Tech ARP has a collection of dates regarding Microsoft's update program. The upgrade program concerns upgrade paths from Windows Vista to Windows 7, and basically entails that when you buy a Windows Vista machine after July 1 2009, you will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 once it's released. The data also confirm a number of versions for Windows 7.
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and so the manager says: Jenkins, you're genius! I love that one.
So I guess I'm gonna wait till Windows 8. No, seriously, I'm runing XP. I have a particular set of applications I'm using on a regular basis. Vista does not offer anything substantially new. Tollbar? WTF? Do I have to move to completely new environment because of different (and not necessarily better) toolbar? And Windows 7 is essentially a patched Vista (with yet another version of toolbar, so praise the Lord!). So me stays with XP for another few years.
Member since:2008-04-10
Sounds to me like it would be easier for you, in the long run, to start moving to Linux. Eventually, things just aren't going to work at all with XP, and as it is you're using a pretty old OS now, so that day may be closer than you think. For most Windows programs, there are decent Linux alternatives, or even programs that cater to a different main goal but still have the functionality you want. WINE is pretty good these days - admittedly, not perfect though, and Crossover is just as good with a little more polish in the form of software installers, and managing WINE "bottles". The bottles are separate WINE environments - WINE Prefixes, I think they're actually called - which can each have their own configuration, and even be modeled off completely different versions of Windows.
I switched to Linux before Vista came out. I was worried about Microsoft basically forcing it on all Windows users, and they probably would have by restricting MS Office and Windows Live Messenger and the like, if Vista had sold better. I have used the Windows 7 beta, and although I think it's pretty nifty at the moment, I'm going to wait until Marketing get their grubby paws on it. The Longhorn betas were pretty nifty too, and look what happened. The "Libraries" feature seems interesting, but I'm already doing something similar with symlinks.
Anyway, Windows 7 might not be terrible, so if I were you I'd view it in it's own light; not in the shadow of Vista, even though they're very closely related. This, from someone who attacks Microsoft at every chance (though not undeservedly or with mindless trolling like "winblowz sux"). Linux is a very real alternative for most people though, even (or perhaps especially) complete novices to computing in general. Ignore what everyone on OS news says, since you're going to find fanboys on both sides of the debate, some of them with some very good points. My best advice would be to try and go two weeks or even a month using Linux (Mint is a great place to start, for an easy to use distro - none of the normal newbie headaches) 'cold turkey', and then form your own opinions. I tried for a couple of years to dual boot, but every time Grub came up I'd just select Windows. It's a bit like trying to give up smoking without throwing away your smokes, though you might be more disciplined than me, so dual boot if you want 
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Member since:2005-07-06
That's an interesting observation... I remember noticing a similar phenomenon back when Win95 was current. There was a fairly large contingent who used NT 4 instead - mainly because (so far as I can tell) it was perceived as the OS that "real men" used, at least among Windows users. (There certainly were valid reasons to use it over Win9x, I'm talking about the people who saw bragging rights as the main advantage of NT.)
Maybe Microsoft should label the upper-tier version of Windows 7 as the "Affectations of Superiority Edition."
Edited 2009-01-07 20:46 UTC
Member since:2008-04-10
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2008-04-10
I was about to make some exasperated comment to the effect of "why do they persist with this stupid version system?", when I remembered something I saw in Mad Magazine years ago. If I remember rightly, it was a Tales from the Duck Side comic.
A manager says to a guy in the office "do something that condom machine. It's costing money, and nobody's using it". Later, the manager sees two more there, and says "What the hell do you think you're doing? Now we have three useless machines!". The employee says "wait a minute", and in the next panel, the machines are labelled Small, Medium and Large, and everyone is queued up at the large condom machine.
Whether or not there was actually a difference wasn't mentioned in the comic, but the point was, everyone wanted to make sure everyone else saw them buying a large condom; I think we have the same thing here with the Windows versions.