Have you ever used a version of Open Office Cloud? Neither have I, because it doesn’t exist.

So let me get this straight – the biggest threat to Windows 7 is from a Cloud based OS that doesn’t even exist yet.

After admitting that desktop Linux distributions have little chance against Windows 7, he goes on to state that Google could come up as a credible threat with their cloud OS.

Do we really expect Google to take on Microsoft and a well polished OS with a Cloud OS that doesn’t even exist yet?

It’d be really great if people waited until there was a cloud Operating System that actually existed and that people could download and use. Once an OS like that has greater than 1% market share, then we should start talking about the threat to Windows 7.

There is NO cloud OS. The only somewhat credible threat to Windows 7 is from the Mac OS and with multi-touch and the super bar Windows 7 has out-Mac’ed Mac.

So please stop writing about things that don’t exist. I’m writing this on a Windows 7 Beta powered PC – once you have an actual working Cloud OS, let me know and I’ll gladly give it a spin and more importantly there’ll be a non zero chance of a Cloud OS being a threat to Windows 7.

Windows 7 Vs the Cloud OS

Talk of the advent of paradigms that make the PC’s OS relatively unimportant has been going on for decades, and it hasn’t happened yet.

And there’s a reasonable chance it’ll never happen. as people add more and more devices to their personal collections, they want smarter and smarter devices and a more powerful, and yet familiar, OS to handle all of this.

Phones, video games, GPSes, and all manner of devices are becoming more powerful. It’s ludicrous to assume that people will want to switch to a model where their data and computing power resides in the cloud. They might switch to storage of non personal items in the cloud. However, they will still want easy, immediate and controlled access to their personal files and items of nostalgic and other value.

There is just too much power in ‘privacy’ and ‘personal’ for people to ever give up all their data to an entity in the cloud. Perhaps, if we devolve into a dumber, more controlled race – yes. Not otherwise, and definitely not in the next 5-10 years.

Windows 7 Vs Linux

This is a much more interesting fight simply because it was all but over until the promise of netbooks breathed some life into Linux. And Windows XP and Microsoft’s aggressive push for XP in netbooks put an end to that.

With Windows 7 working well on netbooks, and Microsoft making it a point to ensure support, this battle is almost over.

Windows 7 Vs Mac

The truth is – without Steve Jobs there is no Apple, and Steve Jobs is out of the equation. He might never come back. In which case this battle is over too.

In case SJ does come back, we will see Apple renewed and restart the OS war in full swing. Windows 7 is the first OS that has taken away Apple’s much coveted ‘better UI’ title. Multi-touch, the new start bar and just an overall visually beautiful Windows 7 means even people who would’ve preferred a Mac for aesthetic reasons are flocking to 7 instead.    

Assuming there’s a 75% chance Jobs isn’t back, this is a non starter.

The Key Underlying Thread

All of these battles have one key element – Windows 7’s opponents only have a chance of succeeding if Windows 7 is not a good Operating system.

With an impenetrable 89% market share of the OS market, Windows really is in an enviable position.

Google has the right idea i.e. change the paradigm to a cloud OS or to a 3rd party developer based open OS like Android.

However, Google is slowing losing it’s once unquestioned, immaculately pure image. And, let’s be honest, that has always been Google’s biggest advantage – as it becomes a true giant with nearly 70% of the search market, that no longer works. 

Technorati Tags: windows 7, windows 7 direction

I got my first BSOD today – Now, I wouldn’t be writing about it except that in the 14 days that I’ve had the Windows 7 Beta, this is the first time that I’ve encountered one. That’s pretty remarkable – I’ve been using it as my primary machine, and the last week I’ve used it almost exclusively – I still can’t get Skype to work so I switch to Vista for that.

What do I think caused the BSOD?

I have no idea.

Do I have a screenshot?

No – the computer crashed so PrintScreen was out of the question. It was just a very normal BSOD – it was blue. I know that doesn’t help.

That’s a big plus for stability – I’ve used all manner of programs, installed all manner of programs (no games though), watched TV on it, recorded TV on it, run Windows Media Center, and it took 14 days before I hit a Blue Screen of Death. I do like Windows 7.

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Is Windows 7 the most important OS ever?

