Bah, humbug. I read through the changes and thought they were a breath of fresh air for the dinosaur OS. Doesn't all good art borrow from a previous generation and add it's own spin?

We've learned that it isn't sweeping changes that make a gadget great, it's the subtle reconfiguration and simplification that does.

If Windows 7 can help give my parents a better experience on their computers, I'm all for it.

Subtle reconfiguration isn't always enough though. I'd love to see the Windows Control Panel cleaned up, for example. That would take a bigger overhaul to do properly.

On the flip side, where I agree with you, are subtle things that could be improved like removing all the nag screens they added to Vista. Unfortunately, many of the subtle changes in Vista were steps in the wrong direction, like moving the buttons around in IE7. What did that help? It just confuses users. At least some things, like adding extra protection against phishing, were a good thing.

You know it was redesigned in Vista. The default work image has it set to classic (I assume because some options are difficult/impossible? to find in the "new" view).

I actually prefer it. Some items are 2 clicks instead of 1, but it beats scanning/scrolling.

(Then again, I like the UAC, and it doesn't bother me that much. I keep it on, and I basically only see it when installing programs or configuration changes, which I have to sudo in ubuntu anyway...)

Hey, I just found another review on gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/5069661/windows-7-walkthrough-boot-video-...

More screenshots and more detailed explanations, including a notable change for connecting to wireless networks. Nice. From this, it actually looks like there are some pretty sweet and much needed improvements in here. Hopefully MS is finally "getting it" after all :)

You know what would be a better experience for my mother?

If she turned on her PC, and a browser appeared, instantly, and there were no other applications, OS updates, viruses, or anything like that to worry about. Just a browser, from which she can search, read, edit, print, and then turn off again.

I would have applauded OS notifications being an RSS feed. Well, not necessarily that exact feature, but some combination of "out of the box" thinking along with "embracing the way the world actually works instead of stuffing them into a windows box."

An RSS version would be cool. If you aggregated multiple machines, you could keep tabs on a whole office that way.

The way I interpreted their notifications was that they'd add it as some sort of daily or scheduled notification in the system, like a popup. I can't stand the existing popups they've added in Vista (warnings, etc) or many of the ones they had before (yes, I really do want to move that file to the recycle bin, thanks), so more notices just seems like a step in the wrong direction.

RSS though, great idea! :)

There are already protocols better designed for that sort of thing (think SNMP or Syslog).

RSS is really just an XML schema optimized content syndication - it just isn't the right tool for the job. Not too mention that you probably don't want your one central server polling 50,000 desktops for updated RSS feeds every hour.

Good point. A push-based tech would definitely be preferable there.

The thing that torqued me off about Vista was my buying a 64 bit laptop and getting a 32 bit OS with it. Enter Fedora, and I've been flying since. I really don't give a crap about most of the "cool" stuff they have there...Hey, I have semi-transparent term windows if I want! (Now, that is cool...)

You know... smart folders have an equivalent in Vista as well. I'm pretty sure the new "libraries" thing is just a redesign and not an actual new feature.

While I'm at it, hasn't file previews been around since Win95?