Having played with various beta versions of Windows 7 I was somewhat apathetic about installing the Release Candidate. However with little else to do on a Sunday evening I figured I might as well do just that. Originally it had been my intention to install it as a VM, but it occurred to me that a better comparison would be to dual boot it with the XP install on my primary PC.
After a little rummage I found a 120Gb drive, but sadly it was only 5400rpm and against the 10,000rpm boot drive already in the PC would make it a slightly unfair comparison. Having been caught out by the lack of expensive high-speed hard disks lying around, I reverted to the original plan and installed it virtually.
I will still take some time to be convinced that the UI alterations are actually an improvement. It all feels rather too much like Microsoft randomly reorganized the User Interface just to reinforce the idea in less technically adept users that they’d actually improved the product.
Also, is it just me that is becoming increasingly concerned about the media fawning over Windows 7? I don’t dispute it is an improvement over previous versions, but really is it that much better? What has happened to all the discussion of “tilt-bits”, the overbearing DRM, the unnecessary encryption of various internal communication channels? Given Microsoft is happy to admit Windows 7 isn’t a new codebase, but simply builds on Windows Vista all these downsides may well be present. There is an excellent discussion of the failing of Windows Vista in terms of Content Protection by Peter Gutmann which I think maybe a few journalists ought to read. Maybe in practice content protection has turned out to be less onerous, maybe the situation is improved in Windows 7? Whatever the case without a discussion of the issues I’m afraid I fear the worst, and perhaps you should too.