Links to Windows OS' News

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Sometimes you take a wrong turning in life and, Wednesday, a slight concussion led my eyes to fall upon the pages of PCR.

It is a little more intelligent than my normal reading matter, but I am very grateful for its interview with Simon Aldous, Microsoft’s partner group manager.

He was quoted, for example, as saying: “One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use.”

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For many, the official release of a new Microsoft operating system–such as Windows 7–is just the starting of a clock. They will not buy the new OS until Service Pack 1 is released.

Why? Microsoft has a reputation for releasing buggy software. While Windows 7 has been widely tested by real customers, history presents the likelihood that one or more major “gotcha’s” will appear.

With previous operating systems, these were usually fixed in a service pack that followed the release of the new OS. Windows Vista, for example, is currently on Service Pack 2 (SP2), while Windows XP is on SP3.

In the case of Windows 7, Microsoft has said the first service pack is likely to be issued about 12 months after introduction, meaning a year from now, in October 2010.

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As the Mac-PC battle escalated last week with the release of both Windows 7 and the newest iMac and MacBook computers, Apple has debuted a new commercial, part of the long-running “Mac vs. PC” series.

This time, the PC (John Hodgman) is telling the Mac (Justin Long) that Windows 7 is out, and “won’t have any of the problems that Windows Vista had.” The rest of the ad flashes back to the PC saying the same thing about Windows Vista when it was released, and about Windows XP, and Windows ME, etc., and sporting era-specific costumes in each vignette.

Check out the new commercial here

Taken from here

It’s a given that Windows 7, scheduled for release in two weeks, is an improvement over Vista. But how does it stack up against Apple’s (AAPL) Snow Leopard?

The definitive word comes in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital from Walt Mossberg, the diminutive dean of tech journalists and a man who takes his software reviews seriously. After testing Windows 7 for nine months on 11 different machines, he has pronounced it “the best version of Windows Microsoft (MSFT) has produced.” (Ring a bell? See UPDATE below.)

“I still give the Mac OS a slight edge,” he writes, “because it has a much easier and cheaper upgrade path; more built-in software programs; and far less vulnerability to viruses and other malicious software, which are overwhelmingly built to run on Windows. Now, however, it’s much more of a toss-up between the two rivals.

“Apple will have to scramble now that the gift of a flawed Vista has been replaced with a reliable, elegant version of Windows.”

Mossberg has written a positive review; he has plenty of good things to say about Microsoft’s latest operating system, and anybody who is seriously interested in buying it should read the whole thing.

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The version of Windows that succeeds Windows 7 will include a 128-bit architecture, according to an embarrassing leak from Microsoft’s research and development team in the US.

Microsoft employee Robert Morgan appeared to detail the software giant’s plans for Windows 8, and even Windows 9, on business networking site LinkedIn, where he listed his job as ’senior research and development’. His profile has now been removed from the main LinkedIn site, but is still viewable in Google’s search cache.In it, he says he’s “working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects.”

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Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is offering the Home Premium version of its new Windows 7 operating system to college students for just $30. The OS usually sells for $119.

In order to qualify, students must enter their college or university e-mail address into a special Web site that Microsoft has established in partnership with distributor Digital River for the promotion.

Microsoft said it also may require proof of enrollment, but it was not immediately clear how rigidly the software maker plans to enforce the policy.

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Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) took on rival Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) head on this week in the education market with a special offer for students to purchase Windows 7 for $30, about the same price as Apple’s competing Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Microsoft is promoting the offer, which runs through January 3, 2010, on a special Win741.com Web site, where students can buy the upcoming operating system as long as they provide a valid student e-mail address. The offer applies to Home Premium and Professional versions of Windows 7.

The Windows 7 special offer comes as Apple makes a push to grab share from Microsoft with Snow Leopard pricing aimed at undercutting Microsoft for the first time ever. Indeed, Apple, which released Snow Leopard on August 28, has gone to great lengths to price its products at a premium compared to Microsoft. Nevertheless, here are five reasons why Windows 7 is a better deal for students than Snow Leopard.

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Apparently Microsoft isn’t doing everything with Windows 7 differently from how it did Windows Vista.

As was the case with Vista, Windows 7 will get its formal launch in the Big Apple. CEO Steve Ballmer will preside over the October 22 event, with the usual array of hardware partners showing off their latest wares.

But that’s not the only Gotham event for Microsoft in October. The company is also doing a consumer open house at the Park Avenue Armory, led by Robbie Bach, on October 6. Microsoft plans to highlight everything from the Zune and new phones to hardware products like keyboards and mice.

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William didn’t think he was buying a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro and he took the right measures to insure that his copy was valid. But, despite his best efforts, an illegitimate copy seems to be what he has.

“In April of 2007,” he writes. “I bought a copy of Windows XP Pro from an online company. Always suspicious, I checked it out with Microsoft Genuine Advantage Tools, which pronounced it legal and legitimate. There were no qualifications, caveats or other warnings with the validation.”

All went well with this operating system for over a year. Then, one day, he got a message announcing his copy of XP was legal no more. “One week I have a legitimate copy and the next I don’t,” he says. “If Microsoft declared my copy legal in 2007, it should stay legal. Why is this such a wishy-washy situation? Now I can’t get updates and if I have to reinstall the operating system I won’t be able to.”

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