Michael Dell Says Windows 7 Will Make You Love PCs 627
ruphus13 writes "In a recent talk at the Churchill Club, Michael Dell addressed several topics, including the fact that Windows 7 is poised to take advantage of the upgrade cycle. Dell has always been a strong MS OEM ally and it is now hoping to cash in again from the impending upgrades. From the post: 'Dell made plain several times that he sees the installed base of technology as very old, and sees a coming "refresh cycle" for which he has high hopes. "The latest generation of chips from Intel is strong, particularly Nehalem," he said, adding, "and Windows 7 is on its way." (The operating system arrives Oct. 22nd, although Microsoft's large-volume licensees are already getting it.) He pointed out that many business are running Windows XP, which is eight years old. "I've been using Windows 7 for a long time now," he said, "and if you get the latest processor technology and Office 2010 with it, you will love your PC again. It's a dramatic improvement."'"
Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, right. (Score:5, Interesting)
It is a well know fact that Michael Dell uses Ubuntu exclusively at home, and only trots out the pro-Windows stance when paid to by Microsoft, so none of this should be taken seriously. Not that anyone sensible would take anyone saying 'Windows is good!' seriously.
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:5, Insightful)
As various searches reveal that in 2007 he was using Ubuntu, the "long time now" must mean gosh, what, using Windows 7 a couple of years? Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "early release".
Seem disingenuous.
Dell needs a good quarter, folks. Those nasty guys on Wall Street will be all over them if they don't squeeze out a good quarter to make Dell look good against Acer. Or not.
And computer companies wonder why their credibility is so dubious.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I've got of few of those neat Bicentennial quarters they made thirty years back. Would one of those do?
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:5, Funny)
[Chris flips Dell a shiny quarter]
"Here's a quarter boy, go buy yourself a real computer."
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:5, Insightful)
As various searches reveal that in 2007 he was using Ubuntu, the "long time now" must mean gosh, what, using Windows 7 a couple of years? Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "early release".
Seem disingenuous.
Dell needs a good quarter, folks. Those nasty guys on Wall Street will be all over them if they don't squeeze out a good quarter to make Dell look good against Acer. Or not.
And computer companies wonder why their credibility is so dubious.
Either way what Michael Dell says as the CEO of Dell doesn't reflect his personal opinion, just like any other CEO, or anybody working within management, your professional opinion can be in complete contrast to your personal opinion. What he's proposing (that everybody upgrade to Win7, and hopefully with that also buy new shiny Dell PCs) is something that will benefit his business, and he would be the worlds shittiest CEO if he didn't. So basically this means nothing other than the fact that Dell also wishes to make profit on Windows 7.
Also something noteworthy is that the life situation of Michael Dell, as a multibillionare, is very different from the vast majority; thus whatever Michael Dell chooses will most likely not reflect what's best for you as an average income consumer.
Even though the ape in us wants to try to mimic the decisions of the successful, it can sometimes be difficult to understand why mimicing isolated decisions is more likely to do you harm than good.
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or some marketing droid wrote that statement for him. I remember similar crap mouthed by various computer company CEO's about Vista.
Windows 7 is, fundamentally, just Vista SP2. There's a little less in the way of "you need to confirm access to continue" screen nagware, and the hardware requirements are about the same as Vista. The only reason it's not getting panned as a resource hog is that Vista only ran well on almost "bleeding edge" hardware, and 2.5 years later that's "hey it runs well on a couple year old sytem."
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:5, Funny)
Kindergarten level arithmetics would suggest (Score:5, Funny)
SP3
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a friend who is handicapped and partially paralyzed and to her usability is the key when using computers. Also she doesn't have that much money as she cannot work. Windows 7 gave her 6 year old PC running a Northwood Pentium IV a new lease on life, all the hardware properly detected.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That was Vista's worst crime as far as I'm concerned. Listing system requirements when in reality what was needed was the "Certified for Windows Vista" sticker instead of the infamous "Vista Capable" sticker. But, you couldn't just tell people to look for the sticker, because they're just going to look for a sticker that says "Vista". And you really couldn't tell people to go by the system requirements for an upgrade either (I did and the system is a dog). Point blank, there is absolutely no reason to put V
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:4, Interesting)
The only reason it's not getting panned as a resource hog is that Vista only ran well on almost "bleeding edge" hardware, and 2.5 years later that's "hey it runs well on a couple year old sytem."
Runs smoothly (with aero etc off of course) on my 7-year-old barebones computer I never got around to throwing away, and on my gaming PC it runs just as fast as linux did. Well, it feels as fast, anyway.