Before I go into what I think, here are three things to consider  -

1. The battle between desktop OS and web based OS (however rudimentary) is more important than ever.
2. Microsoft really messed up with Vista and another mess up might very well mark the end of Microsoft’s absolute dominance in OSes. 
3. The rise of XP as the preferred OS for netbooks shows that Windows is still the most relevant and popular OS – even for platforms that start out heavily skewed towards Linux.

Now that that’s out of the way, I really feel that –

Windows 7 is the most important OS ever.

There are a lot of reasons I feel that, a few of which I’ve outlined –

1. A successful Windows 7 will make Microsoft an even bigger force. Microsoft currently has 5 horses, and except for search, each is generating $3-5 billion in revenues per quarter and strong profits. The Xbox division is the only one of these 4 to not generate at least $1billion+ in operating income. However, as the current generation of consoles fully matures, this division’s operating income is going to sky rocket – leading to 4 Microsoft product lines that have $3 billion+ revenues and $1 billion+ operating income. That’s a remarkably strong company.  
2. Windows 7 has multi-touch and opens up a whole new dimension in creating software. It also drives demand for newer hardware and new hardware technologies.
3. Multi-touch also has the potential to lead to one or more killer apps that drive demand even higher.
4. The improved performance of Windows 7 makes it ideal for Netbooks and would reduce Linux’s share in that market even further.
5. A good desktop OS, and my experience with Windows 7 is pretty good, would help people stay with desktop Operating Systems in general. People are very reluctant to switch to something new if they’re happy or even merely satisfied with what currently exists.  

Basically, the rise of WebOS is only possible if Microsoft starts messing up their desktop OSes and create an opportunity. With Windows 7, Microsoft has done the reverse – it’s actually introduced multi-touch, faster performance, quicker boot, a better taskbar, and loads of other improvements. Its more than made up for the mistakes in Vista and created a very compelling experience.

Windows 7 is going to do one of two things –

1. Create a new direction i.e. revitalize the desktop OS and make features like multi-touch and better performance compel users to stick with a desktop centric world. This is now somewhat probable. Before using Windows 7 as my OS I would not have believed it at all.  
2. Delay the advent of WebOSes by a long time. Google is trying very hard with Chrome to create a Browser based OS. Their strategy is going to be to make the browser more and more important and the cloud more and more important. However, a compelling desktop OS, combined with features like LiveMesh (actually a really good product) and a good Azure would make Microsoft safe from whatever danger Chrome presents.

There are a lot of kudos due to Ray Ozzie, Steve Ballmer and Steven Sinofsky. They’ve managed to create an OS that might not only slow the rise of the net centric and cloud based model, but might actually put it on hold. 

Technorati Tags: windows, windows 7

1. IE crashes a lot. Also, it doesn’t work with some sites – in fact, editing in wordpress (the last released edition, not the current one) causes it to crash. It seems that IE8 isn’t ready for show time yet. 
2. There aren’t enough apps taking advantage of the multi-touch – all the cool demo’ed apps like multi touch photo app and the maps app with photo touch aren’t in yet – they are going to be in the full release. Makes it a little difficult to enjoy multi-touch fully.
3. The taskbar takes a little bit of getting used to – it’s a huge hit in my eyes – however, its new and a bit different from what we’re all used to.
4. Some installers don’t install as they don’t find Vista or XP, and they don’t work in compatibility mode either. This is to be expected in a Beta version – however, it still sucks.

To be frank – there aren’t that many cons. I’m having a ton of fun with Windows 7. The pros –

1. The new Taskbar aka SuperBar just rocks – jumplists, the preview mode, having just one integrated taskbar + launch bar. A lot of things about it are cool. It’s just a big hit and really saves a ton of time.  
2. The multi-touch is really, really good. Sometimes when I want to close a window I just touch the screen instead of moving the mouse – and it does add a whole new dimension. 
3. I was about to buy Dragon Naturally Speaking to test out voice recognition when I found that Microsoft includes Speech Recognition software that’s really cool. I can start Internet Explorer, navigate to Microsoft.com and close it all with voice commands. There’s a lot more and I’m going to test it out and let you guys know how good Speech recognition is
4. . 
5. The new libraries feature rocks. I can just add the 4-5 directories I use for music and they’re all in one place now. 
6. It looks really good. Its actually better looking than Vista. 
7. Its just very in tune with what I’d expect a new 2009 Operating system to be – better UI (such as the taskbar), jumps in technology (multi-touch) and runs fast. It runs faster than vista without a doubt, and boots up faster too. 
8. Most of the programs I wanted to use installed and ran just fine – Last.fm, WinRAR, the Journal, and a lot more.

