never seriously considered it, we're already tentatively planning a Win7 deployment next year. The Implemention Manager I spoke to suggested that Win7 isn't being considered as a major release as much as "Vista SP3", and it is now thought to be mature enough to implement in our environment.
I disagree, I think he's only 98.32% git.
This was written horribly
I do. I think Aero Peek and Shake are VERY useful, and I think that Device Stage is a fantastic tool.
I dual-boot Vista and 7 until 7 is fully supported by my Acer software, but anyway, I find myself in Vista often trying to use Shake or Peek before I remember they're not there.
There actually quite useful. I find myself with multiple windows open trying to minimize all but the one I want, and it quite a pain, even with Windows Key + D.
Usability after cold boot is much faster in 7 then in Vista which is aways nice.
Oh, don't even START with that shit.