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Deep inside the Windows 7 Public Beta: an in-depth tour

Let’s just cut to the chase here: Windows 7 is built on top of Windows Vista. It doesn’t roll back the major changes that Vista made; it doesn’t reduce system requirements (for example, it still needs Direct3D graphics and 1 GB RAM to be worthwhile), it doesn’t undo security decisions like UAC, and, except for specific scenarios like booting, it doesn’t really perform significantly better. If you have software or hardware that’s incompatible with Vista, it’ll almost certainly be incompatible with Windows 7 too. The things Redmond did in Vista were not mistakes to be rectified; they were necessary upgrades to the platform.

[…]

That said, Windows 7 does bring some low-level improvements of its own. The graphics driver model has been updated, resulting in markedly lower memory consumption when lots of windows are open. ZDNet performed some benchmarks which purport to show Windows 7 being faster than XP SP3 and Vista SP1 (they also show Vista being faster than XP in a number of tests, but of course, no one cares about that…), but the differences in most cases are pretty slight (10% or less) and so are unlikely to be felt in practice. However, the main thing is that even if it’s not noticeably faster than Vista, Windows 7 also isn’t any slower. The new features all come at zero performance cost, and that can only be a good thing.

via Deep inside the Windows 7 Public Beta: an in-depth tour.

This approaches an antique-level of age, but it’s still something to think about if you haven’t made the switch. Do you really want to be stuck with using an operating system that’s almost TEN years old? I bet you’ve even upgraded your hardware within that time – why not the software, then?

This post is tagged “awesome” for a reason, you know 😉

A message to the Internets regarding the iPad

Today Apple announced the iPad. Amazingly it did not fulfill every expectation that was floating out there. Most importantly, it does not fulfill every, specific desire you have and expected. The rumor machine of tech web sites promised you so much more.

Oh noes.

Let me explain it clearly and talk you off the ledge before you go and do something stupid.

Remember way back to January 2007, when the iPhone was announced? Oh Internets, you wailed and gnashed your teeth endlessly. No 3G network? No MMS? No apps on the iPhone? No replaceable battery? Oh, your complaints were endless. You were sure that the iPhone was doomed because it didn’t meet all your requirements.

And what happened? Well, Apple has sold 40 million iPhones. FORTY MILLION. They have become the largest mobile device company in the world.

So today, you moan on and on about all the features you expected and demand in the iPad. What no Verizon? No two-way camera? It’s not weightless? A full half inch thick? Only 10 hours of battery life? You make tons of predictions on the success and failure with scant details and without ever actually trying one.

via Cruft: A message to the Internets regarding the iPad.

You’ll forgive me that this is a little old – what was being said then still applies now, on the verge of the US launch of the iPad.