Is Windows 7 A Home Run?

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal seems to think so...

After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft (MSFT) has produced. It’s a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use. Despite a few drawbacks, I can heartily recommend Windows 7 to mainstream consumers.

I can't remember when I've read a positive review of a Microsoft operating system, at least since the late 1990's. Which I find a little confusing, as the Vista OS on my computer works just fine. Hmmm.

Well, in the interest of balance and harmony, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, a writter at CNNMoney.com, provides a bit of a rebuttal, unfortunately using Walt's own words against him...

Mossberg has written a positive review; he has plenty of good things to say about Microsoft's latest operating system, and anybody who is seriously interested in buying it should read the whole thing.

But if you want to know what's wrong with Windows 7, we've excerpted the juicy bits below the fold.

In Walt's words:

• On a couple of these machines, glacial start-up and reboot times reminded me of Vista.
• On a couple of others, after upgrading, key features like the display or touchpad didn’t work properly.
• Windows 7 still requires add-on security software that has to be frequently updated.
• It’s tedious and painful to upgrade an existing computer from XP to 7
• The variety of editions in which Windows 7 is offered is confusing.
• Microsoft has stripped Windows 7 of familiar built-in applications, such as email, photo organizing, address book, calendar and video-editing programs. [They can be downloaded free of charge.]
• Windows 7 still isn’t quite as natural at networking as I find the Mac to be, but it’s better than Vista.
• In my tests, [a new feature called HomeGroups] worked, but not consistently, and it required typing in long, arcane passwords.
• The Mac still started and restarted faster than most of the Windows 7 PCs. But the speed gap has narrowed considerably, and one of the Lenovos beat the Mac in restart time.
• In the name of security, Vista put up nagging warnings about a wide variety of tasks, driving people crazy. In Windows 7, you can now set this system so it nags you only when things are happening that you consider really worth the nag.
• The system for upgrading is complicated, but Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place.
• Unfortunately, XP owners, the biggest body of Windows users, won’t be able to do that.
• They’ll have to wipe out their hard disks after backing up their files elsewhere, then install Windows 7, then restore their personal files, then re-install all their programs from the original CDs or downloaded installer files.
• Then, they have to install all the patches and upgrades to those programs from over the years.
• Microsoft includes an Easy Transfer wizard to help with this, but it moves only personal files, not programs.
• This painful XP upgrade process is one of the worst things about Windows 7 and will likely drive many XP owners to either stick with what they’ve got or wait and buy a new one.

"Bottom line," writes Mossberg, "Windows 7 is a very good, versatile operating system that should help Microsoft bury the memory of Vista and make PC users happy."

UPDATE: Kudos to reader Jon T. of Cardiff, Wales, for digging up this quote from Mossberg's review of Vista:

"After months of testing Vista on multiple computers, new and old, I believe it is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced." — Wall Street Journal, Jan. 18, 2007

"After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced." — Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2009

LOL. Too funny. I'll probably be upgrading anyway...

Walt Mossberg Raises the Red Flag of Revolution

A colleague of mine pointed out to me an interesting blog post by Walt Mossberg this morning:

http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/

A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer.

Up until the 1970s, when the federal government intervened, you weren’t allowed to buy your own landline phone, and companies weren’t able to innovate, on price or features, in making and selling phones to the public. All Americans were forced to rent clumsy phones made by a subsidiary of the monopoly phone company, AT&T, which claimed that, unless it controlled what was connected to its network, the network might suffer.

Well, the government pried that market open, and the wired phone network not only didn’t collapse, it became more useful and versatile, allowing, among other things, cheap connections to online data services.

I suspect that if the government, or some disruptive innovation, breaks the crippling power that the wireless carriers exert today, the free market will deliver a similar happy ending.

At the SIIA Changing Landscape seminar on mobility last month, D. P. Venkatesh pointed out that Apple is a odd choice to lead the anti-oligarchy charge. It's model is based on it owning the entire software stack to the exclusion of anyone else. Although, Apple just announced that they will eventually allow third party programs, this seems like too little to late. After all, my three year old PocketPC (on Verizon, widely acknowledged as the "worst" carrier in terms of openness) easily allows third party applications.

Now, switching it from one carrier to another might prove a challenge...

However, Walt's economic instincts are correct. More competition will bring more innovation, and greater value at lower prices. And you can bet that the carriers will fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening...

The iPhone is coming! The iPhone is coming!

Well, is the damn thing any good?...according to Walt Mossberg it is...

(I had a video but it's not playing in blogger. Grrr.)

Here is his text review.

I've had a Pocket PC for a number of years and the only complaints I've had are the short battery life and low volume (speaking and ringing). My phone is four years old so I'm do for a new one. Hmmm...perhaps an iPhone might do (eight hours of talk time!!)

Here is what the NY Times has to say about the iPhone.



Lastly, read about USA Today's positive review. Either this phone really is that good, or Apple's PR team deserves a round of applause for a job well done.