Fear not the coming of 7

The coming of a new operating system from Microsoft is the monster that usually strikes fear into the heart of any techie.

I remember back in the day, when I was working as a techie in a large South African advertising agency, the call of a new OS would usually incite the call-in-sick situation.

My worst memory is Windows Millennium, a far larger disaster than Vista ever was. Millennium brought on late night driver downloads, which never really worked, a million after-hours calls from users trying to find “this or that” - needless to say, it was horrible.

So, when Microsoft finally got to the manufacturing build of Windows 7, I could feel the techie community collectively hold their breath and prepare for the coming nightmare.

However, today I can, with confidence, tell them to breathe out - Windows 7 is the best operating system to ever leave Redmond. It just works.

Windows XP had become like that old pair of comfortable jeans that you wear on weekends, and I was not particularly convinced that Windows 7 could fit the mould. However, when I bought my new rig earlier this year, I decided it couldn't hurt to try the new OS.

I have, over the last few months, been playing with the various builds of the OS and have watched the quiet development process unfold. Don't be fooled, while the OS looks just like Vista, it is nothing at all like Vista.

When I first installed 7 on my machine, I worried about spending hours trying to find the right drivers for all my new hardware. You can imagine how surprised I was when everything - and I mean everything - simply worked.

No downloads, no frantic searches for software that probably didn't exist yet. This operating system is a techie's dream come true.

The Windows 7 developers have stripped away all the bulk that made Vista the unloved operating system it was. They have brought through the beautiful interface of Vista, while leaving behind the massive memory-hogging features.

They kept the flashy Aero desktop from Vista, but added many more substantial improvements to it. Full desktop gadgets and some new themes, and the themes are country specific, so I have a nice elephant background to show I am from Africa.

You can imagine how surprised I was when everything - and I mean everything - simply worked.

Candice Jones, ITWeb telecoms editor

For those of you who smartly missed Vista, you will need to take some time to learn the new navigation and I had a little trouble with that, but once you get it, it feels more intuitive than the folder layouts used by XP.

I think smart memory management is one of the best benefits of Windows 7. As a gamer, this is all-important, and having processes and memory hogged can make for a painfully slow experience.

Testing the management on my quadcore with four Gigs of memory is one thing, so I transferred my small ancient laptop, sporting a single core and 512MB memory. The new windows ran as speedy and as light as it does on my gaming rig.

Whether you're coming from XP or Vista, Windows 7 will give you an incredible jump forward in usability, security and support for new hardware and technology, especially for enthusiasts and power users.

Even a Linux enthusiast will not turn his nose up at Microsoft's latest achievement. I expect that this new OS will turn people from the comfort of Windows XP to the flash of Windows 7 in a heartbeat.

And the business techie can rest assured that only minimal overtime will be needed to roll out this OS across a business.