(GX) Saurav's Blog

Few days ago Microsoft announced that Windows 7 has gone RTM & select beta testers; TechNet & MSDN subscribers will get it as soon as August 6th. Apple few months ago in WWDC said Windows 7 is just same old technology as Windows Vista which is bad but even though Snow Leopard is same old technology as Leopard like what Microsoft did, its good…. well, here is the thing Apple, Microsoft played a gamble with Windows Vista & now they have won it.

Windows XP was using Windows NT technology when it was released but to move Windows in 21st century & to make a good foundation for future version of Windows, Microsoft needed a new technology, new architecture for Windows while still maintaining backward compatibility with Windows XP era application. Microsoft played a gamble with Windows Vista due to which they released many new technologies, architecture etc. which did break backward compatibility but it in a way paved the path for Windows 7.

If it was Windows 7 with which MS was releasing new technologies then Windows 7 would have had the fate like that of Vista. With Vista Microsoft gave us developers new API like WPF, WCF, WWF, DirectX 10, X-Audio etc. which wasn’t liked much when Vista released as the low end hardware at that time was not capable enough to run Vista, it was Windows XP centric.

64bit Computing & Hardware

Microsoft increased awareness about 64bit computing with Vista 64bit edition, people also started upgrading to more than 3 GB RAM for which 64bit computing is required & today after 3 years, all CPUs in the market are 64bit capable, they can run 64bit version of Windows which brings more stability, more RAM support & ability to do more work at ones. This just increases the efficiency of our current hardware. All the hardware purchased in the last 2 years need no upgrade to run Windows 7. It is highly optimized form of Vista & Microsoft won the gamble that today most of the PCs in the world have more than enough power to run Windows 7 without any upgrade which is essential considering the current economic crisis all over the world.

DirectX 10 & GPGPU

Microsoft re-created a large part of DirectX with DirectX 10 & released WDDM Driver model which bought much more stability even to the third party drivers which are the biggest reason of Windows BSODs. Microsoft also gave developers the ability to use the graphics card to use as a GPGPU which can assist CPU in tasks because a GPU is also like a big CPU but only for graphics. This wasn’t possible with DirectX 9 so the large re-write & no compatibility with Windows XP did make some people mad at Microsoft but Microsoft wasn’t thinking about short term gains, they had long term gains in mind. Now 3 years later, today, GPGPU is a common term. AMD & nVidia have their support in the form of CUDA & Stream API. Almost all new games use DirectX 10 which also makes them easy to port to XBOX 360, doubling the market reach. Again, a gamble MS played by not providing support for Windows XP but it won the gamble today with Windows 7 as now even onboard graphics support DirectX 10 hence GPGPU capability & enhanced stability.

Hardware Industry

With Vista & Aero, Microsoft forced GPU manufacturers to support DirectX 9 at the bare minimum in there onboard graphics too. Now, nVidia & ATI are the big dogs in GPU industry but enterprise & casual users don’t usually buy separate graphics card, they rely on onboard video which was arcane in form of Intel Extreme Graphics. For the first time in years, Intel started providing Intel GMA 950 with full DirectX 9 support, which had sufficient power to run Windows Vista & Aero but wasn’t enough to play games though this isn’t what Microsoft was aiming. If you are an avid gamer, you will sure buy a separate graphics card but if you are a casual user then Onboard graphics will also suffice. nVidia & then ATI (now AMD) also started giving powerful onboard graphics & 3 years later, today, even the low-end onboard graphics found in motherboards is enough to run full 1080p HD Videos, Aero & even casual gaming.

