If you were to look up the word sensationalism in the Oxford dictionary I am sure you would find John C. Dvoraks big head in all its glory. Here is the reason why:

I think it's a miracle that they are doing Windows 7 at all.

That said, everyone who is running the early release versions of Windows 7 beta, love it and this appears to bode well for the company. They all say that it is fast and rock solid and is just a lot better than Vista. It also seems to be more compatible with older programs and legacy hardware.

It has been proclaimed a winner by the users.

Well, not so fast. Microsoft may be pulling a fast one with the beta release because this is not the finished product. Let me explain.

As a beta program it probably does not have any of the security measures built into it the way a release product would. For one thing security is not too important with a beta product since hackers have not targeted it in any way, nor will they until the final product ships.

All that zippy performance that everyone is jacked up about will disappear once the burden of security precautions and patches begins.

For all we know the whole OS could turn into an incredible pig after this happens. We simply do not know the outcome.

Read the rest here

For someone whose primary OS of choice is Mac OS X or Ubuntu, he seems to think he knows more about the Windows platform than actual users and the developer team themselves. Microsoft has committed to making Windows 7 available 3 years after Vista’s General Availability. The Windows Team set a milestone and they are sticking to it. It could simply be a case of under promise, over deliver or simply setting realistic expectations. My fundamental understanding is Windows 7 is driven by quality and feedback, not lets try and get this out as quick as possible before the competition. The Windows 7 Team is listening to the people who will buy this product when its released, so they are trying make the experience based on what we want, not just what they think we will need. That's one of the major differences between Vista and Windows 7.

Microsoft has set a quality expectation with Alpha’s, Beta’s and Release Candidates. An Alpha must be near in quality as a Beta, while a Beta is a frozen feature set with the characteristics of a Release Candidate, while an RC must be at the same level as the final release which is also a reason a build of Windows is often designated RC because of its potential to become the final product. Microsoft is continually enhancing this release and they are engaging with their customers to inform us about the progress they are making towards the Release Candidate milestone.

Security is not too important with a beta product? Uh, Dvorak, I think you should go back to the 80’s and hang out on the Computer Chronicles, because this decade is just not for you. Windows 7 builds on the fundamentals of Windows Vista/Server 2008 SP1, Microsoft’s most secure releases of Windows to date. Features like BitLocker, Patch Guard, ASRL, Device Driver Signing, UAC, Internet Explorer with Protected Mode and AntiPhishing, Windows Defender are all part of the security investments included with Windows 7. Microsoft has also ensured that Windows 7 beta releases receive the same level of commitment as a commercially released product, see here and here

I have been running Windows Vista since November of 2006, same install and I have not experienced any degradation in performance on any of my systems. Microsoft that the bit rot issue that was common with past releases of Windows was resolved through enhancements such as a the new low priority Defragmentation Tool, see here Microsoft has also done some innovative work in Windows 7 to enhance the performance of system:

• The efficiency of core Windows code
• Only starting certain services when they are needed (demand-start services)
• The way device drivers are initialized
• Allowing multiple device drivers to start at the same time (parallelization)
• An overall reduction in the memory and CPU required to start and run the graphics system

But, John C. is throwing it to the wind that Windows 7 could become a pig is just because careless writing without any form of insight. Microsoft has even removed bundled programs from the core operating system to improve efficiency.

Here is a quote from Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall about the decision:

Removing programs such as Photo Gallery, Mail and Movie Maker from the core operating system will give Microsoft more time to focus on the core operating system experience in addition to improving the efficiency of things like Service Packs which could ultimately be fewer and smaller. Mr. Hall also said that a cleaner operating system eliminates potential confusion for customers faced with two different programs that are similar in function-one already in Windows and the other from Windows Live. He also said that Microsoft is working with OEMs are around Windows 7 so that they can place shortcuts that will link to a download page where you can choose just the programs you.

In addition to these decisions, Windows 7 is more customizable, users can further disable features they don’t use in Windows such as Internet Explorer, DVD Maker, Media Center, Windows Search, Gadgets, Handwriting Recognition, Fax and Scan and the XPS Viewer. So any question of bloat is silenced here. Microsoft is listening and they continue make this release of Windows very anticipated, from a features perspective to a performance envy. I hope John C. Dvorak will take some time out and leave Mac and Ubuntu systems, download the Windows 7 beta and actually give it a try instead of bad mouthing because it puts more food on the table.

