Still using XP but thinking of upgrading to Vista?

Not so fast there, my pioneering amigos and amigas.

If your computer is running Windows XP fairly well right now, you might want to skip Vista and wait for the Next Big Thing from the folks in Redmond: Windows 7.

Windows 7, scheduled to be released either later this year or early 2010, is getting some pretty good reviews. Although it’s available in public beta right now, I haven’t downloaded and tried it out yet. I plan to this weekend. 

Everything I’m reading tells me that Windows 7 will be a much better release than Vista. 

For starters, Vista represented a major re-tooling or re-write of the previous operating system, Windows XP. Early adopters had to put up with a lot of compatibility issues (drivers, etc). The road to its launch was filled with potholes and there was some sufferin’ early on.

Windows 7, on the other hand, is more of an incremental upgrade. Microsoft is supposedly really focusing on making sure it’s compatible out-of-the box with current hardware and software. 

They’ve also been working hard at improving performance. This is the stuff I can’t really claim to understand. But suffice it to say they’ve found ways to cut-out inefficient code and just make it work better (like OSX, ha ha). Testers have reported faster startup and shutdown times and overall zippiness when working with applications and files. Sweet.

They’ve also added a slew of useful control panels and other applets. One new feature called “Peek” does pretty much what Apple’s “QuickLook” gizmo does - let you click a single button to get a preview of what a file is, without having to launch its corresponding application. Also on tap are new home networking features, something called “Jump Lists,” new gadgets (think: Apple Widgets), multi-touch support, and improvements geared specifically to notebook and tablet users.  

Finally, Microsoft is said to have listened to customers when it comes to all the things they dislike about Vista.  The Start menu area has been simplified, the Taskbar improved, and the much-aligned UAC system is more tweakable. 

UAC, short for User Account Control, is one way Vista is supposed to be more secure than XP. With UAC prompts in Vista, you’re notified when system changes are being made. The process takes over the desktop until you decide what to do).  Apparently you have more control over UAC in Windows 7.

Side note: I’ve always thought that people were a little hard on Microsoft over Vista’s UAC. Yes, it can be annoying sometimes. But try running a computer loaded down with malware and spyware, if you really want to be annoyed. Besides, if they didn’t put in the UAC controls, people would complain that Microsoft still wasn’t taking security seriously).

Anyways, like I said - I haven’t gotten my hands on Windows 7 yet. But when I do, I’ll take it for a spin and report back. It’s an interesting time for computing - a new version of both Windows and the Mac OS are forthcoming, USB 3.0 devices are starting to appear, storage keeps getting bigger and cheaper, bad guys find new ways of attacking us on the Internet, and Google keeps rolling with the punches. 

I guess I won’t have many excuses for posting to my blog so infrequently!