:D) and some of the UI improvements are pretty nifty! But then again I'm a gamer so I need a windows-based PC, so I suppose I'd be a bit biased.
I rather like it, myself. It's got the very few features I liked about vista (sound mixer!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, the file browser is probably the worst usability aspect of Vista.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Does Windows 7 have those "senior moments" like Vista where it will just get non responsive for like 5-15 seconds, just long enough to piss you off?
No. That's why it's better than Vista.
How about networking, does it still slow to a crawl if you watch videos or listen to music while transferring files?
No. That's why it's better than Vista.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"Does Windows 7 have those "senior moments" like Vista where it will just get non responsive for like 5-15 seconds, just long enough to piss you off? How about networking, does it still slow to a crawl if you watch videos or listen to music while transferring files?"
I've been using 7 since the RC was made public and the answer to both those questions is no.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Apparently: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going+Deep/Mark-Russinovich-Inside-Windows-7/ [msdn.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Either way what Michael Dell says as the CEO of Dell doesn't reflect his personal opinion, just like any other CEO, or anybody working within management, your professional opinion can be in complete contrast to your personal opinion.
But when someone's "professional" opinion doesn't match their personal opinion, neither opinion is worth shit.
If he's trying to tell us how good Windows 7 is, when he won't even run it himself, that takes *all* of the legitimacy out of his statement.
Also something noteworthy is that the life situation of Michael Dell, as a multibillionare, is very different from the vast majority; thus whatever Michael Dell chooses will most likely not reflect what's best for you as an average income consumer.
There are "rich people" cars and "rich people" vacation packages and "rich people" clothes, etc., but there isn't a "rich people" OS.
There aren't even "rich people" computers. There are high end PCs and Mac Pros, but these are just expensive variants of their ch
Re:What's the point, then? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's the point of saying anything as the CEO of a company when everyone who listens is thinking "yes, this is just him talking as the company, so well biased"?
Those who would slavishly follow what the COMPANY wants anyway will listen but there was no need to say something in that case. And everyone else will consider the source and ignore it.
So if what the CEO says is always and necessarily expected to be not his personal opinion but what the current incumbent of the CEO post of that company would say to make that company profits, there's no point talking at all.
You're making the fatal mistake of assuming that people are clever and source critical. You can easily manipulate people into doing whatever by saying the right thing at the right time. [slashdot.org] All you need to do is to play on their pride and ignorance.
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:4, Interesting)
Then they need to stop making crap and go back to quality. High priced Studio laptops are built like low grade toys, the keyboards squeak and a host of other problems of flimsy... how about the screen hinge screws backing out making the screen floppy...
Sorry but dell quality has tanked HARD in the past 4 years. If I'm going to drop over $1200.00 on a laptop it will not be a dell anymore, I want at least some semblance of quality at that price or over...
Windows 7 will make you love your PC IF you ran vista. Most everyone that I know t hat runs XP looked at it on my laptop and said, "Nahh, XP works for me." They will still have a hard sell.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Yeah, right. (Score:5, Interesting)
Dell screwed up, big time, and now they're in a deep hole. In the 90's, I was influential in steering 3 companies to being all Dell houses. It was fun. Someone would ask why we should pay more for a Dell, and I could demonstrate what happens when I called support. I'd call Microsoft for a question about Power Point first... it's always fun being ridiculed by a moron, which is all the support Microsoft offers for us peons who only own hundreds of their licenses. Then, I'd call Dell for the same question about Power Point (or whatever Microsoft product was pissing me off that day). Dell support would say, "That's really a question for Microsoft, and we don't technically offer support in cases like this. However, the answer to your question is ..."
Dell support was awesome. Then, during the off-shoring mania that swept boardrooms across the country in 2001, Dell fired all their on-shore support and routed our calls to guys in India who make Microsoft's support look good. Sure, Dell has dropped their prices a ton since then, but what matters having productive employees, not saving $100 on their laptop. Dell went the other way - super cheap, low margins, undercutting everyone else, offering crap support. The machines are still pretty good, and lately they've offered "Gold support" on all their products. What morons... don't they know how hard it is to convince your boss to pay $300 for a support contract on an $800 computer? HP went the other way, only offering good support, at higher prices. The difference - happy customers. A couple years ago, my boss overrode my support for Dell, and now all our high-end servers are HP. They're great machines, with incredible support, and we buy them, even though they cost 2X over Dell's.
Re: (Score:3)
In the end, there is a real price and value paid. It's possible to shave pennies, but the long term ownership cost is skewed when the sales guy on the golf course low-balls the competition. Stuff costs money; good stuff costs good money.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I can't complain about their consumer support too much. The key
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I look at Windows 7 in this way: do I prefer Windows 7 to be a hit and make MS some money (deserved or not), or for it to fail and having me still be supporting IE6 in Web Apps for decades?