Resources:

The Engineering Team makes Windows 7 even more Customizable
Windows 7 Uncertainty?
Enhanced Security features in Windows 7
Some Changes Since the Beta for the RC


A few more changes from Beta to RC…

Internet Explorer 8 RTM is now available for download:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx

Its been a long journey to Internet Explorer 8, and now its here:

REDMOND, Wash. — March 18, 2009 — Today Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Windows Internet Explorer 8, the new Web browser that offers the best solution for how people use the

Web today. It can be downloaded in 25 languages at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8

starting at noon EDT on March 19. Internet Explorer 8 is easier to use, faster and offers leading-edge security features in direct response to people’s increasing concerns about online safety. A new study commissioned by Microsoft and the National Cyber Security Alliance and conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. shows that 91 percent of adults in the U.S. are concerned about online threats in the current economic climate, and 78 percent are more likely to choose a Web browser with built-in security than they were two years ago.

Makes Common Online Tasks Faster and Easier

In addition to offering improved security and privacy protections, Internet Explorer 8 is one of the fastest browsers on the market today, beating other top browsers in page load time on almost 50 percent of the 25 top comScore Inc. Web sites.* It also helps people save time while using the Web with easy-to-use new features, including the following:

• Accelerators. Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Users can simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, or share it.
• Web Slices. Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the Web.
• Visual search suggestions. The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.

Learn more here

Previously

What I like about Internet Explorer 8

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So I have been using Windows Internet Explorer 8 since the first beta was released in March of 2008. As the development of this major update reaches the finishing line, I would like to take a look at some of the features I enjoy using and some things I wish had made it in:

1. A more informative address bar, as you can see in the above screenshot, Internet Explorer 8 details information such as the type of application protocol along with the domain name and top level domain name. It might not seem readily useful but makes it easier to identify the security of a website along with the domain name.

2. A more a manageable Address Bar history. Firefox had this for a while now, the ability to delete URL’s in the address bar history list, thank goodness, its in IE 8!

3. Address bar suggestions, Internet Explorer 8 provides an end to end experience when it comes to web browsing. You can also use this feature to search for recently browsed web sites, as you can see, keyboard tips are also presented when working the address bar area.

4. A Search box that’s more intelligent, providing not only a quick way to get results from your search engine, but actually deliver useful information. The above screenshot shows how Microsoft is really innovating when it comes to Search and synergies. This is a great way of saying there is more to Google than Search.

5. Color coordinated tabs is a fun, useful way to keep track your many websites you might have open in the web browser. When ever you open a link a in a tab from within an existing tab, it creates a color set indicating the tab from which it was opened. Coordinated Tabs also works in ‘Quick Tabs’ view and ‘Tabs List’.

6. InPrivate browsing - helps prevent Internet Explorer from storing data about your browsing session. This includes cookies, temporary Internet files, history, and other data. Toolbars and extensions are disabled by default.

7. You gotta love a feature like this, especially for persons who want to know more about the web find similar sites of interest about a certain topic, Web site suggestions does just that and results are surprisingly accurate!

8. There is always that little snippet of information you always go back to a website just get the latest info from. Now let that website bring the information you through Web slice. A great way to know whats going on by simply cropping portion of the website. It doesn’t work sometime for me, for example, I tried to get the weather update from a web slice I created, but IE refused to display the results, instead, displaying only a ‘page not available message’.

9. Accelerators provides useful contextual links for common activities with text that you select on a webpage to perform such tasks as opening a street address in a mapping website or looking up the dictionary definition for a word. You can also choose the web services or websites that Accelerators use to handle different types of tasks.

10. A cleaner, organized way to manage all your Internet Explorer add-ons in simplified categories. This is one area, I had hoped the IE Team would have also applied to the Internet Explorer 8 Options dialog.

So those are just some of the things I like about Internet Explorer 8, there are many more I didn’t even mention such as Smart Screen Filtering and Compatibility View, improved restrictions for ActiveX Controls, enhanced add-on management, improved reliability (including automated crash recovery
and tab restoration), and enhanced support for accessibility

. Here are some things I would have like to see in IE 8:

• Download Manager - trust me, it needs it, I find it very handy in FireFox and Safari - Pause/Resume, Manage.
• Non-adjacent Selection of text on web pages.
• Customizable toolbar, I personally wouldn't mind if buttons such as Home, Feeds, Print, Page, Tools and Help were on a another toolbar group such as the Address bar group, I need more real estate for Tab's that's much cleaner. The new Favorites Bar in particular eats up a lot of space.
• List View layout for Options, similar to Office 2007 Options dialog. Also make the Advance settings a part of the list view Options, this includes: Accessibility, Browsing, International, Multimedia.
• Make Print Preview utilize a Tab instead of opening a separate window.
• Close button Tabs like Firefox.
• One unified 32-bit and one unified 64-bit installer.

Overall Internet Explorer 8 is a major update. Its an innovative release that introduces features users can immediately take advantage of. I hope to have a more formal review when its released along with my own performance test against Firefox 3 which I regularly use. Internet Explorer 8 supports Windows Vista Server 2008 32 and 64 bit, Windows XP Professional 32 and 64 bit, Windows Server 2003 32 and 64 bit.

Resources:

Internet Explorer Blog