HD Audio

With X-Audio, Microsoft broke the monopoly of Creative & it’s EAX from the Sound Industry. Now HD Audio which was created in alliance with Intel & Microsoft rules the consumer PC industry & only some high end users & audiophiles buy Creative’s Sound cards as Onboard HD Audio provides better Value for money, features & stability instead of Creative. There is no point in buying another sound card when the onboard APU is enough to provide 32bit, multi-channel audio while Creative X-Fi is still 24bit. Since X-Audio is all in software, it can do wonders. Never doubt the power of software :-p

New API

Microsoft introduced WPF for Application development instead of GDI+. WPF is all C# managed code based due to which there are low memory leaks, large audience as .Net CLR is also available as open source & it is also supported on Linux with Mono, etc. When Vista came the 3rd party developers had a choice, either support the arcane Windows XP model of software development or slowly switch to C# & WPF. Many of the companies did this & after 3 years, a large market is there with .net based application for Windows Vista. Not only the 3rd party developers got certification for Vista, but they were also exposed to new technologies only available to Vista. They used the technology & 3 years later… many applications are using the new technologies provided by Vista so when Windows 7 is coming, the devs don’t have to do anything much. Their application is already Windows 7 compatible since a long time. Microsoft made developers update their code for Vista, it gave them 3 years to do it & with Windows 7, everything is already ready at launch.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft was lacking behind in terms of web technology support with Internet Explorer & they are also facing a silly lawsuit by E.C. & Opera. Well, Microsoft just listened to the customers & made IE 8 with much better support for current CSS & HTML technologies & a multi-process engine which later on even Google Chrome copied, followed by Firefox. If you hate a product due to lack of features, you won’t use it. But if all the flaws are fixed & it does what you want it to do the way you want it to do… will you still not use it or will you still act like a Firefox or Safari Fan boy. Internet Explorer 9 is going to be completely new HTML engine based with full support for HTML 5 if HTML 5 gets standardized before IE 9 is released but judging by the situation today, IE 8 will be able to hold for a long time as HTML 5 is not coming anytime soon. Though I myself wish it comes quickly.

Windows Live Services

Microsoft also changed their application bundling model with Windows 7. Windows 7 no longer comes with Windows Mail or Calendar, cos it doesn’t need to as Microsoft already develops them in form of Windows Live. Now, if a user doesn’t want to use Windows Mail, it’s not there at all. He can very well use Thunderbird or something else or install Windows Live Essential pack to get all those apps he might be missing. Now, no one can sue Microsoft by saying it is a Monopoly & since Windows Mail is inbuilt, no one uses XYZ E-Mail client. Consumers have a choice, either use whatever you want… or if you are unaware.. There is a link in Welcome center of Windows 7 informing them about Windows Live services.

Security

All those people who say Windows get virus, well… it’s been 3 years I am using my PC without any antivirus suite & there is no problem so far. I don’t even use Windows defender, but then again… not everyone is a power user so for them, Microsoft is releasing “Codename Morrow”, a free anti-virus suite from Microsoft which will sure come under Windows Live brand when released. Like I said previously, if you hate a product due to lack of features then you won’t use it. But if all the flaws are fixed & it does what you want it to do the way you want it to do… will you still not use it or will you still act like a Fan boy.

Microsoft also faced some stiff completion, Lies & Lawsuits but one thing I like about Steve Ballmer’s administration is that now Microsoft is listening to what people are saying. If it wasn’t for this, Windows 7 wouldn’t get this much overhaul in performance, UI & UX.

One of the biggest reason of Apple users making fun of Windows users is that Apple has a better UI. Well, guess what…. the Superbar One ups the Dock in every way. Windows navigation with Superbar is so better than even Apple copied Dock expose from Window’s Aero Peak. Apple even copied GPGPU in form of OpenCL but no one will blame them… it’s just cool hating Microsoft even if you don’t have a reason to hate.

In my workplace we use Windows, Mac & Linux. All the people who use the OS know how to use it so they are comfortable with it, we have no reason to hate the other OS cos we know at the end of the day, whatever gets your work done is the best thing.

Mojave experiment proved that many people hated Vista, didn’t like it just cos someone told them this. How can you hate something when you have never tried it? Sure with Vista Microsoft gave a new UI for explorer etc. but 3 years later, that UI is common & people using Windows 7 won’t be feeling new. They have been using & working on similar environment since 3 years. That Vista’s UI is now old & generic.

Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been but it’s a wrong saying. If it wasn’t for Windows Vista & its success/failure… Windows 7 would not exist in such a successful form as it is today.