To me, this means: Windows 7 is tah bezt software EvaR!!
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Try moving your finger lower and a little bit to the left, and maybe somewhat faster? Oh wait, you said narcissistic. Oops, my bad; nevermind.
Re:Hmm... (Score:4, Funny)
I agree, I prefer my love-interests to be NPC's too.
Re:Hmm... (Score:4, Interesting)
I would agree. A computer is just that a computer. The same thing with the OS. It is just a bunch of instructions for the computer. I have a Mac, it is a nice tool for me it does what I need it to do for the most part. I don't expect to switch in the near future... However I could and would if I find that it is no longer the tool that I need to do my work. I have done switches in the past.
1987 - 1994 I used MS DOS with some windows 3.1 as a toy. By 1993 I had Desqview running on dos as I needed better Multi-tasking support.
1994 - 1999 I primarily used Linux as I had the need for really good multi-tasking (DOS, Windows 3.1 and Desqview didn't cut it)
1999 - 2002 I primarily used Solaris as I needed a rock solid system. That can handle high load gracefully
2002 - Current I primarily use OS X as I am doing more "professional" work, So I needed something slightly more Microsoft friendly but still have many of the Unix advantages.
Now what will the future hold... I don't know. Right now the Mac does what I need it do. But for the future who knows. Perhaps Ill use Plan-9 or Android, Maybe even Windows.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
In case you're reading, your .sig is missing a 't' in the second function.
[John]
Further proof that even if computers attain perfection, people will always find a way to screw things up. And then blame it on the computer.
Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been using Windows 7 for a long time now, and if you get the latest processor technology and Office 2010 with it, you will love your PC again. It's a dramatic improvement.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Full - Retail [newegg.com]: $299.99
Cheapest Nehalem Processor [newegg.com]: $279.99
(note, can't buy Office 2010 yet)
Latest Office 20xx [microsoft.com]: $399.95
Total: $979.93
So Michael Dell, the CEO of the company that is the largest dealer of PCs to businesses and individuals, suggests you opt for the extra grand in order to 'love your PC again.' You don't say. I would be shocked if anyone was willing to fork over more than $900 for an entire computer these days. How am I to differentiate this from any salesman saying, "Buy the most expensive one for the best experience."
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:4, Insightful)
I was wondering how many posts I would have to read before someone suggested a Mac. It didnt't take long.
If PCs are going to cost the same as a Mac, they will have a steep hill to climb. The Mac user experience is vastly different than XP and Vista. So much so, that people who switched are not going back to MS anytime soon. Without the cost advantage, Windows 7 will have to be on par with OS X. Not impossible for MS to do, but improving on XP and Vista is not even the downpayment on the level of improvement needed to compete with OS X.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Interesting)
The Mac user experience is vastly different than XP and Vista. So much so, that people who switched are not going back to MS anytime soon.
I tried switching. I bought a mac. And I don't like it. (For many reasons, which I won't whine about here). That very different user experience just didn't work for me. So just this week I'm selling my mac and switching to a machine running Windows 7. I like it better than OS X.
Not that most people are like me (and I know one example proves nothing), but I'm the counter-example to your claim, who is happy to switch back.
(Of course, also in consideration is that windows 7 actually runs quite well NOT on new top-of-the-line hardware. I'm running it on a netbook and it's chugging along quite happily.)
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
So just this week I'm selling my mac and switching to a machine running Windows 7. I like it better than OS X.
You know you can install Windows on a Mac, right?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
For that kind of money I might as well get an Amiga.
Actually no, I'll stick with a PC.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Informative)
Why buy Office 2008 when it's crippled and buggy on the Mac? Might as well spend $60 for iWork '09. For occasional use, it seems that Open Office 3 runs many of the macros, but any more usage than that and you'll start having problems and using your work.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course he'll say that, but your price comparison is unfair. A Dell package of oem software/hardware will certainly be cheaper than you are suggesting.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Funny)
Mac is like a really expensive whore; Windows is like a street walker who might not have had been tested for STDs recently, Ubuntu is that nerdy chick who bought YOU a drink.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Funny)
Ubuntu is that nerdy chick who bought YOU a drink.
But only other nerds really have a chance with her.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
Ubuntu is that nerdy chick who bought YOU a drink.
But only other nerds really have a chance with her.
Give here enough attention and anything is possible. And I mean anything.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Gee, thanks a lot. I now feel dirty every time I type "sudo".
