Author Topic: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing) (Read 193240 times)

zridling · « **on:** September 25, 2008, 06:29 AM »

This is an ongoing general thread for Windows 7 development discussion. News, rumors, and screenshots are being released daily and it will be fun to get your take on the latest.

zridling · « **Reply #1 on:** September 25, 2008, 06:41 AM »

Mary Jo Foley says, "Windows 7's mail, photo-management and movie-maker subsystems applets are all being replaced by optionally installable Windows Live equivalents."

Welcome news in that it removes duplicate apps. (Mary Jo later corrected her "subsystems" word, as many of had no idea that Vista/7 included a movie-maker subsystem!)

Also, I love the detail in this dialog screenshot:

zridling · « **Reply #2 on:** September 26, 2008, 08:37 AM »

Win7's new taskbar detailed:

http://blogs.msdn.co...g-and-switching.aspx

fenixproductions · « **Reply #3 on:** September 26, 2008, 08:47 AM »

2zridling
It looks like a joke similar to Leopard's 300+ new features.

cmpm · « **Reply #4 on:** September 26, 2008, 08:58 AM »

Windows problem is they will not put good picture or movie programs in their operating system.

While you can buy a mac and have about everything you need for anything in the OS. Windows remains featureless. Or the same features with a different look.

So you have to get programs that do things, rather then already having them built in, which is inherently faster.

fenixproductions · « **Reply #5 on:** September 26, 2008, 09:05 AM »

2cmpm
I think they could but there are some cons of it.

The biggest ones are complains from competitors which end up with stupid lawsuits like EU vs. MS in the case of WMP.

Lashiec · « **Reply #6 on:** October 14, 2008, 02:09 PM »

And you shall be named... Windows 7. No, seriously.

Deozaan · « **Reply #7 on:** October 14, 2008, 02:32 PM »

I don't get this thread. All the screen shots look exactly like Vista does right now.

Lashiec · « **Reply #8 on:** October 14, 2008, 02:38 PM »

Well, so early in development it's natural. It should be said that given that Windows 7 is slated to be an improvement of Vista more than a new OS, don't be surprised if it ends up looking mostly the same.

Deozaan · « **Reply #9 on:** October 14, 2008, 02:46 PM »

Well, so early in development it's natural. It should be said that given that Windows 7 is slated to be an improvement of Vista more than a new OS, don't be surprised if it ends up looking mostly the same.
-Lashiec (October 14, 2008, 02:38 PM)

I'm just confused that Zaine mentioned new Windows Live components, but shows a picture of Vista SideBar Gadgets. Also he mentions the new Taskbar which looks exactly like Vista's Taskbar to me.

So what's confusing me is the mentioning of new features but looking at pictures of stuff that's been around since Vista RC1 from two years ago.

Lashiec · « **Reply #10 on:** October 14, 2008, 04:39 PM »

Ah, OK. In the case of the taskbar, actually that's the Windows Vista taskbar, and the picture was present in the blog article linked there, to illustrate the starting point from which they'll improve it in Windows 7. In the other case of the other picture, I really don't have any idea, but it's clearly not related :D

The PDC is near, so I guess there we'll see something that looks different from Vista, even if it's only in terms of new features.

electronixtar · « **Reply #11 on:** October 15, 2008, 03:02 AM »

still waiting for Cairoshell which is complete replacement for both explorer the desktop and explorer the My Computer.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** October 15, 2008, 08:44 AM »

Is it my imagination of is Windows 7 (now the prosaically official title of the new OS - see here) just going to be a charged update bugfix (new bugs) to Vista ?

Windows 7 = Vista SP2/3 or am I missing something?

Darwin · « **Reply #13 on:** October 15, 2008, 08:59 AM »

Is it my imagination of is Windows 7 (now the prosaically official title of the new OS - see here) just going to be a charged update bugfix (new bugs) to Vista ?

Windows 7 = Vista SP2/3 or am I missing something?
-Carol Haynes (October 15, 2008, 08:44 AM)

Starting to look that way

Looks like they've taken a page out of Corel's playbook (witness the annual paid upgrades for PaintShop Pro that do little or nothing more than fix bugs from the previous version and introduce a bunch more bugs to be fixed in the next paid release!). Now, if they go the Apple route and release a single package that provides all versions of the software for about $120 I don't have a problem with this. However, they are more apt to add several new versions and charge a substantial amount even to upgrade from, say, Home Premium to Home Premium. REALLY hope I'm wrong about the latter, "onto something" with the Apple analogy, and wrong about the Corel analogy...

zridling · « **Reply #14 on:** October 15, 2008, 03:14 PM »

I like going back to simple numbering over fancy/faux names and years. I find Ubuntu's numbers fine, but their naming scheme is truly dumb imo. But a ribbon touch calc? NOOOO!!

