Windows 7, Macs et all, my thoughts

I’m often loathed to give myself tasks which I fear completing. In fact not only do I loath it, I also seem to do it with an alarming number of things. Take twitter for instance. A user on twitter asked about Windows 7, and what did people think of this new operating system from the overlords at 1 Microsoft way. In turn I passed a few comments on to the user as well as reading those posted by others, but with twitter being twitter and it’s 140 character limit I merrily dropped the user a Direct Message and said I would email them what I honestly thought about Windows 7. So here I am four days later after not writing an email and generally procrastinating I begun to wonder what on earth I actually thought of Windows 7 and I began to loath the task I had set for myself.

I find looking at operating systems as anything less than a “power user” since I’ve been tinkering with computers pretty much since I was born. There has, as far as I am aware, always been a computer in the house. My parents had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum before I was born and after reading through the manuals I remember getting my first taste of BASIC back when I was in infants school (oh how I wish that trend had continued, I could make a fortune if I actually learnt to code) never the less, that machine gave way to me playing with BBC Computers in my infants school, complete with the old 5 1/4″ floppy “B:” disks and SPACE X with, by this time, an Atari 1040 ST E in the household with it’s signature “TOS” operating system, complete with the mother of all “Point of Click” games ‘Shadowlands’.

As you can see, there has always been a computer in the house. Always. I won’t go on outlining the history of my experience with computers, nor will I list each computer from there on in, but suffice to say, I was brought up with a computer, and never ‘introduced to one’ at a later age. I learn them, it’s second nature to me, so I decided to write this as an extra long blog post, more so that anyone can comment and press ideas on the operating systems they use and the ‘Features’ of Windows 7 that they like and dislike.

Now rather than your usual blog post, I’m going to outline this into two sections, If you can’t be bothered to read all of it or don’t have a full mug of tea / coffee / gin available to you, you might want to skip to the part that your most interested in. There will be a summary at the end, like a conclusion if you will. There will be four sections to this blog post:

1. The completely lazy one line summary to the question “Is windows 7 any good and should I get it?”

2. My thoughts on Windows 7, how it compares to previous versions of Windows and what I like and dislike

3. Should I actually be switching to Macintosh or Linux because I’m going to have to buy a new computer or reinstall the whole computer

4. A lazy but more detailed summary and conclusion to the last two questions

So without further ado or digression, let me start with the completely lazy one line answer to the following question

Is Windows 7 any good and should I get it?

If you are buying a new computer and spending up to £1000 and don’t want to switch to Mac or Linux Yes, it’s wonderful.

There, that was simple wasn’t it. Of course no question like that can be answered without making the user ask further questions. Sorry, but thats just the way it is so now we move on to the second section.

My thoughts on Windows 7, how it compares to previous versions of Windows and what I like and dislike

Now, I’m doing my best here to write this as a ‘user’ and not a power user. I’m going to write this based on someone who’s had a computer since say, Windows XP, is ‘reasonably’ competent and has a computer purchased in the last two years with a budget of £700. So on that basis, this user is going to have likely come from Windows Vista.

Now coming from Windows Vista means you have a few distinct advantages. You’re probably going to have a reasonably decent computer that runs Vista reasonably well, and secondly you’re also more likely to be able to click the ‘Upgrade’ button rather than do a completely fresh install i.e. installing rather than Wiping the entire computer.

The good side of this means that upgrading the computer is perfect for most users. It’s simple, requires no real messing around and Windows does most of the work for you, and great news, Windows 7 has been rewritten so that it works dramatically faster than Vista. So if your computer ran Windows Vista reasonably well, it’s a good bet to say that Windows 7 will run it incredibly well. It’s fast, and it’s really fast at that. The bad news is on some computers you will have to add more RAM to the computer, especially if you only just met the specs for Windows Vista, and worse still, you might just have to let the installation take up to twenty four hours. No that is not a miskey, this is completely genuine. Some computers have been known to take up to twenty four hours to actually run.

However, this is in an ideal world. Most users will have a computer that is four to five years old, be running Windows XP, wont be a particularly good spec or worse it’ll be only slightly newer, be about £300 worth and will be running Vista Basic, and not very well. Bad news for these users, you’re probably going to have to replace your computer, or at least spend quite a bit of money upgrading your computer to get the most of the new operating system you are going to buy / install. Now, I know full well that these computers will probably run Windows 7, but most people will prefer to get all the bells and whistles that they pay for. This of course leads way to the question, since I am buying anew computer isn’t it worth just switching to Mac or Linux, which we will get to later.

So let’s move on to how it compares to previous versions of Windows, and I’ll combine it with what I like and dislike. Let’s begin by putting it very simply. This is Windows like you have never seen it before, in fact it’s so different it doesn’t really class as Windows, it’s more like Mac OS or Linux than I’ve ever seen before. Now you can turn most of these features off granted, but let’s forget about that.

