Microsoft Announced Windows 7 Release Candidate

Microsoft has officially announced the availability of Windows 7 Release Candidate. It’s been said that this release will only be available to MSDN and TechNet users for now while the general public will be able to get their hands on it on May 5th.

The earlier beta versions of Windows 7 had quiet a few bugs but it seems like Microsoft has already taken care of them.  Windows 7 RC will expire on March 1,2010 and if you continue to use it after the expiration date your system will reboot after every 2 hours.

Rumors has it that the final version of Windows 7 will be coming out in October 2009. On the other hand Asus has also confirmed that they will be shipping their all in one Z5600 PC preloaded with Windows 7 in October 2009. Asus Z5600 touch screen PC features a 24 inch LCD screen and comes with a built-in TV tuner card, Blu-ray recorder, 2TB hard drive and is specifically made for Windows 7.

Even though Microsoft has not mentioned anything about the official release date of Windows 7 but the Release Candidate will most probably be available for download on May 5th. The new release comes in 64 bit and 32 bit versions.

Why Linux will Top Windows 7

Media hype again has people buzzing over the introduction of Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest operating system. But Microsoft’s errors are finally giving Linux an edge in the race of operating system supremacy. Linux began gaining ground with the release of Microsoft’s Me. To say that Me had some problems is like saying the present economy seems to be lagging. Microsoft made up some of the ground lost by Me with the introduction of XP, but there has been a series of ups and downs along the way.

The public has already become skeptical of the operating system that once essentially WAS the computing industry. I’ll go through the reasons why a shift to Linux is now not only possible, but maybe imminent.

Through the releases by Microsoft throughout the years the only thing that was truly reliable was that there was no reliability. Windows 95 truly did turn the industry on its ear and set a new standard. Windows 98 was an attempt to capitalize on 95′s success and was a complete failure. Windows Me managed to outdo 98′s failure and today is largely unknown. At least Microsoft is trying hard to forget it. Windows NT was solid and would have certainly counted as an up for Microsoft had it not been so incredibly difficult to work. Windows XP was the operating system that put the bounce back in Microsoft’s step. It seemed both simple and brilliant and was a bridge back to what Microsoft had accomplished in the first place. And then Windows Vista came close to toppling all the success of XP.

By looking at this progression of Microsoft’s up’s and down’s, I don’t think much should be expected from Windows 7.

Linux, on the other hand, has been far more consistent. Linux has been gaining ground at a pretty constant pace. Nearly each one of their releases has had the tendency to get better with age. Their key components of desktops, security, servers, admin tools and end-user software have seen improvements as time has gone on. Linux’s each new step gains ground instead of occasional steps back, exactly as they are supposed to do.

Additionally, Microsoft continues to make price increases. Some price increases can be seen as needed, but when they seem to come only as a reach for more cash out of greed, particularly in this time of a troubled economy when people and businesses need to hold on to every dime that they can, Microsoft comes across looking very bad indeed.

A good example is Microsoft’s decided licensing fee for Exchange. It is now necessary for anyone who uses Exchange to have a license for it. This can be hassle for the individual user, but for companies with 500 people who need to use Exchange the price really starts to add up. At a time when companies across the globe are cutting back on costs, the idea of Microsoft making this change is reprehensible.

Linux has not been known to make any cash grabs like the Microsoft Exchange licensing fee. Everything for Linux has been across the board and when people looked for a replacement for Exchange many have opted for EGroupware and Open Xchange. Both excellent groupware tools offering larger feature sets than the Microsoft equivalent that are secure, reliable and, aside from the hardware to install them, free.

One of the reasons for Microsoft Vista’s failure was its incompatibility. People had to shell out more money for new hardware to run the operating system. Hardware that would run just about everything else on the market would have trouble with only Vista. It is easy to see why this would cause a negative perception of Microsoft. Whereas Linux continues to advance in hardware compatibility. X,org can even allow the X Windows server the ability to run without the x.org.conf file used for configuration because the system has grown so good at detecting software. Distributions such as Fedora 10 from Linux are making configurations a thing of the past.

With the impending release of Windows 7 we also get more of Microsoft’s promises. They seem to make the claim that they will catch lightening in a bottle and revolutionize the computer industry with every release. Vista was supposed to be invisible, but was constantly a noose around everything. Me was supposed to take 98 and make the average user look like he was anything but average. Instead it made just about every other functioning system unusable except e-mail and a browser leaving everyone pretty average.

Seeing this time and time again the public has grown so wary of Microsoft that most of the public probably hasn’t even heard that there is an impending launch set. The media will no doubt push the launch, but most computer users will continue to use XP until it become unusable. And no one can really be sure of when Windows 7 will arrive.

Linux distribution has always been virtually transparent. All of their release candidates are open to the public because of the nature of open source. And time lines are always available to anyone who wants a look. This is due to the fact that Linux distributors work under a full-disclosure model. With this we see very little false ad leaks and there is no false rumor mill associated with the products. Linux holds back on claims and promises and lets the users decide for themselves.

The upcoming releases are for Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Linux’s Fedora 11. Here’s a look at the features of both.

