Windows 7: What's cooking?

A beta of Windows 7, the next version of Windows OS from Microsoft, is available for free download from Microsoft's website. This is a good opportunity for all geeks out there to test the waters. I still don't have the patience, and more importantly the motivation, to download and get my hands dirty with Windows 7. Prominent reason being; I use Vista ultimate on both my notebooks and have had significant installation problems with it. I'd rather wait and watch Windows 7 establish itself than experiment with its beta version.

Anyways, out of sheer curiosity I may still download the beta sometime this week or the next (the free download is only till Jan 24th), and may test it out later this year. The beta license will expire on Aug 1, 2009. But at the outset, my instinct tells me Microsoft needs to come up with genuinely innovative ideas and designs and not try to ape Mac OS. That's the key to gain (or in this case, retain) consumer confidence and patronage. If it tries to design Windows 7 on lines of Mac OS, consumers will inadvertently start comparing them and this can be detrimental for Microsoft. Unfortunately for Microsoft, a lot of Windows 7's screenshots suggest the abovementioned similarity. As the saying goes, Originality and Innovation separate winners from the rest.

I can't stop myself from mentioning this analogy. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are both wonderfully gifted and naturally talented players. But, had Nadal tried to mimic Federer's strengths and fathomed to shift to a serve and volley style of tennis, would he have succeeded? Most probably, No. Mimic products and mimic efforts generally suck. MSN Virtual Earth is a case in point. Microsoft will be better off if it concentrates on its strengths and come up with innovative products than try and create mimic products.

Coming back to Windows 7, it is encouraging to hear that this version is targetted to overcome many of Vista's compatibility issues and bugs. That is the first step in recognizing that Vista is indeed problematic. All said and done, Vista is visually a treat to watch. And Windows 7 is said to better that. Good for Microsoft. And when functionality is added to visual effects, efficiency creeps in; style with substance. Vista to me is only style. Hopefully Windows 7 will be better. There is no sidebar in Windows 7, but gadgets can be added to desktop. In fact, there seem to be many more cosmetic enhancements in this version like aero, peek features etc. There is the new Action center which overlooks security features. Other enhancements include, new paint , new wordpad, new 'home groups', new media center, quick boot. Another great feature is the absence of the annoying UAC feature present in Vista.

I wouldn't jump to any conclusion on Windows 7 yet. Honestly, I found Vista okay but like Mac OS X better. At the end of the day, it boils down to efficiency, user interface and how user-friendly the OS is. If Windows 7 has all these, good for the user. If not, we already have Mac.

A rocky year ticks by!!!!

Phew! What an year it was! 

An extremely volatile economy with dampened spirits and investor confidence at the deepest trench. An year of extremities. Fuel hitting 147/barrel before plummeting to 30 something. Stocks fluctuating as spikes in an Electrocardiogram. Investment Banks wiped out - Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns collapsed while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley chose to become bank holding companies; Merrill Lynch was gobbled by Bank of America. This ended the era of Investment Banks in the United States. WAMU was the largest bank failure in US. 25 Banks have closed down in 2008. Here is the 2008 failed banks list. (Source: FDIC)

More than half a dozen airlines have shut business. Automobile companies are fighting for survival and some of them are staring down the barrel. CEOs of these companies are like deer caught-in-headlights. IT sector's outlook is bleak. Start-ups and mid-size companies are in severe cash crunch. And ofcourse, there are housing, real-estate and mortgage issues that plague the economy.

Personally, I feel we have moved over the worst part of this recession. I hope the proposed bailout works soon and get the economy back on track. Whatever the measures are, to restore investors' confidence and eventually the economy, results will not be achieved overnight. It will be a slow but steady way upwards hopefully from mid-2009.

Here is me wishing everyone a prosperous, refreshing and a very Happy New Year.