Windows 7 – What do you think?
Well, we all know that Vista wasn’t Microsoft’s best hour. So, this got a lot of people wondering (including me), will the next version (Windows 7) be worth it? Well that’s is what I intend to find out.
Less Clogged Up
Well, with Vista, it got very bulky and slow, this was generally because of backward compatibility and old library’s. This caused the code base to grow and become very hard to manage. In August 2004 Microsoft “reset” back to the Windows Server 2003 code base. This was because the code was getting out of hand and the developers were losing site of the original aims.
Well, Microsoft didn’t want this to happen again, so with Windows 7, they are stripping the kernel down to the bare minim not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, they are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista. This means that the code is a lot easier to manage and let cluttered.
Also this would me a great level of speed and more developer time spent on important things, not wadeing through boilerplate code.
Multi Touch
There was a recent demo of Windows 7 and its new multi touch features.
These are a great as this means that you don’t have to buy something like Surface to get this sort of technology at home. With the multi-touch features, it will be a lot easier to edit and manage photos, music and generally make it a more pleasant experince.
There’s a catch to this. With Multi-Touch you are obviously going to need to buy and new laptop to get this functionality. This means more money, especially if you have recently purchased a new PC and don’t want to splash out again. This means that you will just have to wait and enjoy the other features of the new OS.
Backward Compatablity
Unlike previous versions, Microsoft are not including old system files and library’s to make it backward compatibility. With Windows 7 the are taking a different approach as they are not making it not making any effort to make it backward compatible with previous MS apps. binary compatible with older versions, instead they are using virtualisation to make then run.
This is good and bad news for both consumers and developers. It is good news for developers as when they develop their software they can harness the greater power of Windows and not have to worry about backward compatibilty issues. The obvious down side is that they will have to rewrite their software to take advantage of the new features. EDIT: Microsoft will be using virtualisation the enable previous applications to run on 7.
Conclusion
Well, overall Windows 7 seems to be heading in the right way. It looks like it will have a lot more in the way of next-gen features. So, if your are waiting for 7, hang on. It will be worth the wait.