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Funny)
Windows is like your wife who is on the city council and is getting a spa make-over
And yet she keeps gaining weight, and you wish she'd hit the gym instead.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:4, Funny)
Indeed. One way or another, almost everybody is paying for it (at least from the male perspective). I've never understood how dropping $150 on a casual date and getting laid is regarded as morally superior to dropping $150 on a hooker.
It's also kinda funny regarding what people will do depending on the money. I'm paraphrasing this old story, but it basically has a distinguished gentleman at a nice party who is casually talking with a very prim and proper lady. Basically goes:
Guy: "Miss - I was wondering as a matter of curiosity, would you be willing to go to bed with me for $100 million?"
Woman: "Well sir, I believe that I would."
Guy: "Indeed. Would you consider going to bed with me for $20?"
Woman: "OF COURSE NOT!!!! WHAT TYPE OF GIRL DO YOU THINK I AM?"
Guy: "I think we've already established what type of girl you are. Now we're just negotiating price."
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Funny)
"Winston, if you were my husband I'd poison your tea."
"Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
XP wasn't long-lived because they wanted it, but because they bungled Longhorn - also, by your logic, it was a 2k service pack.
Re: (Score:2)
For starters, you can get an i7 920 processor for $200 from certain stores. You can also get an i5 750 for even cheaper.
>I would be shocked if anyone was willing to fork over more than $900 for an entire computer these days.
Prepare to be shocked, I spent $2300 for my latest desktop 3 months ago which I built myself. The Core i7 LGA-1366 processors have also been fairly popular amongst enthusiasts since they were released.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Cheapest Nehalem Processor [newegg.com]: $199.99
Latest Office 20xx [newegg.com]: $119.99
Total : $459.97
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
Those options are nice if you fulfill the requirements of the Office student license and the OEM System Builder License. I don't see how they are relevant generally -- if you are arguing that the licenses aren't important... well you could just get a cracked copy off bittorrent and say the total price is $199.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:4, Insightful)
>Microsoft Windows 7 Professional [newegg.com] $139.99
>Cheapest Nehalem Processor [newegg.com]: $199.99
>Latest Office 20xx [newegg.com]: $119.99
>Total : $459.97
"Upgrade Kit" with box, motherboard, modest AMD64 Athlonx2 processor, blank hard disk and basic HD2400 ATI video card - $225.
Kubuntu 9.10 LiveCD with KDE 4.3, Firefox 3.5.3, OpenOffice 3.1.1, Amarok, VLC and a full suite of desktop applications: - $0.
Total: $225.
Far more functionality out of the box, no requirement to agree to any conditions, far better performance and half the price.
Later this year ... upgrade the kernel to 2.6.32 and get a 3D video driver. All the fancy desktop bling you could possibly want. Sweet.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:4, Insightful)
Contrary to slashdot beliefs, the majority of people don't know or want to use Photoshop, nor play Crysis. Do you think all those netbooks and cheap desktops are being sold for graphic designers or gamers?
Besides, even if you buy Windows, do you really expect to play Crysis on a HD2400?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> Do you think all those netbooks and cheap desktops are being sold for graphic designers or gamers?
No, they're being sold to Slashdot users who'd never be content to endure the limits of a laptop as their "real" computer (last I checked, there's no quadcore 3GHz i7 available for notebooks), but will happily throw down a few hundred bucks for a decent semi-throwaway netbook to use on weekend trips and other occasional situations where it's nice to have.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How am I to differentiate this from any salesman saying, "Buy the most expensive one for the best experience."
You can't. This is a complete shill-job by Mike Dell, and while I can't blame him and I'd do precisely the same thing in his place, this article is not news, it's advertising.
Do I detect the delectable odor of some potted meat product in a can? Why yes, yes I do.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:5, Insightful)
The stupidity is that Windows 7 is actually looking quite good. And then they pull the sort of stupid marketing stunts that you'd only be driven to if it were crap, making them look desperate.
That said, good or not, Windows 7 is over-priced. Lots of people might want it, but they wont pay hundreds of dollars for it. About $60 - 70 and it would fly off the shelves. Most will not upgrade but just wait until they pick it up with a new PC (which could be a long time for us build-our-own types).
Pricing & piracy (Score:4, Insightful)
OK, MS dumps millions -- tens, maybe over a hundred million, anyone? -- into antipiracy efforts for Windows 7. I'm talking direct work on Win7 to stop piracy (activation codes, backend infrastructure, employees, coding specific to Win7, etc).
We know it won't stop piracy, although we don't know if it will slow it. And then they turn around and price the product at outrageous prices, which only serves to punish and/or discourage the users who would purchase it and encourage fence sitters and experimenters to pirate it.
