Will Windows 7 save the world, solve world hunger, make peace with all nations? Of course not. However, since Vista, one might gather that Windows 7 is truely a Godsent OS. Not since Windows ME (Major Excrement) has there been as much excitement for a better OS. But I caution, hold on.
There are two very major clashing issues that have got to be considered before making the leap.
First, Windows 7 is not an upgrade to anything. It should be considered a new OS and treated as such. Does anyone remember the "upgrade" from Office 2003 to Office 2007? While it is an 'Upgrade', users had to relearn many of the common tasks. This alone caused consternation in the user community. While many users will learn and adapt, the power users, who knew all the shortcuts things to do things quickly, suddenly found themselves having to take more time to learn the new features. With Windows 7, know that you are going to have to learn it all over again. Maybe this is the perfect time to switch to Linux Desktop?
Second, 64 bit processing. This is HUGE. Not since windows 95 where we went from 16 bit to native 32bit processing has there been such a change. For the past 15 years, programmers have been programming all their software to function in the win32 bit environment (save a few early adoptors and linux heads). Now, ALL applications on the face of the planet, all drivers, all EVERYTHING pertaining to the desktop has to be rewritten. This is not going to happen overnight, nor is it ever going to go smoothly. This is one the the big issues with Vista64. Not many software vendors got ready for it, so, WE HAD PROBLEMS, (understatement even in all caps).
So, Microsoft gave the hardware vendors a big sloppy kiss. If you decide that you want Windows 7 plan on new hardware. "But I just purchased this computer 2 years ago." SO FREAKING WHAT! Microsoft and the hardware vendors have teamed up to give you and OS that requires so much more hardware.
Well, maybe I am stretching it a bit. Will your 2 year old hardware really work? Probably. Will it work well? Not for me it didn't. I had a 1 year old computer running Vista 64. I upgraded to Windows 7, ick.
PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE HOME PREMIUM VERSION
One nice feature that you get with Professional and Ultimate that is NOT in the home version is "XP Mode" You have to download and install XP Mode but it will allow those applications that have not been written for Vista or Windows 7 to run.
Now the XP mode is really cool. It is really giving you the ability to virtualize applications. Maybe I'll talk about this another day.
Tom
