Apple trying to steal Windows 7 launch Hype

[Kevin]

While I'm no Mac user by any means, the specifications on the new models are very impressive. Though I can't help but feel like the power of the i7 would be going to waste if not primarily used for very heavy computing or gaming. That's where it's potential lays.

If I had lots of money to spend.. (:

I agree that the specifications on the new models do look impressive. I heard a lot of good things about Intel's i7 chip, but have yet to see it in its full potential. I wish Apple and other PC makers would offer more Solid State Drive options though due to their advantages over the regular hard drivers. Yes, they also have their disadvantages, but they're improving and coming down in price very quickly.

[Saint Nathan]

Hey the "virus" issues in Windows, yeah, that's because most viruses are MADE for Windows. There are so few Mac users, nobody will bother to make a virus for it. It's done easily, but why bother pissing off a few thousand people when you could piss off about half the world?

I'm not defending Microsoft here, but really, it's not superior virus protection it's just hackers prioritizing.

Also, Linux. That is all.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Nathan Speed

[Tornado]

Not strictly true. Unix-based OS's are more secure by default partially because Microsoft is unable to tell people who refuse to update their Windows 98-era software/hardware to just fuck off (read: Like Apple did in 2005) without incredible backlash; so they have to keep spaghetti-ing themselves into a hole in order to support legacy stuff.

Vista + XP = 7

XP mode is a joke and an insult to intelligent buyers everywhere. MS, once again, failing. Look at Windows 7 prices. They didn't cut the price AT ALL? NO!

I'll pay for a mac because I feel more comfortable ordering stuff with my credit card online with one...with my windows machine...I have to reinstall the OS twice a year to keep it running well.

My 7 year old mac laptop still runs like new...and my new mac laptop runs like the wind!

Blah blah biased anecdotal evidence is once again the gospel blah blah. Exactly why I didn't bother with your little challenge.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Tornado

[Candescence]

Windows 7 wins because it already has an OS-tan. An official one, at that.

In all seriousness, some of the stuff ain't half-bad.

[Foxy]

"If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool" was the quote, not mine, that seems to be making the rounds regarding Window 7 Launch Parties!

http://iwonderdesigns.posterous.com/windows-7-launch-party-epic-fail/

http://blog.iwonderdesigns.com/2009/10/07/windows-7-launch-party-epic-fail/

I just Googled "Windows 7 launch parties success or fail" and it looks like fail...

Maybe Apple should do a "I'm a Mac" commercial and have "PC" hungover from his launch party.

Anyway, it was interesting what I read and the videos of Windows 7 I saw on this BBC News site - see link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8310867.stm

where the tech guy was showing off some Windows 7 features like how you can move the icons around in the Dock er I mean Windows Task Bar and right click their contextual menu and the fact that the Gadgets can be moved around the desktop whereas in Vista they were frozen to one side. It was all so intriguing to see the touch screens with, now get this, multi touch gestures and pinch to zoom effects, etc... Ooooooow.... Aaaaaahhh.... Wwoooooooww... Or course it would have been cooler had the BBC guy did some practicing before hand because the touch screen worked about as well as when MS demoed Voice Recognition, (look that up on Youtube to refresh your memory but take my word for it). After seeing that I didn't care to be wowed by the other video, but I thought, 3 years, how many engineers and for this?! I'm not trying to be an Apple fangirl when I say this, but I hope Windows 7 gets better!

Heck there is even a transcript of Steve Ballmer doing his Windows 7 keynote without the Monkeyboy dance and a dry dress shirt on and Ballmer was quoted talking about "sharing photos and streaming from your PC to your TV"... and it reminded me of Steve Jobs talking about Apple TV and that for now it is just a "hobby" and that was how many years back. See WSJ commentator in the video at the bottom of the transcript which is where I saw the whole sharing photos thing as if it were some groundbreaking news...

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/10/22/live-blogging-the-windows-7-launch/

Finally, back to the Windows 7 Launch Parties... This I think says it all... It's a comment to the post about half way down...

http://forums.pcworld.com/index.php?/topic/67231-/page__st__15

"Hey folks, I got authorized to host a Launch Party and invited some friends I know use their computers a fair amount, but only a couple have even REPLIED to my email, and only ONE of those (my next-door-neighbor) has even said he'll come, and even HE hasn't done the "official RSVP thingie" yet.

