Let me just say in advanced:
I realize I did this article response rather… horribly.
“Windows 7: Microsoft’s Linux killer?”
On Computerworld.com. Article by Preston Gralla
Linux has been making inroads into PC sales lately because it runs so well on lightweight netbooks with limited RAM and processing power. Windows 7, though, appears to run well on lightweight hardware as well, which could mean that it’s Microsoft’s Linux killer.
At the recent PDC, where Windows 7 was unveiled, Windows and Windows Live senior vice president Steve Sinofsky claimed that Windows 7 used less than half of the 1 GB of RAM on his Lenovo S10 netbook. Making the new operating system lightweight has clearly been Microsoft’s goal. In addition to light RAM use, Windows also strips out a variety of applications, including Windows Mail, among others.
Of course, it’s one thing for Sinofsky for claim Windows 7 runs on a netbook. But how does it work in real life? According to [a] review [the original article linked to another article about Windows 7, which demonstrated the performance of Windows 7], Windows 7 pre-beta works well on an ASUS Eee PC 1000H with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1GB of RAM.
The writer found that Windows 7 uses 485MB of RAM. Despite that light RAM use she notes:
things are pretty smooth in terms of performance…in my use of the Eee PC 1000H for the entire evening I didn’t have any hang ups while simultaneously chatting on Skype, writing this post in WordPress, editing pictures in GIMP and uploading video files using Filezilla.
She did say, however, there were some problems with video playback. Keep in mind, though, that Windows 7 is pre-beta.
I expect Microsoft to push Windows 7 for netbooks hard. It’s a tremendous growth area, and it’s where Linux has been gaining traction. I wouldn’t even be surprised to see a netbook-specific version designed for lower-powered processors and less RAM.
Given all that, Linux’s growth in netbooks may be just a blip on the radar after Windows 7 is released.
Windows Vista, in my opinion, is a great operating system. Microsoft will admit that, by user opinions, its not their greatest operating system (OS) yet. Many people choose to say that an OS is going to be bad without even trying it. As technology gets higher up, what we run on our computers becomes more resource intensive.
Although Vista uses more RAM than its predecessor, XP, it puts it to good use. It still causes people to stay away from it.
The next version of Windows 7 will definitely attract many people who disliked Vista, even though it has the same user interface (UI). The UI is expected to contain a great deal of touch screen technology, and integrate well into laptops and other portable computers such as Tablets. Windows 7 will work better on computers that currently have Vista, which usually isn’t the case for a newer operating system.
Many computers users want to make their current computers run faster without investing a great deal of money to make them faster. The Linux operating system is extremely lightweight, often using little RAM and CPU resources. At this time, Linux is one of Microsoft’s biggest competitors, as well as Apple’s. Microsoft has a bigger concern with reducing system requirements to make their operating systems able to run on a wider variety of computers, many less expensive with cheaper components, but still able to run faster than their competitors OS.
I think that Windows 7 is going to be a big hit when it comes out, and, if it will run more of the programs that XP was able to run and at the same speed or faster, I expect many people will soon be upgrading, and many buisnesses will be deploying the new OS.