The first thing thats immediately noticeable is the taskbar. The quick launch buttons that first came in with Windows 98 are gone. Instead you can now “pin” any application to the taskbar meaning that you are less likely to open the ‘Windows’ menu to get to your programs. However it’s a little tricky to see just which programs are open. Clicking one of these buttons of course opens the application, but open applications have a small glass box surrounding their icon rather than in the past where the Window would occupy another portion of the taskbar, This is exactly how Mac OS Works

In this screenshot, you can see that Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer are open, due to the little glass box that surrounds them, and Windows Mail and Windows Messenger are not open, it’s hard to see but compare this to Mac OS

From here you can see the application icons. Anything with the little ‘spotlight’ icon below it is open, in this case, Finder, Mail, Safari, iCal an iTunes, with iChat and Address Book remaining closed

This is the first major change that you’re going to see in Windows 7, so new users to this operating system are going to find it particularly tricky to make the switch, not only that, it’s going to be confusing and mildly annoying at first since in order to close a program now, you really have to click File > Quit or right click the application icon and select ‘Close this program’. No longer does clicking the red X work to close your programs. Again this is exactly like Mac OS.

In Mac OS you have to press Option + Q to quit or click + hold on an application icon to select Quit as you can see in the screenshot. Now why has Microsoft made such a dramatic change? Not only is this a change, but it’s not one that you easily notice first time. Personally I hate it, I don’t find it particularly easy to see what programs are open, and not only that but if you have a program such as Spotify that likes to minimise itself to a small application icon in the System Tray (that little area next to the clock) you’ll frequently find the application icon disappearing into the autohide menu, or disappear altogether and remain open, leaving the only way of closing the program is to re-open it from the start menu and right click the application icon, madness!

Not only that but if you have multiple windows open in something like Internet explorer (and not just tabs) instead of having more application icons, they all tile on top of each other. Look closely at the Windows 7 Taskbar shot above, the Internet explorer icon actually has two or three tiles or squares around it, indicating that more than one program is open. Now I both love and hate this compared to Mac OS which just shows that one little spotlight. However what I utterly hate is that it’s not only hard to see, but the way in which you open the Windows or applications that are in these stacks is so different to past windows applications. In previous versions of Windows, Vista and XP, if you have multiple windows open the taskbar button will compress into a list, one click on this would bring up the list of open windows for you to choose from

However in Windows 7, it looks very different, as now you have a ‘Quick look’ feature, allowing you to see a screenshot of the application window in the icon.

You can turn this off, but I find it very counter intuitive for some reason. Granted it works and granted it is growing on me, but for some reason it doesn’t work in the way I would expect but it’s hard to explain why. Of course closing application windows becomes a whole different story. Meet the new Jump menu, or as I like to call it, the “explode-a-menu”

I don’t know about you, but this is a mess, granted it does work, but it’s counter intuitive to use, and pretty much the only way you can close some applications, and of course if you click unpin this program from the taskbar while the application is running, you might suffer from the disappearing application syndrome I mentioned earlier.

I’ll summarise the other two features of Windows 7 that I like and dislike. Namely Snap and Quick Look. The short answer with snap is unless you have a monitor thats at least 22 inches wide, the left and right snap is useless. You just can’t do the side by side editing that some people are demanding. The top snap is good, you throw an application up there and it makes it fullscreen, I like that.

Quick look, aka, this thing (below)…

Totally and utterly pointless. It’s a gimmick. You click and hold the icon and it shows the outlines of all the windows you have open, you can’t do anything other than look at what windows you have open, no selection ability whatsoever.

Aside from all of this, Windows 7 does boast great driver support, so upgrading is usually quite painless, it’s fantastically stable and runs very well indeed. In fact I’ve not yet experienced a single crash on the operating system, a rarity indeed! and from my clean install I did not have to find any drivers whatsoever for the components I was using, finally Windows 7 just Works. Theres little point in me going into further detail than this, you’ve used a computer before, so you know what an application is, but these are the main things that Windows 7 boasts.

Onto the next (shorter) section which is of course that big question

Should I actually be switching to Macintosh or Linux because I’m going to have to buy a new computer or reinstall the whole computer?

In short: if you are spending over £600 on a computer then yes It’s worth considering. Linux not so much because it’s not as well supported and still not ‘quite’ at the user friendly level it needs to be, although granted it’s very very close. If however you’re going to be upgrading your computer, then probably not.

The long story however is more like a flow chart. Think of it like this. Most users who are upgrading to Windows 7 are going to have to copy all of their files onto an external hard drive, wipe their current computer and install them afterwards. This is true for at least 80 – 90 % of users. Or you’re going to be buying a new computer, and still having to copy off all the data to your external hard drive, and put it on the new computer. If it’s an older computer, you’re going to probably spend £200 on RAM for your computer, and maybe a graphics card, and still you’re going to be backing up your data and wiping and reinstalling.

