Industry analysts differ on the importance of shipping Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system before the 2009 holidays, but agree that the release of the OS needs to be swift and smooth to avoid the sins of Vista's past.
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Member since:2005-07-07
How about the XP upgrade was the arguably the first that didn't have people lining up in stores waiting to get their hands on it?
Apart from Windows 95, when have people ever lined up to buy a new release of Windows? Windows 98? Windows 2K? Windows Me (ugh!)? I don't remember anyone being excited over a new Windows release post '95.
At release, you had to upgrade your hardware to make it run without going woof (and 6 + years later, the hardware to make it run without going woof is _cheap_).
Oh please, I ran XP on release on my trusty Dell Inspiron 3700. It was a 1999 laptop with a 433 MHz Celeron processor, and 256 MB RAM. It ran XP fine and I admit I disabled Luna since I considered it an eye sore back then
I think you're greatly exaggerating the hardware requirements to run XP, in the same way people exaggerate the hardware requirements for Vista. It simply confirms how difficult it is to take ones eyes off a train wreck when it is right in front of you ....
I returned to using Windows as my primary platform in April 2008 when I took up a new job as a Windows C++ developer. Previously, I'd spent 5 years being a Mac head. I'd hardly consider myself as a Windows apologist.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2008-06-21
"Apart from Windows 95, when have people ever lined up to buy a new release of Windows? Windows 98? Windows 2K? Windows Me (ugh!)? I don't remember anyone being excited over a new Windows release post '95."
95 was notable, in my alleged mind, becaused I remember the media coverage it got - but my recollections of even 98 was that it was quite popular among the faithful. And yes, I even purchased that upgrade because those among the faithful were still giving me the 'oh, no, really, _this_ is the one. As I mentioned at the end of my post, I have avoided MS OSes for about the last 10 years entirely on my own machines - frankly, when 98 turned out to be business as usual, I convinced myself to even ignore folks I would have, until then, at least given _some_ credence to.
The various NT versions, in my recollection, got all sorts of favourable reviews, and certainly was highly touted among the faithful I knew. ME is a conundrum to me. It disappeared so quickly - replaced by XP in about a year! - and I, even after all these years, can only recall one person who claimed to actually have it on a machine.... not to mention how out of sequence it was 3.1 in 92, 95, 98 (burp) XP in 2001. 8-)
So for someone who was no longer nose to the grindstone in Windows on a day to day basis - XP is arguably the replacement for 98. And in the sequence of 2.x, 3.x, 95 and 98 - remember, no 'fixes' in the early years, you jumped at the upgrade, hoping that some of the worst problems were being addressed.
"I think you're greatly exaggerating the hardware requirements to run XP, in the same way people exaggerate the hardware requirements for Vista."
Again, I never bothered with XP, so I am not making any claims, per se. I am saying there was a lot of pushback based on performance. I am saying people balked at upgrading because they said it took significant hardware upgrades to maintain their perceived performance thay had with previous versions. You already agree with this; it was in your opening statement.
Now, Vista, as I mentioned, I have _some_ experience with. Dual booting Linux gives me some 'side by side' data, and it is quite pathetic. Building the same code with gcc is right at 3 times slower. Given, that is not 'native' code, so I try something like a 'backup'. Hours to write a couple of DVD/s? It is not like I have to exaggerate anything ....
And of course the famed Windows user experience out of the box .. ' you just downloaded this, sure you want to touch it? I take no responsibility if you touch this. I am not touching this without you admitting anything that happens is your fault. '
Yeah, the hardware overhead is a little different concept there. It is replacement for what you throw against the wall.......8-)
I might accept what you say about XP, given I don't have the direct experience. But if you are going to say Vista 'runs fine' and doesn't have considerable hardware requirements, I'd really have to ask if your are doing anything more than booting the box ...
Member since:
2008-06-21
"When XP was released in 2001, there was countless whining about it. It was slow, Luna was ugly, it was bloated, etc. 6 years and 3 service packs later, people are now unwilling to leave XP."
Yes, I'd like a little cheese with that whine, thank you very much.
On the other hand, you might want to do just a leeetle bit more analysis there.
How about the XP upgrade was the arguably the first that didn't have people lining up in stores waiting to get their hands on it? At release, you had to upgrade your hardware to make it run without going woof (and 6 + years later, the hardware to make it run without going woof is _cheap_). Maybe folks don't want their OS upgrades make them change hardware - maybe they want to have a decision along the lines of 'if I pay for and install this, I want it to make my hardware seem better ...' Maybe after all those years of having to buy new versions (since there was no such thing as a fix or service pack) and now, fixes and service packs are free (like other OSes have been for decades) and after years of fixes/service packs, it is finally sorta stable and you want me to pay money to change to a first release?
I mean, come on.
I've kept Vista on my laptop so far because
1) It came with two drives, so I can do real things with the OS on the other drive and
2) it embodies everything I haven't missed in the 10 years since I left off even having an MS OS available on a dual boot machine. And more.
It simply confirms how difficult it is to take ones eyes off a train wreck when it is right in front of you ....