Griping about the Windows 7 beta

Does curmudgeonliness rub off? I ask because lately, it seems like everyone’s a cynic when it comes to Windows 7. Most formal reviewers have taken a neutral-leaning-towards-positive position on product, and even dyed-in-the-wool fanbois are harping on perceived deficiencies in the recently-leaked beta release.

So, what gives? Why all the griping? Santa’s been good! He brought you a shiny new Windows Beta to play with during the holidays. I’d have thought the Windows faithful would be jumping up and down and spitting nickels by now! Instead, they’re moaning about various functional changes that, to me at least, seem like really good ideas.

For example, many reviewers have panned the new “super bar,” claiming it’s poorly conceived and potentially confusing to new users. I, for one, like this new take on the TaskBar. In fact, after dropping the icon size down, I find the revamped task switching UI to be quite functional. The subtle visual cues separating active tasks from static shortcuts are easy to spot, and the flexibility to mix and match the two is a major improvement over the Vista Quick Launch bar.

Others have pointed to the Libraries feature as a potential stumbling block. Since I’ve long been a fan of Vista’s pervasive search capabilities — including the various stack-by functions — I find the move toward an aggregated search model to be a natural evolution of the Windows UI. After all, this was what the ill-fated WinFS was all about: Abstracting data from its physical or logical containers. Windows 7 is simply trying to accomplish this same goal using what are essentially pre-configured saved searches.

Finally, I still hear some grumblings about performance. Among various reader comments and feedback items, I’ve come across a fair share of users who seem disappointed that Windows 7 performs roughly on par with Vista (it boots quicker, but otherwise it runs about the same by most accounts).

My response: What did they expect? The product they’re evaluating is in reality a repackaged Windows Vista. And frankly, this is a good thing. The fact that Microsoft managed to create a new (or at least updated) version of Windows without chewing-up an additional CPU core or two in the process is truly laudable. Kudos to Sinofsky & Co. for showing restraint where previously there was none.

Overall, I’m looking forward to my inevitable move to Windows 7. In fact, if it weren’t for the lack of an available x64 edition (the leak was only for the 32-bit flavor), I’d be there already — assuming I didn’t run into any major showstoppers. But since the official Beta release is just a couple of weeks away, I can wait. In the meantime, I’ll continue to explore the leaked build via VMware Workstation. Hopefully, some quality time in a virtual machine will help me to identify any obvious pitfalls and allow me to hit the ground running mid-January.

My new year’s resolution: Buy a boat so I can spend more time diving on the reef with the kids.

A very balmy, tropical Happy New Year to everyone! 🙂