By Jennifer Hooker, IEN Staff
October 30, 2008—Rest in peace Windows Vista (2007-2010?)
However, the demise of the Vista is far from tragic, as it was plagued with more bugs and issues than any other OS in recent memory. (Then again, Windows ME wasn’t a prize either.) Entire forums are dedicated to the complaints, and Apple capitalized on Vista’s flaws with a rather successful ad campaign.
While there are tons of grievances with the operating system, the most popular seem to be:
- Compatibility
- Not user friendly/hard to find files or applications
- General sluggishness and poor performance
- Massive/expensive hardware requirements
- Annoying pop-ups asking “Are you sure you want to…” which beg the question, “I clicked it, didn’t I?”
In fact, the flack Vista received was so strong that most people held on to XP for dear life, or moved over to the Mac side.
However, Bill Gates might finally be throwing Windows users a bone with a much needed replacement. The New York Times reported that Windows 7 (it got its creative name since it is the seventh version of Windows…not from George Costanza) would be a “slimmer and more responsive” version of the operating system used by approximately 90 percent of PCs. According to the Times, Microsoft technologist, Steven Sinofsky, said that they had received a lot of feedback after Vista and used that when developing Windows 7. (Check out Windows 7 in action.)
Are the annoying pop-ups gone? Sort of. According to the Associated Press, users can adjust the amount of alerts and warnings they see. The new Windows will also add some handy features to the task bar, making it easier to see what is open and navigate between documents and programs. Windows 7 will also include “jumplists” that organize program features or recently used files. The new OS should also improve file sharing, support multi-touch gestures, provide an easier-to-use home network.
According to CNET, Windows 7 is more of a facelift without many major changes behind the scenes, so the compatibility issues seen with Vista aren’t expected for the new OS. In fact, Sinofsky demonstrated Windows 7 running on a low-cost, low-power Lenovo laptop that would have struggled to run Vista.
Currently, Windows 7 is in its pre-beta stage, with the public beta version expected early next year. There’s still no concrete date for the retail release, but the AP reported that it is slated for early 2010, so don’t burn your copy of Vista yet.