Deozaan · « **Reply #15 on:** October 15, 2008, 03:22 PM »

That calculator is terrible! It doesn't even follow the standard numpad layout!

zridling · « **Reply #16 on:** October 15, 2008, 03:37 PM »

Honestly, is there a need to conserve screenspace for a calculator? Give me everything at a glance.

MrCrispy · « **Reply #17 on:** October 15, 2008, 05:39 PM »

We'll know a LOT more in a week when PDC starts.

f0dder · « **Reply #18 on:** October 15, 2008, 06:24 PM »

A ribbon for calc? Holy Hoffmann!

I hope that's a joke. Otherwise somebody needs to be dragged outside and shot.

Edvard · « **Reply #19 on:** October 20, 2008, 12:30 PM »

I just ran across this article. It's rather vague, but apparently Microsoft is even looking beyond Win7 to dropping the monolithic OS model.
http://news.bbc.co.u...chnology/7540282.stm

Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs.
It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC.
It is seen as Microsoft's answer to rivals' use of "virtualisation" as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing.
...
When asked about Midori by BBC News, Microsoft issued a statement that said: "Midori is one of many incubation projects underway at Microsoft. It's simply a matter of being too early in the incubation to talk about it."

Whaddya think?

zridling · « **Reply #20 on:** October 21, 2008, 01:20 AM »

In many ways, Midori is already being built by Google. I don't think the OS will ever go away, but this decade has rapidly advanced toward a webcentric computer rather than an app-centric one.

As software gets bigger, it exponentially more difficult to organize. Once it's big, as in XP-big, then it's much harder to get consumers to move to Vista-big. In other words, the days of the dominant software vendor dictating where the market will go with a single new product are gone. Too many Windows users were happy with XP and and too many new Vista users were unhappy with their choice.

Microsoft is rethinking the whole enterprise. And that's a very good thing.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #21 on:** October 21, 2008, 03:20 AM »

I am not too happy about the idea of a webcentric OS on my computer. There are a number of issues including connectivity (there are still loads of people in my area on dial up because broadband is unavailable to them, plus what about the cost of mobile broadband - in the UK it is still ridiculously expensive) and application quality.It is impressive what you can do with some online apps but they are nowhere near ready to replace desktop apps, and what about large scale apps like video and photo editing?

It seems to me that as media quality improves exponentially (in terms of digital photography, video and audio) and the file sizes get larger the web will be unable to cope with dealing with such files.

It is going to take a large scale change too in the ISP infrastructure as currently most ISPs offer fast download speeds on broadband (though noticeably worse in the UK than the rest of Europe) but upload speeds are painfully slow. I presume this is to stop consumers realistically hosting websites and web applications in their homes but it also means that any sort of data transfer up to an application site is currently impractical unless you have a lot of time to waste and drink a lot of coffee!

Darwin · « **Reply #22 on:** October 21, 2008, 08:33 AM »

I am not too happy about the idea of a webcentric OS on my computer.
-Carol Haynes (October 21, 2008, 03:20 AM)

Nor am I. I thought this was a terrible idea 15 years ago and think it is a worse idea now. Accessibility is, obviously an issue, but security has only become a greater problem in the past few years.

superboyac · « **Reply #23 on:** October 21, 2008, 12:14 PM »

Can someone here point me to the correct thread for a webapps vs. traditional software ? Sorry, I just couldn't find it.

zridling · « **Reply #24 on:** October 21, 2008, 02:32 PM »

I am not too happy about the idea of a webcentric OS on my computer. There are a number of issues including connectivity (there are still loads of people in my area on dial up because broadband is unavailable to them, plus what about the cost of mobile broadband - in the UK it is still ridiculously expensive) and application quality.It is impressive what you can do with some online apps but they are nowhere near ready to replace desktop apps, and what about large scale apps like video and photo editing?
-[b]Carol Haynes[/b] (October 21, 2008, 03:20 AM)

Boy, are you absolutely right, Carol. Internet access here in the US is still too expensive, and it's the one thing for which the price never goes down. And typically, upload speeds in the US are 70-80% slower than download speeds, which makes the whole exercise a waste of time. Richard Stallman of the FSF has the same concerns, including vendor lock-in issues. Open formats using open standards should prevent a good deal of worry for data portability.

But the speed issue is a real one. The first response has been to allow webware to include a local version on your HD, so that when you're not connected, you still work just as if you're using regular desktop software. For Google and Zoho, for example, when you log on, your local files can be set to auto-sync with your online files, giving you the best of both worlds -- HD crashes? Your data is elsewhere and can be retrieved. The web vendor garbles your data? You've got a copy on your HD.

Perhaps 'Windows Strata' -- Microsoft's rumored cloud OS -- will address these very real concerns. Computing should always become faster and less encumbered. Never the opposite.