I tried Windows 7 yesturday and I was not impressed. As for it being fast, well it's faster then Vista but not by much. It has some major over all problems.
One of the major "problems" with windows 7 is the graphical interface. I know that is opion alone but come on, The best interface I can think of is home to the Gnome desktop enviroment, I don't see the reason for having so much false. A desktop OS should be slim, fast, configurable and lightweight. the problem with Windows 7 is that it has none of this.
I spent a good 10 min disabling all the pointless enhancemnets that don't serve the user. The best windows interface was easily 98 and then XP. If they would stick to that design I could honestly say Windows would be appealing.
Another massive problem that is retarted is Driver signing, I don't know why this idea exists. It took over 1/2 hour to get my EXT driver installed into windows. The only thing driver signing actually does it make it more diffucult for the use to interact with the system.
Windows 7 takes way to long to install, longer then Vista. I honestly spent a good hour getting Windows 7 to install. I think Microsoft should focus more on the under laying system then the front end. In 100% of cases the best installer is text based. I'm not saying that Microsoft should make a text based installer but they should at least make a slim installer.
The most fusturating part of the new Windows 7 experiance, it blue screens. Blue screen is an excuse for "Oh we don't know how to make kernel, so here reboot".
I must say over all Microsoft should really start looking to make Windows a slim, quick OS rather then a UI based OS. I got to say Vista was the worst and from what I've experanced Windows 7 dosesn't bring anything more to the table.
Now on the tech end of things, there are alot of improvments MS could add to Windows to help out the User base. For one adding proper file system support, well many 3rd party add on drivers exist I think MS could help out the Linux / Unix community by adding in native Resier and Ext support. I don't know how many installs I have to take time to find the right kind of driver only to find it's not supported or because of MS BS I can't install it. Ext and Resier are very popular and extremely well built file systems, more so then NTFS.
They have to rebuild the retarted GUI, effective GUI is simply, Slim, fast, and build like a rock. The best enviroment ever the Gnome project does the desktop comunity proud, I think MS should take a look toward is instead of trying to be all flash and no actual help to the user.
Shell access, well MS does provide "shell" access though command prompt it wouldn't hurt them to get a proper shell, maybe port a bash shell or an sh shell to allow a real poweruser quick access to applications and services.
Built in C compiler and linker. I don't know why they don't have this built in. One of the great powers of an OS should be the quick access to built in development tools, Linux / Unix has gcc, cc, ld etc.... Windows has nothing of that sort and I think it could help the OS greatly.
Well I could keep going I think it's simple to say that everythough Windows has been out for years it's still not a Desktop OS, just because it has a massive user base means nothing. I've seen to many Windows user who can't actually use there computer. Microsoft needs to grow up and make an OS that is more for the user and not about making the user grow to OS.
Simply put Windows is an OS for people to afraid to use a computer, you don't have enough control , quick access or power use. So if you want to listen to music and write a word document go ahead and waste that thousand dollar computer, but if you want to any real work go ahead and get a real OS.
It's time for Windows to take off the training wheels and become an OS, not an OS wantabe.
I can't wait to see what MS brings us next in there long list of failed attemps
Thanks
Docmur