My feeling overall is that it’s going to be a big hit. I’d thought it’d be a bit tough to keep to my resolution of keeping Windows 7 as my main OS – however, I’ll actually have fun doing it. I haven’t had a blue screen of death + IE is the only application that has crashed on me. I’ve had Vista since the Beta and there is no comparison – the Windows 7 Beta is better than Windows Vista SP1. Even if you count out the coolness of multi-touch. Its just a really good OS.

Technorati Tags: windows 7, windows 7 review

1. New online services group president Qi Lu seems to advocate a return to the basics for Live search, emphasizing the importance of improving the quality of search results.
2. Lu repeatedly mentions that the opportunity in the market is to improve “product quality” in order to differentiate Live search.

The interview is rather revealing -

1. I totally agree with the focus on quality and basics – if Live doesn’t have a better search it has no chance. To be honest, it might have no chance even with a better search – however, having a search engine that is provably better than google is a necessary prerequisite.  
2. Ballmer sold Qi Lu on Microsoft by firstly stressing that Microsoft is super focused on investing in R&D, and secondly, stressing that product quality is the primary objective. 
3. Mr. Qi Lu sees two broad important trends in search in the next 1-2 years – the advent of more powerful computing architectures (cloud computing etc.), and the Web as a platform for publishing all sorts of content.

I really think this is a great hire for Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: microsoft search, qi lu

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I’ve already seen a couple of anti-Microsoft people lambast Windows 7 as Vista with minor upgrades, and ‘lipstick on a pig’. We’re not talking about people who’ve installed Windows 7 and run it on their own PCs and really played around with it – these are people who’ve already decided that Windows 7 sucks.

Dec 3rd Update: Doug Holland of Intel (at Intel’s Software Blogs) writes about it too -

In some respects the blogosphere is repeating the same mistakes made during the Windows Vista road to RTM (release to manufacturing). Windows 7 has yet to achieve the beta one milestone and yet many in the blogosphere are writing off this operating system as they did with Vista

Anyways, here are things I think people should keep in mind before dismissing Windows 7 -

1. It’s an alpha that you’re looking at. There’ll be lots of improvements.
2. Writing a review when you haven’t thoroughly gone through Windows 7 (at the minimum installed it and run it on your PC for a few days) reflects poorly on your review.
3. Windows 7 is going to have some cool features – WARP whch lets the CPU do video acceleration; a Touch Screen; the new start/task bar. 
4. We’re still a way off from the actual release. It might be end 2009, it might be sometime in 2010.

In any case, please don’t go in to a review with your mind made up. Perhaps you proscribe to the Mac Vs PC ads – whatever it is, actually test the software, play around with Windows 7 and then write your honest thoughts. Not what you had decided even before trying out Windows 7 – instead go through the experience of using it and write about your experience and what you actually find.

I’m proposing the ‘two strikes’ test – Every reviewer should state their answers to the following three questions -

1. How long have you run Windows 7 on your own PC?  If it’s less than 3 full days – strike 1.  
2. Do you fall into the 90% of people who use Windows (XP or Vista)? If not – strike 2. 
3. Do you hate Microsoft and want it to die? If yes – strike 3.

2 or more strikes and you shouldn’t be writing a review. 1 strike means you should clearly disclose that you are susceptible to either prejudice or inexperience. For me personally - I’ve used Vista since the Beta. On my main machine, and not a sharing with another OS – Vista all the time. And after the beta I’m going to do the same with Windows 7.

Technorati Tags: biased windows 7 reviews, windows 7

This is a really good move. I haven’t used any of these services – ever. In fact there are times when I go and remove windows components just to speed up my machine. A leaner OS takes up less RAM, less space, and gives me better performance on the apps I actually use. great move Microsoft!

Technorati Tags: windows 7 features