W7: hype and truth

October 22 has come around and Windows 7 is now plaguing every single store with a computer department while Microsoft has gone on a bold and proud crusade to bring its new system into every little nook and cranny.

So naturally there might be one or two of you still out there, overtaken by hype backlash and strongly pessimistic about Microsoft's new magnum opus.

Myself, I've taken a minor interest in Windows 7 since the beta stages.

While XP in itself is a great product that lasted a really long time, I was slowly growing envious of the shiny neat interface and structure of Vista. At the same time, however, all my switch attempts were short-lived, simply because Vista gave me more problems than useful changes and thus was not worth the problem.

When Windows 7 Beta came around with Microsoft going "Okay, right, Vista was shit, let's try this again", I figured I might as well check it out - so I made a separate partition and installed it...

And I was positively surprised.

Even then, it functioned as smoothly as XP and came with all the Aero shine and beauty of Vista bundled with a few more interesting interface, layout and functionality changes.

Libraries are an especially interesting change. They essentially work as a shortcut and a method to link several folders scattered across the hard drive together. They made keeping track of everything somewhat easier.

The interface has a few interesting functions added. When you grab a window and press it against a border, it'll either maximize (if you choose the top border) or take up one half of the screen (if it's a side border). You can also pull away a window from maximization.

The taskbar got a major makeover and turned into some kind of dock-taskbar-shortcut bar hybrid thing that's actually very practical. The way you can single out a window while browsing through the window lists is great.

Performance wise, I don't feel any significant difference between XP and 7, apart from the fact that 7 has an impressive boot speed which makes rebooting that much less of a nuisance. Otherwise, it functions really smoothly.

My dad has been running Vista SP1 for some time. He generally didn't mind Vista, but at some point it started getting really bogged down and he was considering a reinstall or something.

When Windows 7 RC came around with the ability to update from Vista SP1, I suggested an update to him, based on my current personal experience. He wasn't too convinced, but he eventually managed to upgrade.

Reportedly, the upgrade alone came with an enormous performance boost, quickly sweeping away any remaining skepticism.

The only problem I've run into is with hibernation. The regular power setting hibernated the computer after 30 minutes of inactivity. Whenever I booted my PC after hibernating, the reawakened OS did not react to my mouse or keyboard, forcing me to reset. It was a minor annoyance, so I turned auto-hibernation off.

All of this is still actual in the release. I'm not sure if they added anything more.

All in all, I personally think the hype is partly deserved. Windows 7 probably won't cure your cancer or AIDS or lift you into a new level of transcendence, clarity and understanding - but it's better than XP and MUCH better than Vista. If you can satisfy the minimum requirements for it, I recommend it.