Why not price it much more generously and make it "one" product versus many, with installation options for multimedia, and make "home" a mode or something?
I'm thinking single copies at maybe $50 and five license packs for $150. I think they would probably sell more, and in the long run probably *make* more versus dumping a ton of money into antipiracy efforts and then pricing it sky high.
Re:Pricing & piracy (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll offer two (devoid of any actual insider insight - but there's a long tradition of that in not only the Internet, but the printed word) theories:
Some executive at Microsoft made a name for themselves (and thus a career play) by putting together some really nice slides showing how much money Microsoft can make by "monetizing" all the "pirated" copies of their software. This would fly as the culture of Microsoft drifts further and further away from it's old technical base and the reigns are held more by bean counters. That message would also find more fertile ground as Microsoft's numbers start taking hits due to economic changes and market saturation.
Another, even wilder, theory is propaganda. Microsoft is fighting the perception that the OS is a commodity. Once the OS becomes a interchangeable layer, a lot of the lock-in strategy that's prevalent in Microsoft's products starts to fall apart. "Piracy" once played in to Microsoft's strategy of ubiquity. Illegal copies were helping push market share which put critical weight behind Microsoft's products (which might not been a deliberate tactic, but if it's not broken, why fix it). But as the market has changed, we have this push to commoditize the next layer of computing: the OS. Microsoft is not keen to become the next IBM. So they need to ensure people don't see Windows as this freebie thing you toss on a machine but rather one of the points to having that machine. So even if they know their anti-piracy measures won't stop "piracy", they don't care so long as it provides a way to introduce the idea that Windows has special value; people have a very different attitudes depending on perceived value.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:4, Insightful)
That people aren't comfortable with Linux isn't Linux's fault. The KDE and Gnome projects have bent over backwards to make things accessible with a minimum of effort and the Ubuntu distro has made enormous strides in making Linux something easy to find, install and keep up to date (building on Debian, naturally). Basically, Linux's part of the bargain is complete. Sure, we need to keep up with the latest hardware and such, but you can't really ask for anything more in terms of accessibility. If someone doesn't want to stay on XP and doesn't like Windows 7, then they're going to have to either buy a Mac or accept that they need to spend a few hours one evening clicking buttons and learning how to use Ubuntu or whatever.
If you want to approach life in a negative frame of mind, then everything is a "least of all evils kind of thing". If Microsoft have the "least of all evils" on their hands, then they're onto a winner. They don't for me because I'm happy enough with Linux and whilst I would buy Windows 7 just to play around with and develop for, the price is way above my price point.
Re:Balance Sheet (Score:4, Informative)
But you know, that (almost) nobody is buying this stuff at full boxed retail price. The OEM license for Dell will be around $50-70 for customers, the hardware is bought in big unit counts too, and gets appropriate discount, so the PC's will go somewhere between $600 - 1200 depending on some other factors like graphics, RAM and HDD models/capacities and branding.
Not many people MS Office boxed version. Most private people will pirate it (and Microsoft is actually more happy about it then if they would use alternatives like OOo). Many will also go legal and use OOo or get a copy from the company they are working for.
Businesses will go volume license, and the package of software / seat will also circle around $200 - $400.
That said, I'll still continue to use Ubuntu + OOo + other open source software. I also build my PC's myself, so I get the best fitting solution and opt out of the MS tax (and be it just because of the principle, though the financial aspect is also counting). Considering the current economic downturn (and the fallout that is following as we speak), more businesses are and will also go a more open source way, though not the majority and many only partially (i.e. Windows 7 + OOo).
One thing is true though, the Win 7 (re-branded Vista) will increase sales of PC's for a little time, especially since Christmas is approaching.
re: shocked? (Score:5, Insightful)
Really?
When you consider that way back in the 1980's, people were shelling out upwards of $2000 for a new computer, what makes you think it's so "shocking" that people would still pay over $1000 for a new system in today's dollars?
Although the market has been flooded with "entry level" systems starting as low as $300 or so, that doesn't mean everyone has decided there's no reason to spend more. And although I realize the cheap PCs have been great from a standpoint in getting more people on-board with using a computer at home, they've also resulted in lower standards across the board. I, for one, am tired of the garbage that passes for a power supply out there. You've got the same problem as cheap, imported car and home stereo equipment, where the wattage ratings mean nothing. I can remember when you could pull a power supply out of one of the original IBM AT machines and it might say something really low, by today's standards, like an 85 watt rating. Yet you could add a bunch of power splitters to the thing and hook it up to a FAR more modern system that needed at least a 250 watt power supply to run, and it would still power it! These days, you get power supplies with a 450 or 500 watt rating that conk out if they're asked to output more than about HALF of that rating!
