If you follow tech at all (and I’m assuming you do as you're reading this), then you know that Microsoft announced last week that Windows 7 was going public with it’s beta. This was significant in that developers and ITs did not receive an advance on the beta of more than a day (MSDN and TechNet release was Thursday, while the public release was Friday). This shows that Microsoft is really looking at this OS from a user’s standpoint rather than a developer’s, hopefully meaning a better user experience while still being robust under the hood. What users should not expect is a completely new operating system. As many have said over the past few months, this is what Vista should have been. I’ve been running the actual beta version (Build 7000) for several weeks now, and my opinion of 7 only grows greater as time goes on. I’ve run 3 different builds of Windows 7 up to this point, two of which represent major milestones:
Build 6801: This was the pre-beta (alpha) release given out at PDC in September. It represented a nearly-complete, fairly stable milestone. The new taskbar was not enabled (but was unlockable, to use a game term), and several new features were not functional (Aero Peek, etc). It gave users a taste of what was coming while still garnering feedback.
Build 6956: Essentially the same as the current release, 6956 was leaked from WinHec China and gave us the first uses of Aero Peek and other advanced features.
Build 7000: The current beta, made available to the public, Build 7000 is more stable and feature-complete. This is Windows 7. This is also presumably the only beta. Microsoft is not calling this “Beta 1” or “a beta”, but “the beta”. Stability and compatibility have been made a priority, and it shows. It’s faster, more efficient, and in my opinion, more user friendly than past versions of Windows.
Features
Enhanced Taskbar: I’ve heard some people talk about how bad of an idea it was for Microsoft to change the taskbar and make it more of a “dock” than a window manager. For me, it’s much more intuitive, and I have no problem differentiating running programs from non-running programs. Perhaps that stems from my experience using OS X’s dock, but to me, it just seems more natural. Between having a few programs pinned to the taskbar (my 4 most-used: Explorer, Live Mail, Internet Explorer, and Zune) and the ones pinned to my Start Menu (Adobe CS4 Suite and Live Writer), along with the few “most used” programs populated in the Start Menu, I rarely have to dig into All Programs. In fact, I’d say that I only have to dig into the programs about once a week. I personally love the new taskbar, but there are ways to set it to a more traditional setup, for those such inclined.
Internet Explorer 8: IE8 still needs work, and this bothers me. It has been in beta for some time now, and simple things are still broken. Even in “compatibility mode” IE8 is still lacking. I can view Facebook pages, but not much more. Trying to comment or follow links within Facebook more often than not fails. Several other webpage load completely wrong, and I find myself firing up Firefox more often than I’d like to. For my job, I have to use Internet Explorer, so it is my primary browser. And I do really like some of the new features. Accelerators are really cool, and make simple tasks (like getting directions or looking something up) even easier. InPrivate Browsing made holiday shopping easier (I didn’t have to clear my history if my wife or stepkids needed the computer), and Web Slices has the potential to be really cool if it garners support.
Desktop Gadgets: While I did use the Sidebar in Vista, it was more of a novelty to me. I’m not sure why, but I actually started to utilize the desktop gadgets more when they floated around by default in Build 6801 (you could drag the gadgets out of the sidebar in Vista to duplicate this, but I never did). Perhaps it’s Aero Peek (being able to hover over a corner and see the gadgets on the desktop makes checking them easier), or perhaps I simply put more time and effort into finding the things I wanted and needed. Perhaps it’s my dedication to trying to make IE8 work for me (and thus eliminating the extensions that I use in Firefox). Whatever it is, I actually use the gadgets in an actual way rather than having a slideshow or RSS feed that I don’t really read aggregating there. This probably speaks more of my changed habits than anything Microsoft has changed (indeed, as of this recent release, when you activate a gadget, it lines it up in a “sidebar” style by default).
While Microsoft refuses to give even a vague release date (they actually said they couldn’t guarantee a 2009 release), they are easily on track to release this during the Summer, around July or August. Indeed, the beta release expires August 1st. I, and many others, expect a release candidate in about 3 months, and then another 3 months to the actual release. If you’re running the beta, I’d love to hear about your experiences. As with any software (especially an OS), mileage will vary per user based on their system. Leave a comment and tell me how it’s going!
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