Windows 7 next year?

[Funkstar]

Microsoft Clears Gates-Induced Confusion about Windows 7

hmmmm.

As usual, there seems to be far more speculation than fact floating about here. If you take this article and the OP together, you could conclude that the "next release" could just be another semi-public beta build of Windows 7.

[dangel]

I quite liked linux on the eee but i ended up whacking windows on for two reasons - 1 (as 'hex says) i'm more familar with it and 2 it's more functional (drivers work better, no 1gb limit, more software that I want/need works on it etc).

I've still got a USB bootable distro to play with but it's just that - a toy for messing with.

Seven will most likely arrive (as scheduled) in 2010 - at least at retail.

[directhex]

The Eee demonstrates this quite well.

Linux is really quite close to windows in terms of coherient user interface, something that was really not true even 2 years ago.

The XOrg team are making waves in performance, it no longer feals like your having to navigate rapids using a pig with a brush stuck up its anus.

The problems of configuration will not go away over night, but for the off the shelf mass market, its not a problem, the only people its a problem for are the small build companies who can't afford to customise their builds. Linux still has too many different ideas for doing the same simple thing like configuration. I'm not saying win is perfect (is it an MMC snap in, Registry key, or confing file), but its a hell of a lot better.

you just earnt a "thank user" for insightful commentary. bet you never thought i'd click that for you in your lifetime.

[peterb]

Linux is really quite close to windows in terms of coherient user interface, something that was really not true even 2 years ago.

Gasp...

Which particular user interface do you mean? End user GUI, developer API, application API ?

[b0redom]

The Eee demonstrates this quite well.

Linux is really quite close to windows in terms of coherient user interface, something that was really not true even 2 years ago.

The XOrg team are making waves in performance, it no longer feals like your having to navigate rapids using a pig with a brush stuck up its anus.

The problems of configuration will not go away over night, but for the off the shelf mass market, its not a problem, the only people its a problem for are the small build companies who can't afford to customise their builds. Linux still has too many different ideas for doing the same simple thing like configuration. I'm not saying win is perfect (is it an MMC snap in, Registry key, or confing file), but its a hell of a lot better.

Whilst this may be true for one device, try getting wireless working on most laptops / cards for example. Messing about with NDISwrapper etc is a nightmare if you can even get it working. On Windows plug in the card, install the driver and away you go.

Hardware detection is getting better, but it's still not there yet. You also have to remember that people can go to a shop and buy a software package for Windows, and there tend to be definitives for doing that, MS-Word etc. RPM or Synapse are not something people are used to.

I would have thought that increases in pricing for Windows would push people more towards OSX. At least that has a unified, standard set of applications.

[directhex]

Whilst this may be true for one device, try getting wireless working on most laptops / cards for example. Messing about with NDISwrapper etc is a nightmare if you can even get it working. On Windows plug in the card, install the driver and away you go.

but whose fault is that? how many cards work out of the box? how many cards work when you load drivers for, say, macos?

[mediaboy]

Whilst this may be true for one device, try getting wireless working on most laptops / cards for example. Messing about with NDISwrapper etc is a nightmare if you can even get it working. On Windows plug in the card, install the driver and away you go.

Sorry? Are we on the same planet here?


Windows Cards CAN be awfully hard to get drivers for... although the ease of installation is quite a bit easier now.


Anything below XP was an absolute nightmare, and Vista x64 was fairly awful (requiring special 64 bit drivers for everything) but XP 32 and Vista 32 were alright (I've not had any problems yet.. apart from a few obsolete P&P cards not working.. but what did I expect with technology that the drivers are designed for win98?)

[TheAnimus]

Whilst this may be true for one device, try getting wireless working on most laptops / cards for example. Messing about with NDISwrapper etc is a nightmare if you can even get it working. On Windows plug in the card, install the driver and away you go.

Hardware detection is getting better, but it's still not there yet. You also have to remember that people can go to a shop and buy a software package for Windows, and there tend to be definitives for doing that, MS-Word etc. RPM or Synapse are not something people are used to.

I would have thought that increases in pricing for Windows would push people more towards OSX. At least that has a unified, standard set of applications.

OSX has a unified set of apps? Which set? MS Office (damned expensive?). No OSX still has no grip on the work because of hudge prices (i'm not going into this debate again, but its simple to prove apple fan boys have to fork out £100 for what MS issue as a service pack). People would in no way move to OSX, you can see this because more businesses run unix/linux than OSX by miles. I've never been on a trading floor thats got any apple hardware/software near it, other than iPods.

but whose fault is that? how many cards work out of the box? how many cards work when you load drivers for, say, macos?