I'm equally tired of the way manufacturers cut corners on things like cooling fans (cheap sleeve bearings, so the fan quits spinning after a year or two, risking destroying far more expensive components), or sourcing the cheapest motherboards they can find that have the ports and connectors they require. (Again, where's the real savings when your new machine gets flaky and starts refusing to power up half the time, risking all your important data?)
All of this (and shoddy software!) are reasons I've been "loving my PC" for years now by switching to higher-end Macs. Yep, they cost more.... a lot more in the case of the Mac Pro. But I've had practically NO headaches or hardware issues. (My first Macbook Pro portable did arrive DOA, but it was swapped immediately and its replacement worked great. Even there though, the things were shipping direct from a factory in China. Back when people were conditioned to pay more for computers, all the way around, these things would have still been assembled and QA tested here in the USA.)
I personally doubt it (Score:5, Funny)
All my Dell boxes run Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
All my Dell boxes run Linux.
My thinkpad runs linux.
My HP servers run linux.
My home put together from parts system runs linux.
If dell want my business they are going to have to start making better hardware.
Not if you have a Vostro (Score:3, Informative)
It seems if you run a Vostro (like me) Windows 7 might not be your friend if you want your touchpad and video card to work.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprohardware/thread/cf9bc301-e3c2-4c5b-b9cd-9eab8582f45f
Or maybe they will fix it in the next week, but I doubt it.
Can somebody tell me why? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
For a /. geek, what does Windows 7 have that's *really* useful/desired/cool vs. Windows XP? Not trolling, just haven't had the time to install it/play with it yet.
It's newer and less awful than vista. But it's still really NT with an updated interface and some new bits glued to the side.
Re: (Score:2)
It's newer and less awful than vista. But it's still really NT with an updated interface and some new bits glued to the side.
So pretty much the same as any other OS upgrade. Nothing special.
Honestly, I'm expecting Windows 7 to fall on its face the same way Vista did. I think over the past 15 years people have become tired of buying new computers and the upgrade cycle has slowed down.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you shills actually think checkbox marketing is going to fly with this crowd?
I doubt they do, but they have to try anyway. After all thats what they are paid to do.
Slashdot needs some kind of filter to get rid of Microsoft marketing drones.
Re:Can somebody tell me why? (Score:5, Funny)
It's just better.
I upgraded to windows 7 pro about a month ago (through MSDNAA) and I've even stopped using linux at home.
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, for home? The power management is more customizable, the mac taskbar is nice, and it looks pretty. You also get Media Center functionality on Home Premium or Ultimate. Windows Installer is a little better too, it'll try and close out programs on install to minimize reboots.
When joined to a domain, I find it to be much better at handling folder redirection and offline files. Less strange happenings, and I have yet to run into a situation where 7 just refuses to take itself out of "offline mode"
Re:Can somebody tell me why? (Score:5, Informative)
There are a few things that have improved, most of which were avalible in Vista too:
Much better use of multicore CPUs
GPU acceleration of the GUI
self healing system files(in some instances)
OS aware of SMART HD readings and able to prompt user
DLL seperation
vastly better RDP
vastly improved central managment and deployment features for businesses
Easy 64 bit usage with drivers
Faster installs
Better power managment and usage of hardware suspend
better usage of memory (cacheing for very noticible speed gains)
Media center!
transparent Bitlocker hard drive encryption (in pro and ultimate) with TPM
program execution isolation that redirects reg and file system calls to safe locations
epiclly better wireless support
support for propper GUI scaleing on high DPI LCDs
Integrated Touch support and Speech Recognition(not fantastic but alright)
Automatic driver retrival for most hardware right of Windows update without searching
Fast search and indexing
Document libraries for easy organisation
Faster boot times and UI responce on semi-decent hardware (compared to XP)
Better moniter support for HD TVs and multi moniters/GPUs (by default)
Child restricted accounts to limit games and allow usage limits for children.
Just to name a few, it has been a long time since XP and things have progressed.
On the cons side I still don't like the superbar much, you can change it to be simmilar to the Vista one quite easily though. They have also removed the email client probably due to the EUs meddeling but live mail is still avalible.
Re:Can somebody tell me why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Can somebody tell me why? (Score:5, Informative)
I know you're just trolling, but I'll bite.
"- Multimonitor support is terrible"
No it isn't. I hook my Macbook up to projectors periodically to give presentations, and it mirrors when I want to and extends the desktop when I want to. Keynote has this cool "presenter mode" where it shows the slides on the secondary display and things like time elapsed and a timer and the next and previous slides on the primary.
