Posted on 02/03/2009 7:10:52 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
Steven Sinofsky this week reaffirmed that Windows 7 would only have a single public beta release—build 7000, still available for download for a few more days. The current expectation is that there will be a single Release Candidate in April, with RTM around July, and Windows 7 hitting stores a few months later.
This plan marks a significant departure from Microsoft's historic Windows release strategy. Previous editions have had at least two betas and two Release Candidates; even Windows XP, a minor update to Windows 2000, received this treatment. Windows Vista went even further during its extended development period. In addition to formal betas and Release Candidates, a number of "Community Technical Preview" (CTP) releases were made available, to allow third-party developers to track the progress more closely.
How is this even possible?
This condensed release schedule is a result of a new development methodology. Underlying this is Microsoft's new commitment to what the company calls "quality." "Quality" is kind of a vague term—after all, it's not as if the company wants to ship something low-quality, even if it might not always seem that way. In this case, it means six things: device compatibility, application compatibility, performance, reliability, battery life, and security. These are not the only areas of concern for the new OS—things like the user experience and documentation quality are still important, but these six are viewed as fundamental. Windows 7 is intended to raise the bar in each of these areas and, to achieve that, Microsoft has used a new development process for this release.
(Excerpt) Read more at arstechnica.com ...
http://www.dealsofamerica.com/
I look at this site daily. I laugh at all the computers that have the selling point “Windows XP Downgrade”.
People are looking for computers with XP because Vista is a pain in the butt.
Actually the license is good forever (though support will eventually drop).
The part about the iPod and the bathtub is news to me, but it wouldn't surprise me either... ;-)
Are you high or joking? That statement is so ill-informed as to be grounds for PWI (Posting While Intoxicated).
> Business Model or not, OSX runs fine on the SAME intel hardware they charge 1.5X for.
No argument there. Personally I find Apple's hardware electromechanically robust and pleasing to my tastes. Since your mileage clearly varies, that's cool with me.
Okay I made that up, but she would need to send a bathtub picture with an iPhone.
The most stable early Dos was Dos 2.0s on my Atari 800 back in 1980.
I’ll use it if Bill will pay me $100 a day for me to beta test it for him.
That's seriously kinky, dude.
Bring back Quarterdeck’s DeskView.
This is my third OS and I couldn’t be more pleased, so far, at least.
Avoid the rush. Install Linux instead
Been using Vista on three computers and no problems at all. Never crashes. What is Windows 7 going to do for me? For the record I regard Vista as vastly superior to XP.
XP Pro and Vista Ultimate are not priced much higher that your $129. I just bought a copy of XP Pro from Newegg for $139.
How is this possible?
Well, for one thing, you can't run Mac OS without a Mac, so Apple knows the software is going to a Mac.
To get a price break on Windows, you buy an OEM version, which is licensed to a specific motherboard. If you upgrade the motherboard, you have to make a phone call to MS.
If you pay the retail price for Windows you get a license that allows you to move the OS from one computer to another indefinitely.
I dual boot with Vista HB and XP HE, on a Dell E520, 3.08ghhz cpu, 4.5 gb ram (a recent addition from 2.5, but found Vista only handles 3gb) And i use the computer extensively, from encoding to heavy heavy Internet use, and thank God for it all. But at least in the interest of improving things, i would like to add suggestions for Windows 7, mostly for navigation and speed, from was is missing with Vista (which overall better and more mature than XP, but the latter is clear faster.)
1. Change the default folder view to Details, and allow one to set what one chooses under that to every kind of folder (i have hundreds, and know “apply to all..” is spssd to do it. Fixes for this do not stay - Google for threads).
2. Fix the problem with Vista not remembering Windows sizes (again, Google for problems with attempted fixes)
3. Put the Up arrow back. It is often faster even after one learns the breadcrumb menu, and is needed when using folders without the navigation pane, which is helpful to eliminate due to Vista not remembering folder sizes. See free QTTab bar for this and more options worth incorporating. http://qttabbar.wikidot.com/
4. Allow moving of Task Bar buttons, and choosing different colors, as well as saving sessions, just like Firefox allows for tabs (Colorful Tabs extension for the color). Then copy more things from FF for IE. Or retire it. (doing research, I usually run 2 instances of FF concurrently, one of Sea Monkey and 1 of others if needed, and find IE the least to be preferred)
5. Allow right click to copy whole path in the address bar of folders (ctrl and c will do it now). And allow the same for copying things for 3 d boxes.
6. easily allow hot keys for fast launching (with free AutoHotKey you can make scripts to launch one, or even many many apps, etc. simultaneously - closest thing to a session saver)
7 Provide a master list of everything in the Control Panel, etc, (things like C:\Windows\System32\powercfg.cpl) for faster access. Stat menue should seldom need to be used.
8. Greatly improve Speech to Text (and vice versa) and commands to do the above (and turn on, off PC, etc.) so you can just say things like , “Go to ...” This has lots of potential, and as it is, Xp has not the like.
9. Improve ability to see incoming and outgoing Internet traffic.
10. Can UAC, and use something like Winpatrol.
11. Add options to clipboard, to remember all (like clipboard diary)
12. Improve clock (colors, + cpu load, free ram stats, etc.)
13. Allow changing file type icons on even basic versions of OS.
14. Put “copy to” and move to” as default options on right click menus (I have this).
15. Make it faster than Vista, which on a Dell E520 (3ghz cpu, 2.5gb ram) is slower than my W/98 (650mhz, 320mb ram) on basic tasks (navigating, opening folders), and slower than XP on the same PC. Even after tweaking and spare ram and low cpu load.
16. enable 32 bit OS to use more than 3gb ram.
excuse me... shoulda said freebsd.
linux was a stretch.
and you send him money that then gets donated to Dems... :)
This is the reason we don't use OEM pricing when comparing. That's for geeks, not for the unwashed masses who won't be able to get support (Microsoft says: Call your OEM). Anyway, Vista Ultimate OEM is still $180. Dell charges $150 just to upgrade to that from Home Basic.
OS X Super Duper Ultimate Version, price included with system, $129 to upgrade to a new version. That's less than going from Vista Basic to Ultimate OEM.
And there's one thing that's hard for Windows to beat. Many families have multiple systems in their homes. OS X family upgrade pack for up to five systems, $199.
LOL. Sadly you are too correct.
Had it for like 7 months and hated it. Slower, harder to use OS, requiring more hardware resources did not seem like progress to me.
UPGRADED back to XP and the laptop ran great... much faster too.
Much, much faster for one. Faster even than XP in my experience.
Microsoft finally took one idea from Apple that they've been ignoring all these years: Have the new version run faster on the same hardware. I see a lot of pissed off OEMs as for the first time people won't have to buy new hardware to upgrade to the new Windows version if they want equivalent speed.
Right on, insofar as OS-X has a certified Unix based in part on FreeBSD under the hood. It also has a ton of Apple-specific enhancements and applications layered over the Unix core, so it's much more than "just a flavor of FreeBSD".
> linux was a stretch.
Umm, yeah. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.