• Windows 7: OS X-like docking; multi-touch screen; mapping application similar to Google Earth; hypervisor visualization; location-aware apps; user-access control improvements; sidebar removal
• Fedora 11: Boot time of 20 seconds; Btrfs file system; better C++ support; Cups PolicyKit integration; DNS security; ext4 default file system; fingerprint reader integration; Ibus input method replaces Scim to overcome limitations; Gnome 2.26; KDE 4.2; Windows cross-compiler inclusion

Both of these systems certainly seem exciting. But Fedora 11 may be ahead by the fact that it is already on a great operating system where Windows 7 will require new hardware.

There are still many questions that are unanswered for Windows 7, but it seems imminent that it will not be useable in the netbook market. With XP on the way out it appears that the netbook market will belong to Linux.

We will see if the public has become too jaded by the past empty promises of Microsoft to let Windows 7 be a success and shine over the failures of Vista or if this will be another victory for Linux. Stay tuned for further details.

Workable Beta of Windows 7 Leaked

The beta version of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7, has been leaked to the web.

The ISO file for Windows 7 is available on many Bittorrent sites, allowing anyone with an internet connection and the proper peer to peer software to download and install the almost fully-functional operating system.

This latest leak is build 7000, rather than the alpha version 6801 that was leaked earlier this year, and has 32 bit architecture. According to some reports the beta is very stable and usable. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet had this to say about his experience with the leaked OS:

I like Windows 7, a lot. Microsoft seems to have put a lot of effort into developing a core operating system that is free from the pointless frills of the likes of XP and Vista. The OS is solid and fast and based on what I’ve seen so far I’d have no problems in rolling out beta 1 and using it daily.

While Microsoft might not be happy that their latest OS has been released for free on the internet, the positive response to this leak may come as good news for the software giant. The resounding failure that was Vista has left many PC users with a sour taste in their mouths, further cementing many PC users’ opinion that Microsoft products are of inferior quality compared to Linux and Apple’s OSX.

Microsoft has tried to regain some of the public’s good will with a series of weird ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld, but what they really need to do is simply make a solid, usable product that doesn’t fight against the user. Vista and many of its predecessors, such as the all-around awful Windows ME, have tended to be bloated, unstable resource hogs with unnecessary, sometimes downright user-unfriendly features and woefully little focus on straightforward performance.

It seems like it should be an obvious strategy for Microsoft to adopt: make an operating system that just works and it will gain popularity. But the fact of the matter is that Microsoft has controlled an enormous share of the operating system market for almost as long as PCs have been used by the greater public, and the software Goliath has never needed to change its approach.

But if Windows 7 is in fact as solid as the early reports are indicating, it might be the case that Microsoft’s approach has finally taken a turn towards benefiting the user and not just Microsoft. And just in time too, as Microsoft’s share of the market has dropped below 90% for the first time in recent history while Apple’s increased a small amount.

(Author’s disclosure: I actually found those totally wacky Seinfeld, Bill Gates ads pretty funny.)

XP Prices Are Rising

Dell has tripled the surcharge it will charge users who wish to downgrade Vista PCs to Windows XP. Dell’s Inspiron 1525 notebooks and 530 desktops can be ordered with XP Professional preinstalled for an extra $150.

There is still a strong user base that prefers Microsoft XP to Vista, this is shown in the fact that the XP downgrade deadline has been pushed back a couple times now. Under Microsoft licensing, Vista can be downgraded only to XP Professional until July 31, 2009. Many are still requesting XP with their new PC purchases, but Microsoft’s downgrade fees are trying to force users into purchasing the unpopular Vista.

Though the Microsoft brand is linked with PCs in the minds of many consumers, that does not necessarily mean they will be herded like sheep into purchasing Vista. The demand for XP is still high, even if starting to slack a little lately. When Microsoft tries to penalize customers with fees instead of improving their current OS, there is going to be backlash. This may turn out to be the jumping point for some who considered buying a Mac, or it may lead some users to pirating their choice OS instead of paying extravagant fees, especially with the recent economic slump where people are trying to save every penny they can.

The stigma has been set, many people do not trust Vista and most of them don’t even know why. Regardless of the cause for the Vista hate, Microsoft is not fixing the problem by forcing users to purchase the OS. We’ll only have to wait a few days before the Apple ads roll out and start smack talking Microsoft about this latest feat.

Windows 7, the next OS in line from Microsoft, is the company’s hope of eliminating the stigma. Industry analyst Rob Enderle says, “Windows 7 is designed to fix this problem [the Vista stigma], but it will need stronger demand generation marketing than Microsoft has yet proven it can provide. Windows 7 is estimated to ship in 2010, but may come sooner if Vista acceptance does not improve.

My personal experience with Vista has been iffy. I tried to keep the prejudice out of my mind while using the OS, but I still found myself disliking certain elements from the very start. I use my girlfriend’s HP laptop with Vista often enough, and it is constantly riddled with error messages (many of which don’t make any sense). Much of the OS is clunky, but there are a few redeeming qualities.

I myself am a mac user, but I have owned nothing but PCs until a little less than a year ago. I am running Leopard but I also have a second partition on my computer, this is where I have XP installed. I will not be putting Vista on my computer anytime soon. XP has its own share of problems, but I encounter far more on a regular basis with Vista than I do with XP. Everything I still need to use on my Windows partition still supports XP and I don’t think that will change for a long time.

What do you think? Is Vista a needed or wanted upgrade? What are your experiences with XP and Vista?