I don't run a flight simulator or Cowboys stadium out of my house, so I don't really have a need to hook up more than two displays at once. I did manage a workstation for a pro once who had three 23" ACDs (in the day this was a $6000 setup) and that was always plug-and-play as well even though it needed two graphics cards.
"- 64-bit? With drivers? You're kidding, right?"
I don't know what that means. I don't have to install drivers, except for things like printers. I've never had a problem with 64-bit mode in Snow Leopard; even though I have an older printer with some pretty ancient Panther-era drivers it prints just fine.
"- Games? Child restricted accounts? Nope."
I'm kind of boring, all I play is Warcraft and Civ 4. Restricted accounts have been around since System 7, and although they just refined all the user restrictions in Snow Leopard that kind of functionality has been around for ages.
"- Program Execution isolation"
If you mean NX, it's been transparently integrated since 10.4, and seriously improved in 10.5. If you mean some Windows feature that keeps your 16-bit crapware from blowing up the rest of the OS, Mac OS X doesn't really need that.
"- Transparent Bitlocker"
It's called FileVault, and Apple had it in 2003, years before Vista. Argue the merits of full-disk encryption all you like, I think it's stupid unless you work for a bank, hospital, or government, and then you'd better be using OpenBSD and fancy encryption hardware instead. For non-spook intrusion it's just as effective and much faster.
"- Central management and deployment for businesses"
Dude, Apple Remote Desktop, and it's much cheaper than anything nearly as powerful on Windows. Clearly you never worked in an Apple production environment.
Me? I managed large labs of Windows PCs and Macs in an academic research environment for three and a half years. I've seen the good, bad, and ugly on both platforms. I know what's realistic and what isn't on both sides. Most critically I know when idiot trolls like you are full of crap.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering the post he's responding to was "which of these features has OS X had for years" you're a bit off target - "Well...yeah, Apple does it too" is entirely the correct response in this case.
But yes, he failed on the games front!
Re:Can somebody tell me why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Vista's 32-bit ASLR is beatable too. That's more a function of the size of the address space than the implementation. The 64-bit ASLR in both Win7 and Snow Leopard is much more robust. It's a wash.
Vista's massive problems are well-documented and are certainly not FUD. I hope that Windows 7 fixes them for the sake of the computer world at large but that doesn't mean they've got anything worth switching back for. You don't even get a Perl or Python interpreter preinstalled in Windows; how backward can you get?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
As someone who's used the beta / RC of Win 7 64-bit since it came out, it has plenty of useful things.
The easisest to see, and one of the nicest changes, is the new taskbar. The quick launch toolbar has been merged with the taskbar (sort of like the dock in OS X). All open tabs go under the icon for the program running and if you mouse over the icon you see a preview of every open window (and in the case of IE, each open tab as well) which you can then click to select or close. It makes things cleaner an
Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation - Buy stuff from me. I won't sell you poison again, honest. You can trust me and my stuff is less bad than last time.
When he says... (Score:2)
Dell Financials (Score:5, Informative)
Revenue Q2 2009: $10,623m
Profit YTD 2008: $1,400m
Profit YTD 2009: $762m
Yeah... If I was Michael Dell, I'd be working to sell the idea that Windows 7 is going to make you love a PC too. Especially if you bought a lot of other expensive shit.
He's almost certainly right (Score:5, Funny)
...much like Ike loved Tina (or Chris loved Rhianna for our newer readers).
Tricky talk, in my opinion. (Score:5, Interesting)
Quote from the story: "He pointed out that many business are running Windows XP, which is eight years old." [Should be businesses.]
That's a bit tricky, in my opinion. There is no migration path directly from Windows XP to Windows 7. If you are using Windows XP now, it is necessary to re-install ALL your applications, and re-configure ALL your settings. For us, that easily takes 40 hours. Windows XP has had a VERY high cost of ownership for us, and here we go again. Microsoft did not want to finish the work, apparently, and provide a way to convert automatically from Windows XP to Windows 7.
Also, Windows XP is not 8 years old, in my way of perceiving the matter. Windows XP was very troublesome until service pack 2 was released on August 25, 2004. So XP is actually 5 years old, because that is the date of what could be said to be the first release candidate.
It doesn't matter how old an OS is! We are not in the OS business. We are happy with what works for us.
In our experience it is better to buy components and build our own computers. The inside of a mass-market computer is amazing. Everywhere costs could have been cut, the components have been made a little cheaper, and sometimes a lot cheaper.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft did not want to finish the work, apparently, and provide a way to convert automatically from Windows XP to Windows 7.
