What's New In Windows 7?
In particular, here's a list of features new to Windows that have been around in the Linux world for more than a little while.
Although I don’t plan on using Windows 7 unless threatened with violence, I thought it would be interesting to see what Microsoft’s pushing these days as state-of-the-art technology. Many of the new features planned for the next release of Windows, however, seem more like catch-up than innovation.
In particular, here’s a list of features new to Windows that have been around in the Linux world for more than a little while.
- Desktop Slideshow. The ability to use a series of changing images as a desktop background has been available in KDE for years, and it’s easy enough to implement in Gnome by hand-editing simple configuration files or installing an application like Drapes.
- New Taskbar. The new taskbar bears striking resemblances in appearance to the default KDE panel, as far as I can tell. It also sounds like its application-oriented behavior is straight out of OS X, but that’s another issue.
- Redesigned notification area. According to Wikipedia, “The notification area has been redesigned; the standard Volume, Network, Battery and Security Center status icons (now renamed “Action”) are still present, but no other application icons are shown unless the user has chosen for them to be shown.” Hmmm, giving users the choice to decide which applets they want to see in the panel, instead of encouraging application developers to infest it with three dozen icons that do nothing but waste space and resources…sounds a lot like Gnome and KDE to me.
- Window Maximizing & Tiling. “You can now drag windows to the top of the screen to maximize them and drag them away to restore them.” Gnome with metacity has had this functionality for years.
- New Wordpad interface. Apparently Windows Wordpad (along with Paint and some other Microsoft cruft) has been “ribbonized.” This may be nice for people who like ribbons, but it doesn’t obscure the fact that Wordpad is a deficient text editor that hasn’t seen any substantive improvements since 1995. Seriously, it still doesn’t even have spellcheck.
- Disk Defragmenter is supposed to be more efficient. This is good, but doesn’t excuse Microsoft from its perennial failure to implement a file-system where disk fragmentation is not really an issue. No Linux user has had to defragment for a decade. When is Windows going to grow up and move past NTFS?
This isn’t to say that Windows 7 is totally unoriginal. Advances in speech-recognition technology, for example, are impressive, and represent an area where Linux has a lot of catching-up to do. But as a Linux devotee, I couldn’t resist an opportunity to criticize Microsoft where criticism’s due.
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What’s wrong with you! Don’t you know that these are Microsoft “INNOVATIONS?” When will all you Linux zealots learn that until Microsoft invents it, it simply does not exist and does not matter. When Windows 7 is released, it will be so far ahead of anything Linux has that playing ketchup will simply be impossible. I defy anyone to show me a single Windows 7 feature that wasn’t stolen by Linux ten years ago. Innovations, they are… MMMMMMMMicrosoft innovations!
oh, scott, you really know how to make me laugh…
I downloaded the beta of 7 and you stole my thoughts exactly. I thought wow this is a KDE clone. Way to go with wordpad… most linux comes with a full featured office suite… oh i forgot we are supposed to shell out several hundred bucks on top of what the os cost. And I did get a BSOD on my first attempt at running it. Same ol’ windows 🙂
I know what you mean. They catch up by taking ideas from Linux and Mac. Every new OS, expect more copies. I was pretty surprised to see the OS X Dock taskbar. It even stores shortcut links and active programs in a similar way, except it has a start menu rather than a finder icon.
Disk Defrag. HAHA. Don’t worry, by Windows 8 you won’t have to use a disk defragmenter, and by Windows 9 there won’t be viruses. Maybe by Windows 10 they’ll have a new UI that doesn’t mix and match from everyone else and is actually usable.
Let’s be fair here. Here are three Microsoft innovations I have yet to see in any Linux disto.
The Windows registry. a built in database that corrupts itself regularly and must be periodically cleaned to maintain system performance. Also a wonderful hiding ground for windows viruses.
Internet Explorer ActiveX controls. Really great snippets of code that you must use to keep your system up to date. also another wonderful hiding ground for viruses.
Windows Genuine Advantage. Try to steal Windows and Genuine Advantage might shut you down. Also might shut you down if your a legal owner with a problem!
Truly we must give credit to Microsoft for these great ideas.
My first thought upon seeing Windows 7 for the first time (just last night) was wow they stole stuff from KDE or they’ve been reading linux forums/websites to find out what exactly IS so great about Linux. Do you think they paid any Linux developers or will Microsoft just try to patent “their” umm yeah right “innovations” now?
Funny I’m not even a Wndows hater but I have mixed feelings about this new distro – I mean Windows 7 beta is a vast improvement over vista but seriously some true innovation that didnt require 4 GB of memory and a host of new video cards, etc (my 2 year old laptop with 2 GB of memory got a 1.0 on the Microsoft performance assessment that is part of Windows 7) would be much appreciated but I guess Americans do have money to spend on new hardware that they will either never understand nor fully utilize so in that sense – way to go Microsoft. As for old school people like me who can’t grasp the need for a 1TB HD or 4 GB of memory for a HOME computer, then I’m thinking Linux is and always will be in my future.
Anyway, that was fun but Linux held my interest for alot longer than 30 minutes…..
Well, W7 will likely allow use of a webcam with Skype … something Ibex does not do … altho Heron did.
IMHO, it’s the applications that are important, not the desktop. Applications are what users use. Issues like webcams and broadband access are deal-killers for current Windows users – because they are or can be issues with Linux – even Ubuntu – and are not issues with Windows.
“Security” is always mentioned as a Linux advantage. I’ve used WinXP now for 5 years, and have never been infected. So a Win system can be secured, and it’s not difficult.
I’ve used Heron and Ibex, and I like the system a lot … but in my work, I must use certain Windows applications, and so can use Ubuntu but rarely.
Applications are important. They’re very important. They make the OS worth having. But the OS is also important. More than ever security as a strategy is so important.
Currently 9 million Windows machines have been infected with a malware worm that’s incredibly difficult to stop from spreading and to clean out.
You base platform is your foundation.
“This isn’t to say that Windows 7 is totally unoriginal. Advances in speech-recognition technology, for example, are impressive, and represent an area where Linux has a lot of catching-up to do.”
Although potentially useful, I don’t know that you could consider speech-recognition as a core function of an OS. This is an example of the heart of the Microsoft problem — to much junk piled on that requires greater and greater hardware requirements.
Even though my mom uses Ubuntu, I’d say Linux will be ready for wider adoption (ie YoLotD, not niche MID’s/netbooks) by LTS 10.04.