Hex, you can't say that you expect hardware firms to spend the hudge amount of time and money testing and developing drivers for every tin pot little OS now can you? As someone politely put it, "the reason sir you scanner isn't supported in Linux, is because we'd have more of a user base if we developed win 3.1 drivers". Whilst thats probably not true any more, the sentiment is there just win 9x now.

Gasp...

Which particular user interface do you mean? End user GUI, developer API, application API ?

KDE like level of coherance. The buttons in dialogoue boxes are been put in the same relative places. The APIs are still seamingly the ramblings of spiders, drunk on fine wine, whom fell into an ink well and where then chased accross the page by a rabid cat. Did i mention the spiders where dislexic?

[directhex]

Hex, you can't say that you expect hardware firms to spend the hudge amount of time and money testing and developing drivers for every tin pot little OS now can you? As someone politely put it, "the reason sir you scanner isn't supported in Linux, is because we'd have more of a user base if we developed win 3.1 drivers". Whilst thats probably not true any more, the sentiment is there just win 9x now.

well, sure, but it'd be nice if companies weren't full of people who rock themselves to sleep sobbing "the chinese, they're all trying to make fake products which can use our precious, precious drivers". i mean, christ on a bike, nobody cares about your crappy scanner chip. if someone comes along and says "hi, i'm an experienced software engineer, want some free drivers?", who's gonna say "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! begone, foul demon!" rather than "cheers mate, here's the spec sheet"

of course, the terrifying reality is just how often the first response happens rather than the second.

[TheAnimus]

because if they give an inch, people will take a yard. Imperial units asside, the idea is that if they're seen to offer any level of support, even in just emailing "good luck guys" to the dev, odds are they will get an army of people claiming its offical support, its better to have an offical line of no support, rather than pretend they do, and (rightly) getting flamed for none.

I think it was someone from VIA was saying that the EPIA linux driver support side was costing more than the windows driver support, which when translated into cost per user was shocking.

This is on a simple platform board (for want of a better phrase), which is ideal for linux (ie low cost).

[directhex]

because if they give an inch, people will take a yard. Imperial units asside, the idea is that if they're seen to offer any level of support, even in just emailing "good luck guys" to the dev, odds are they will get an army of people claiming its offical support, its better to have an offical line of no support, rather than pretend they do, and (rightly) getting flamed for none.

I think it was someone from VIA was saying that the EPIA linux driver support side was costing more than the windows driver support, which when translated into cost per user was shocking.

This is on a simple platform board (for want of a better phrase), which is ideal for linux (ie low cost).

conversely, some of the most anti-linux companies make a packet off it. consider, say, broadcom - they're one of the worst offenders for keeping specs hidden (e.g. for their wireless stuff), yet one of the most common choices for wired networking in wired servers and embedded systems (routers) which are very frequently running linux

if you had the option of firing all your driver developers and just keeping a couple of guys who understand the silicon and can answer support queries, and "outsourcing" drivers to volunteers, wouldn't you? and i wouldn't take anything a half-baked company like via says particularly seriously - if you insist on doing things from scratch, internally, then costs are bound to be high

[2Cold Scorpio]

I bloody well hope it comes next year.... Vista is nice and all, but I want something a little better. And I won't make the mistake of getting the 32-bit edition this time.

[Stringent]

Vista did to XP what ME did to 98.

Also the lack of 64bit support is still amazing, although I see Adobe are producing their Creative Suite for 64bit only.

[TheAnimus]

Vista did to XP what ME did to 98.

I'm guessing thats a Typo?

Or is that a "because no ones going to adopt it, they're just going to wait for the next version"?

Either way, ME was 98 with very few changes, practically every line of code in 98, was in ME.

Vista has hudge chunks built from the ground up, its a major change.

[AndrewJ]

I'm guessing thats a Typo?

Or is that a "because no ones going to adopt it, they're just going to wait for the next version"?

Either way, ME was 98 with very few changes, practically every line of code in 98, was in ME.

Vista has hudge chunks built from the ground up, its a major change.

Agreed, but does it make it superior for the average Joe.

[TheAnimus]

Agreed, but does it make it superior for the average Joe.

I think UAC does that on its own.