Windows 7 and the Press

I was replacing Windows 7 beta with Windows 7 Release Candidate on my laptop a few months ago... And I was joking with colleagues about the future success of this new version. Having used Vista for two years
Windows 7 didn't strike me as an earth-shattering evolution. Yet we predicted that people would rush on Windows 7 like bees on cupcakes for two main reasons:

• the press was very positive about Windows 7 after it slaughtered Vista
  
• the Release Candidate was as good as the final thing and free to use until March 2010. In other words people could use a fully working OS for free for 10 months.
  

I don't think Vista deserved the bad press it received. I used it for two years: RC1 and RC2 on an old PC then the RTM 32-bit and eventually 64-bit on my main machine.
Driver issues? A bit at the beginning but nothing that couldn't be overcome.
Speed issues? Desktop: nothing that I could notice on a 4GB dual-processor Dell with raid-striped 15000rpm SAS drives. Laptop: browsing the web was fine, Visual studio was slow. After I moved to Windows 7 browsing the web was still fine and Visual Studio still slow.

When I removed Vista 32-bit from my Vaio and installed Windows 7 RC, it indeed felt a bit snappier. But again, ANY version of Windows feels snappier after a fresh install.

Whether you run XP, Vista or Windows 7 the OS you're running on a machine does not matter as much as the following factors:
- how fresh the install is: re-install your OS often, with a bit of organisation it can be quick.
- the amount of RAM: install more than you think you'll need.
- the hard drive speed: one 15000rpm drive is good, two are better.


I might oversimplify a bit, still I think there are mostly two reasons why you want to upgrade to a new OS:

• the untold one: it looks better than the previous version.
• the one you tell people to look clever: the OS is faster, contains bug fixes and new useful features.
  

Thanks to unbalanced press opinions Windows 7 at last gives people an excuse to cave in to the first reason while being covered by the second.