So since you’ve completely backed up your files why not switch computers. You’ve already got a Mouse Keyboard and Monitor, so a Mac Mini at £699 is a reasonably buy considering a reasonably specced PC is going to cost you around the £700. Mac OS is frighteningly easy and intuitive to use. I should know, I’ve been using Windows for 15 years and six months ago brought my first Mac, and now can’t really see a place for it. Everything works as it should, there are a wealth of programs (and games) available for it, and although the cost of the hardware is greater, it generally lasts a lot longer, since very few programs require higher specifications. A Mac from 4 years ago will still serve you very well today. A contrary to popular belief is not just for geeks, specialists or idiots. It’s very easy to use and very powerful. Compare it as well cost wise to a PC.

PC

PC Running Windows £700 (with monitor keyboard and mouse)

Microsoft Office Standard 2007 £349 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, http://emea.microsoftstore.com/UK/Microsoft/Office-Standard-2007 ) OR Open Office (Free http://openoffice.org)

Logitech Webcam C300 £39.99 (Link)

Photoshop Elements £50.97  (Photo editing software, something to keep your family photographs in do a few edits, Link)

Logitech X-140 Speakers £17.99 (Link)

ESET Smart Security £39.10 (Firewall, Virus Scanner, Spam Blocker etc, Link)

That tends to be your typical PC purchase. Total cost of this assuming you buy everything on the list and stay brand loyal, £1,197.05 . Suddenly your new PC just got more expensive.

For a Mac

Mac Mini with 500GB Hard Drive £729.00 (use your existing keyboard mouse and monitor and speakers, be kinder to the

iWork £54 (apples equivalent of Office, works perfectly with office files back and forth or if you want office mac £95.99 Link)

No need for photoshop since iPhoto does most of what people need.

Logitech X-140 Speakers £17.99 (Link)

Logitech Webcam C300 £39.99 (Link)

You don’t really need a virus scanner, but I’ll include one anyway

Norton internet security for mac £49.99 (Link thats a firewall and virus scanner and antispam)

Total cost of this assuming your using your own Keyboard Monitor and Mouse, £890.37… With MS Office instead of iWork £932.96

OR

21.5″ iMac with 500gb Hard Drive £949, which includes webcam, mouse, keyboard, speakers, screen (Link)

iWork £54 (apples equivalent of Office, works perfectly with office files back and forth or if you want office mac £95.99 Link)

No need for photoshop since iPhoto does most of what people need.

And the Virus Scanner

Norton internet security for mac £49.99 (Link, thats a firewall and virus scanner and antispam)

Total Cost with iWork £1,052.99 or with ms office £1,094.98

So, your PC will really cost you £1, 197.08 or a Mac Mini with your existing hardware for £890.37 or iMac all in one for £1052.99.

Looking a bit more realistic is it not? And don’t forget of course if you are particularly attached to a Windows application, you can always run Windows on a Mac thanks to BootCamp or Virtualisation, all easy to do.  As for the learning curve it’s easy, intuitive, and most people will get used to it in no time at all, apple runs workshops for free for anyone making the switch, they will even copy your files across to your new mac for you if you take your old PC in store plus you get 90 days complimentary telephone support for any questions whatsoever. So essentially there has never been a better time to make the switch, and yes there are plenty of games out there. Most games being released now are on the Mac as well, including, the Sims 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft to name a few.

So the final section of course s the detailed summary and conclusion.

On the whole I like Windows 7, it’s very Mac like and a huge difference to any previous version of Windows. is it too different? I’m not sure, it’s going to frighten some users off, but it’s now so similar to Macintosh that Microsoft hasn’t done itself any favours to other people who might be considering switching to Apple. There are some massive counter intuitive features, but I suppose if you have a 22″ monitor or bigger then snap works very well. But given 90% of people are going to have to do a complete reinstall, and most people are going to have to buy a new computer, theres never been a better time to switch to Macintosh and it might just work out to be cheaper too. If you’re like my father and ask the question “why should I have to learn a different operating system?” my answer would be that Windows 7 is so different, you’re going to have to do it anyway, like it or not. To those saying “well I just won’t upgrade” keep in mind that Windows XP Vista will stop being supported as well as newer operating systems, and certain applications will eventually force you to upgrade, forgetting of course potential component failure.

So this article has taken me nearly three hours to write, at the end of it we have of course come to a reasonable conclusion, Windows 7 is good, but if your spending the money on a new PC you may as well switch. I may have loathed writing this, however I am pleasantly surprised by my own findings, somehow I’m very pleased. The things I do for twitter.

Feel free to leave your comments, and of course suggestions.