This summer, our TechNerd Glenn Fleishman delivered a screed about new flavors of Windows and OS X, digging into the hype and hubbub over the PC and Mac’s newest operating systems, respectively. I’m a PC, so right around that time, I had begun sinking my teeth into Windows 7, thanks to Microsoft allowing early, legal access to the damn-near-final version (which finally hits store shelves next week).
You could call me a PC power user. I’ve built computers, set up DSL for countless family members, linked my Xbox to my PC, and so on. But my PC fluency doesn’t mean I’m doing much crazy with my desktop computer; like everybody else, I want a machine that runs my applications smoothly, accepts my peripherals with open arms, and makes it easier to do basic tasks. I skipped Windows Vista fearing that I’d lose simplicity, and so far, the highest compliment I can pay Windows 7 is that it doesn’t get in my way while doing those basics.
Startup, loading, and shutdown times are brisk on my two-year-old machine. Memory-intensive programs, like games and music editing software, run as well as I’d expect; with that sorta stuff, I’ve also had no issue running old programs on the new OS.
Worried about crashes? Don’t be. At any time, my Windows typically runs a word processor, a music player, a peer-to-peer program, and two web browsers running eight tabs a piece. For three months, that sort of load has yet to bring Windows 7 to a total crash, let alone one of those weird “Explorer must restart” screen flushes. I’ve left the machine on for two weeks at a time without feeling like I need to restart Windows to “make it run smoother,” too. And, of course, no viruses so far (to be fair, I hack my computer’s DNS list to block advertising, spam, and malware servers, which you can do to any OS as a serious safeguard).
Every little thing works how I want it, really. The basic interface delivers in equal parts looks, performance, and tweakability. My Xbox and PC link up so I can stream videos to an HDTV. I can choose for my iPod to interface with software other than iTunes. I did each of those things with Windows XP, but with far more headaches.
Oh, I don’t miss the headaches. I was so used to semi-annual PC overhauls with Windows XP; can’t tell you how many friends I told to back up their important data and do a clean, delete-it-all format to get XP working smoothly again. This far into Windows 7, I feel absolutely no need to consider such a move. When I think of why someone would pay over $100 for an operating system, especially in a Linux world, I used to laugh. Now, maybe I’m becoming a lazier old nerd, less willing to tweak and defragment and reformat on a frequent basis, or maybe the cost-to-performance ratio is finally working out in MS’s favor. Today, I don’t mind pointing to Windows 7′s intangible feeling of usable performance.
Then again, “today” is also about the next computing era, where the biggest OSes live on cell phones and tiny netbooks, not multi-core desktop computers. It remains to be seen whether 7′s success will bleed over to the mobile computing industry, or whether MS focused too much on the old dinosaurs and the Vista debacle to ultimately miss out on Apple and Google’s new leading territory.