Um... You can transfer your profile, and programs can be reinstalled using the same MSI's.
If you're in a managed network (and business users should be), you throw a Windows 7 machine into an Active Directory OU, and all of your policies, including Software Installation ones, apply to the machine and it behaves just like the XP ones in the same Unit.
Business users don't "Upgrade" operating systems in the classical sense anyway. When it's time for an OS upgrade, the disk gets nuked and re-imaged. There's
Current generation is 'good enough' (Score:4, Informative)
Well...I agree with him. (Score:5, Interesting)
After installing Windows 7 (started using it at RC level, I think), everything just feels smooth. It actually made me want to use Microsoft's included products for everything. It definitely has more appeal to me than OS X now.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way to Microsoft or its subsidiaries. I just really like Windows 7.
Not going to happen (Score:2)
Here's the problem: Windows XP, for the majority of normal use cases, works. There is no business case for spending the kind of money necessary to upgrade everything, just so that your CEO can have "that big task bar".
What upgrade cycle? (Score:2)
I usally did the 2.5/3 year desktop upgrade cycle but I can run modern games with high graphics on a 21 monitor, and don't see a need to upgrade that. Windows 7 is suppose to running faster then Vista, if I decide to upgrade, and I can run multiple virtual machines
bullshit advice (Score:2, Insightful)
Dramatic Improvement (Score:5, Insightful)
...if you get the latest processor technology and Office 2010 with it, you will love your PC again. It's a dramatic improvement.
Ok, I'm a graphic designer who often works with photoshop files that are 500 meg or larger (files in the 1 gig+ range are not uncommon at all). For me, having a fast processor, a lot of ram, and the other bells and whistles that go along with it will make a "dramatic improvement" because we're talking about a massive file and long processing times for each action I take. When you're using Office - you know, a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, and a presentation program - you shouldn't need the latest and greatest. Sorry, but I just feel that needing the latest and greatest so that you can "love your PC again" when all you're using is an office suite just might be a sign that the office suite is bloated well beyond what is required.
My two cents. They're Canadian cents so take 'em for what they're worth, eh.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I just feel that needing the latest and greatest so that you can "love your PC again" when all you're using is an office suite just might be a sign that the office suite is bloated well beyond what is required.
The Office suite is simply where most users will spend their working hours.
But "after hours" is just as important to many folks - and a PC that is strong in media play, media production and gaming is the win win choice.
All I can hear is... (Score:3, Funny)
*SCHLORP*SCHLORP*SCHLORP* "Is that how you wanted it sucked Mr. Ballmer?"
I've been running it for months too (Score:5, Informative)
Some of the amenities are nice - the Explorer changes (mostly done in Vista) are very helpful, but at the same time the Explorer interface now takes up much more room than it needs to. The only thing I actively like about 7 is the new taskbar -- but even that has its frustrations, primarily that it's not friendly for running applications that are configured based on command line options. An example is java -- while it recognizes java apps that you "pin" as JRE-based, it loses any additional information/parameters when you attempt to launch a jar file from the pinned menu. Another is putty, which lets you specify a parameter controlling startup profile, but this is not available to pinned instances.
All in all - it is definitely better than Vista. Whether it's better than the XP-based configuration that Dell is talking about... I think that's very much up for debate.
They are trying too hard. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly, Microsoft is pulling all the marketing stops out (same thing they did with Vista). What's the point? What's the real RTO on Win 7? If I have a computer that performs all of the features I need it to do why would I upgrade?
11 Years ago my father bought a $6,000 top of the line Gateway with Windows 98 and it was a blazing fast. 4 years later it was a paperweight but will the same be said of today's average machines? I still have 4 - 5 year old PCs in production use with no problems. They're fa
is this news? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> Conflict of interest, anyone?
More like identity of interest. He isn't "conflicted" about it at all.
Re:Dell & Win 7 (Score:4, Insightful)
“Its amazing that it takes Micro$oft 6 years to what the Linux, community can get done in 6 weeks”
I always wonder how this happen so fast as well, its like I woke up one day everybody had gone 64Bit. But one day at my local lug, Alan Cox was there and we got taking about 64Bit drivers and he said that when he was working at Red Hat the code for the Alpha port helped a lot.
Plus Linux has been in the 64bit space for a while it just commodity hardware caught up.
Microsoft are not know for being ahead of thing, there just playing catch up.
I take you point that FOSS did the transition better it just wasn’t as magical as you put it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Windows has had x86-64 versions for over four yea [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Psst, did you notice that this was in his/her gaming machine?