Windows 7 is very good.
F1rst P0st just maybe needs to change monitor to a high res 1, or maybe older ones are not aware that a PC is made up of components.

I am using one of those Win 7 leaks and it is quite good. I believe we will see this OS be well received and adopted increasingly as the word gets out. What do I use at home?

Kubuntu64

@Mechano, what ever my fat buddy is telling is true. I swallow everything he said and pray he will preach some more Windows. :-)

(Not me, but the majority of Computer morons these days)

Do still people believe that fat ass liar?

By all means, go ahead.

While the rest of us younger ones use a cheaper alternative running Win7 with a wide variety software/games available.

Did I mention, us young ones dont like our lives ruled by His Holyness Steve Jobs?

Now waiting for some linux moron to post "linux for desktop" crap ;)

I'm willing to bet you said the same thing about Vista.

Okay, easy shot. Nonetheless, Win 7 is not out yet. I'll wait a while before deciding whether it suits my needs or not.

Hey Monkey Boy ! Your customers have just told you they want you to simplify the licensing.

So how does that not compute with what you said ?

Moron.

...of buying the full OS at what was previously the OEM price? Maybe, maybe not. Its all relative to linux which costs diddly so, this is obviously more happy think projection from Microsofts propagandist chief who knows he has had to cut his prices to get people interested.

Anyone who believes a word MS say has Stockholm Syndrome from decades of being held hostage by the monopolistic miscreant and should be treated accordingly.

PS I think the Inq just got spammed by a viral ad agency or something because some of the comments are totally unrelated to the article.

--=* Mac *=--

Computer For Older People
Who Just Had Enough

:)

WTF is Ballmer talking about here? Typically/historically in a large organization's IT system:

1) The hardware is delivered, perhaps with a hard drive already set up with some preinstalled version of Windows that the user would normally click through the idiot buttons in order to "consent" to the Microsoft EULA (note that this can involve paying the "Microsoft tax" on each and every new PC received...a step which will now be eliminated by any IT manager wanting to keep his/her job).

2) That PC's hard drive is overwritten by a deployment image of whatever customized version of OS has been tested and approved for mass distribution by the corporate IT department. This is typically a "security-enhanced" version of XP that has been tested to ensure compatibility with all major software in use by the corporation. However, given the current popularity of modern versions of Linux, I would expect more and more corporate IT departments to jump at the huge savings and enhanced reliability that can be realized by moving to open source. After all, Win7 is not compatible with many XP applications, and if you have to pay a premium price for Win7 and then teach employees how to use it and to run its "XP VM", you would be further ahead financially (and have to do about the same amount of user re-training) just installing Linux and using your existing XP licenses in a VM which can be mass deployed for the few versions of software that cannot be replace with free or low-cost open-source applications supported directly under Linux, or XP applications run directly in Wine (which works very well for a large spectrum of XP software).

In short, Ballmer wants us to "pay him twice" for Win7 during an economic downturn, when competitors are offering free or nearly-free open-source software that is more secure and can save the cost of having to upgrade all corporate IT hardware in the first place. I would predict that those hardware vendors that will agree to completely "dump the Microsoft tax" for customers and sell machines with blank hard drives/SSD's (or if not blank, containing a free version of Linux) to their customers will be the ones selected by IT managers who want to keep their jobs, and that those same IT managers will continue to install XP images, or move to Linux and use existing VM images of XP. At least, that is the way our IT dept. is going.

well suited for home use, business use, commercial use, military use, arcade gaming, serious graphics, nuclear device controls, medical equipment controls, email, pig roasting, small business, chatting, outer space monitoring, DMV record keeping, if I have missed anything, I am sure it is perfectly suited for that also

So, budgets are being cut 10% but Steve Balmer is STILL trying to push Windows 7. To be honest if budgets are being cut and XP works, why bother upgrading to Windows 7?

Rob

Fact, not conjecture. If you put a living frog in water, you can slowly bring that water to boiling thus killing him in the process. And he'll just sit there and die. That's because he's so wonderfully adaptable he doesn't feel the water temperature approaching that which will kill him. I'm a Windows frog; I've been numb. Or rather so adapted to Windows 95, 98 98SE, NT, XP and yes even 7 that I had no idea what was happening.

My wife wanted to go and actually put her hands on an iPod and try out GarageBand. She's close to retirement and is looking to rekindle her love of, and aptitude for, music. As a PC, Windows XP person for many years, I agreed to go. I'm a big boy with thick skin and not easily swayed. Or so I thought.

What I discovered were monitors with clarity I thought was fake ... just hi-res photographs stuck to the glass. To a machine, the Macs were polished and refined. Using a Mac was like going from my clunky 1999 Ford F150 into something on the order of a Lexus, or Cadillac, or any other high end vehicle you choose. Snow Leopard is a joy to use and frankly at my life stage I no longer feel the need to "get under the hood" like I do with XP and frankly 7 and Linux. I'm still no Apple fanboi but there was a time I never thought I'd retire either. For me, the tide here could be changing sine I now am in a position to actually buy the Mac of my choice. Hell maybe a couple! And one for my wife too.

And I'll just tell you, coming home to XP (and the box I still have Windows 7 on) was a downer for me. And I never expected that.

The first computer I bought was an Apple ][, for several years before my former company settled on the PC as the business model I used Apple ///s and a Lisa so my Apple usage actually goes back, oh, 20+ years.

Just my observations, but given what Apple says are the capabilities of iWork, a Mac would easily fulfill all my post retirements needs. And do so in a beautiful, polished, very elegant package and very capable.