Posts Tagged windows
First Impressions: Windows 7
Posted by Avinash Shetty in technology on February 1, 2010
I was one of the early adopters of Windows Vista. My mistake was to choose a newly designed OS from the ground up and then choose it in a 64-bit architecture. There were two main reasons why my Vista love was short-lived. Lack of drivers and too many annoying security questions. I lived with XP ever since.
Windows 7 finally made it to my laptop about a month back. I’m very impressed. Drivers so far have been no problem but for some I did have to dig a little deeper. Jump lists, Aero peek etc are all new and exciting features all built in making the need for 3rd party software redundant. The UI is clean and stylish making it at par with Apple’s OS if not marginally better. Boot times are quick (though not scientific, I feel it is significantly faster than XP on the same laptop with the same configuration). While the default security options are quite obstructive and chatty, it was easy to disable (unlike Vista).
Other than the obvious features, there are some minor ones I really love. Since I didn’t stick with Vista long enough, its hard to say if they were introduced in Vista and I just happened to find in 7. For example, I love the fact when I can vertically maximize windows by pulling one edge to the end of the screen. Hovering over taskbar items shows a little preview of all open windows for that app and keeping your mouse over it for a while makes all other windows except that one disappear. You also see similar effects with Alt+Tab. Process handling is by far the best thing about it. If an application hangs, 7 will grey out the app making it clear to the user that it isn’t responding. Also if you try continue to use (maximize, close etc) an app that isn’t responding, 7 will prompt with a dialog asking if the app should be terminated or diagnosed for problems. This is much more convenient than having to bring up task manager and find and kill the app.
Overall, I’m very pleased with 7. I highly recommend giving it a spin.
Software moves like porta-potty.
Posted by Avinash Shetty in technology on November 6, 2008
I recently discovered portable apps. And I couldn’t be happier. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is precisely what the name suggests. Applications written with portability in mind. You can copy the app to your USB drive and move it to another PC and there you have it; setup exactly the way you want it, all set to go. I’ve spent hours working on other people’s PC, downloading stuff I need, configuring, setting everything up and then having to clean up everything when I’m done. No more. Just plugin a USB drive, everything is all set and ready to fire. Firefox alone, with addons saves me tons of time. Better yet, whenever someone remote tells me their firefox isnt working as desired on certain sites, I say download mine and run it. See if it works. And it usually does. Also, I don’t now need to carry my PC around when I travel. With all my apps on a USB, all I need is a host PC on the other end and I’m all set.
Another obvious advantage is that since apps are not installed on the PC, your registry stays slim and running faster. the files are not scattered all over the place, only where you installed it. Uninstalling is as easy as deleting the folder where you installed it. No more registry cleaners, orphan files all over taking up space. Overall, I find my system snappy with little to no bloat and yet everything there at my fingertips.
Now, if only everything else in life was portable. At leasy potty is.
OS Shootout.
Posted by Avinash Shetty in technology on September 19, 2008
Mac (Tiger/Leopard), Windows (XP/Vista), Linux (Ubuntu). The whoz who of OS, take periferral. This is a desktop shootout because in my opinion, the server shootout is pointless. Linux wins hands down there. So lets take aspects of desktop needs and compare the OS’s.
Eye Candy
Out of the box, Mac is a clear winner. It’s clean, functional and good looking. The dock, minimalistic yet functional toolbar, gorgeous icons are all craved for and replicated across other OS’s. Ubuntu comes in at a distant second, closely followed by Vista. XP just looks plain ugly out of the box.
However, when it comes to customizing the UIs as per user needs, Mac provides little help. Ubuntu comes with compiz, AWN/cairo docks (among several others) and plenty of other UI tools providing the user with a ton of options to tweak the UI as needed. Vista/XP also has freeware apps such as Uxtheme patch + msstyle themes, docketdock/object dock and freeware shell replacements that provide plenty customization. If done right, I’d say Ubuntu is a clear winner here. Mac still comes in second and XP/Vista last because of the lack of good/reliable freeware apps. However is you are willing to pay for software, XP/Vista are just as good if not better than the competition.
Winner
Novice: Mac
Expert: Linux
Ease of use
This one is a toughie. In my opinion, Windows is probably the winner here. Out of the box, its just plain usable. Installation compared to other options is a breeze. Program locations are in a simple start menu. Mac is a very close second. Although the layout of mac is better, apps such as Finder do a poor job of File System access. Spotlight is great but a little messy is showing the data and doesn’t search system folders by default. Ubuntu has come a long way from its Linux past. Gnome’s bloat is reduced, the layout is clean and thunar/nautilus are good file managers. Apt is a good installer app, but problems with installation means digging into the CLI and figuring out what happened. For beginners, this usually equates to game over.
The other aspect of use is what happens when you hit issues. Web searches will usually reveal good solutions for Windows. Ubuntu forums are quite good but novice users will find it hard to fix some complex issues. Mac, in my opinion is the hardest to find help online. The search results don’t usually yield good results.
Winner
Novice: Windows
Expert: Linux
Software
This is easy. In my opinion, Windows is a winner by a long shot. People have been making software for windows forever now. Which everyday apps is a close call, specialized software is almost always made for windows. For example, cell phone sync software, universal remote software, firmware upgrade for audio/video compoenents, wireless etc. However, if we narrow the field down to freeware standard software, I think Linux wins. Almost any software for windows has a free mac equivalent that work as good, if not better than its windows counterpart. Mac is probably lacking here overall. This is some really good stuff on Mac that is better than Windows/Linux but a lot isn’t available at all. However, with the switch to Intel hardware, this is changing rapidly. I think pretty soon, they’d reach parity. However, Mac will face similar issues as Windows where you will have to pony up the dough for the good stuff.
Winner: Linux
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