Windows 7 Released Early In UK 194
CNETNate writes "UK customers have been reporting that they received their copies of Windows 7 in the mail today. Currently the British postal service is threatening industrial action over pay, and planned walkouts may result in Windows 7 not being delivered on its release date. It is understood that Microsoft has agreed to let some retailers send out copies early to avoid disappointment, and to make the UK the first country in the world to have Windows 7 in customers' hands."
Netherlands was first (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:4, Interesting)
"How is that a benefit?"
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but some people have to use windows, in spite of the fact that they hate it. Anyone who has had the misfortune to suffer with Vista will now be rejoicing that windows 7, which pretty much amounts to a bugfix version of vista with the added bonus of a taskbar which almost makes sense, a graphics driver that might actually work, the ability to boot in under 20 minutes, and all in an operating system where the beta version I've been running for the last couple of months was actually more stable than the officially released crock of arse that was vista.
This all contributes to removing some of the pain from the occasions where I have to select the "other" option in grub.
That said, I won't be inviting my friends round for a release party. Sorry.
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:2, Interesting)
It might depend on what you've been using up to this point. It is *arguable* that if you've been using Windows Vista (perhaps because you bought a new computer that came with it and didn't bother to install anything else yet), Windows 7 might be an improvement.
I personally am not convinced of this. I think the gratuitous UI weirdness in 7, and the inability to turn off some of the unwanted new features, makes it worse than Vista. For instance, why would you want your quicklaunch icons to move around all over the taskbar every time you open or close a window? To me that's a usability disaster.
But many people disagree with me. If you look around on the internet, it's not hard at all to find people claiming that Windows 7 is *vastly* superior to Vista.
And ultimately it doesn't really matter that much what *I* think about 7, because the chances of my ever switching my main workstation to any version of Windows are negligible anyhow. I place too much value on the ability to customize my system and get it working exactly the way I like, and Windows has never been any good for that.
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:5, Interesting)
And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but some of us use Windows because we like it. I ran Linux on my desktop for a couple of years and moved back to Windows around SP1 of XP; I simply prefer it.
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:3, Interesting)
Why if the UK Post Office goes on strike, and nobody notices, because UPS, FedEx, and other private companies (plus email) fill the gap? It would be ironic if the Government Strike proves that the government-run service is no longer needed.
Hmmmm.
I hope the U.S. Post Office goes on strike next. Who need them? Not me.