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Mailbag: Windows 7 vs. XP vs. Vista

Based on early demos, Windows 7 already looks much-improved compared to Vista. Doug asked readers how they think the next OS will stack up to its predecessors:

Maybe Microsoft will get it right with Windows 7. I've said all along that if Microsoft had an OS which was small and responsive, it would win over many companies. If the price is right and the performance is better than XP on our computers, we would switch to the new Vista.
-Mike

Windows 7 was good to take out some of the driver loading. But I've seen some of the videos of demos and they are ALL about appearance. Most of us don't need fancy front-ends (many people rarely have more than one app running at a time, possibly two if they are daft enough to monitor their e-mail). They need something simpler, more stable and more secure.
-Joe

I think Windows 7 is already competing more with Vista than it will with XP. However, as I think of my recently bought laptop and the pain I went through to get my apps working, I doubt that I will risk losing them by updating to Windows 7. This is in spite of the good words about Win 7. There is peripheral hardware involved and I am not confident the change would go well.
-John

Windows XP can be a more effective OS, but it still lacks in operating ability, troubleshooting techniques and user-friendliness. XP has been around for about seven years, but it still doesn't meet today's customer expectations. I think Microsoft should have developed and invested more on XP rather than any other OS.
-Brian

We have resisted using XP in our organisation for some time now since upgrading from 2000. Because of the fact that XP is very stable (ironically, not on my PC at home) and performs very well on our newer PCs, we have no reason to use Vista. We will be keeping a keen eye on Win 7 as hopefully it will fulfil the role Vista was supposed to.

I have used Vista a number of times and although the general look and feel are OK and functional, it still seems overly heavy on hardware.
-Colin

What do you think? Leave your comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on November 10, 2008


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