Well, he replied to ME with his email invite intact, and I clicked on the RSVP, just to see, and it includes a box to agree to the Launch Party TOS and RELEASE (and I clicked the links, and while I didn't read it ALL, it looked like the whole TON of apparently life-sucking legaleze I had to agree to in order to HOST a party). With even GUESTS having to agree to everything short of giving up their BIRTHRIGHTS to Microsoft and its subsidiaries, heirs, etc., how is ANYBODY supposed to actually get people to do the "official RSVP?!?"

After looking at that TOS and RELEASE, I'm almost afraid and/or embarrassed to even send out any more invitations!

Jeff "

And from this blog...

"And the "legal jargon" section - was FOUR PAGES LONG - single spaced size 12 font! I feel bad about the internet trees, so I wont publish the whole thing but it's over 1,500 words."

http://www.baseonesearch.co.uk/blog/2009/09/why-microsofts-windows7-launch.html

And those Apple haters wonder why the "I'm a PC" is always dressed in that stodgy brown suit!

So to wrap things up... I hope for all their efforts, those 3,000 engineers, 50,000 partners and eight million beta testers, that Windows 7 was worth it! I'll leave that to your judgement or experience.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/174237/windows_7_launch_parties_fizzle.html

As for me, I'll stay right where I am... :apple:

Lastly, to end this comment and have you leave with a smile... a quote about the Windows 7 launch from the WSJ link above...

"11:00 a.m. EST: At the Windows 7 launch event in New York. It’s a zoo. Standing room only, but that’s mainly because Microsoft seems only to have budgeted for about 50 chairs. Lights are dimming. Micrsoft is playing Windows television commercials."

Jeeeezzz, I just realized MS has gone from imitating retail stores to keynotes! Microsoft / Steve Ballmer copying a Steve Jobs Keynote speech... lights dimming, Apple's "I'm a Mac" commercial plays... except Apple budget's for more chairs.... there's your answer PC'ers to why Macs cost more than your precious PCs... it's to provide chairs for everybody at their keynote events! : )

Good night folks...

Edited October 24, 2009 by Foxy

[Saint Nathan]

there's your answer PC'ers to why Macs cost more than your precious PCs... it's to provide chairs for everybody at their keynote events! : )

Oh, I thought it was because Apple are money hogs and have design and cost come before functionality. Huh.

[Remy]

Do people actually go to OS launch parties?

I can hardly think o anything I'd want to do less at night time, regardless of OS.

I'd also imagine most people dedicated enough to go to a windows 7 launch would already be running W7 anyway.

[DarkOverord]

You must be working in the burger king, poor little guy ..its sad.... someone needs a hug :3

If you aren't happy with the price of Apple computers then they give you plenty of options by going elsewhere.

........¬¬ I don't care if you're a girl, I will fucking punch you if I ever see you.

And that's besides the point. Macs are of lower specs than some PC's, I don't care if they're more "efficient" as has been put forward. I'm just on about the actual hardware, not how the OS handles the hardware. With how cheap hardware is, and for good hardware might I add, it seems to me like I'm paying +$600 for a OS. Okay I guess I'm getting a swish screen (I do have to admit, their screens are cool). So about $500. Even MS' most expensive is less than that. And now I leave this topic before I start getting into another argument with how unbelievably annoying Foxy gets over Macs.

Edited October 24, 2009 by DarkOverord

[Gatestormer]

I'm now using OSX Snow Leopard on a £1299 Macbook Pro simply because I prefer it to Windows. If people want to use Windows or Linux then what right do I have to judge them? It's their money not mine, and therefore none of my business. It's as simple as that, why the hell are people fighting? It's no different and as petty as Sonic and Mario fans bitching at each other over which series is best and I know that people on this board would frown upon silly arguments like that.

As for the actual topic, I'm not interested in the Mac Mini, Macbook or the new iMac obviously because of my new Macbook Pro, but I am definitely interested in the Magic Mouse. I was expecting to get a Mighty Mouse but now I'm glad I didn't. I'll probably pop into an Apple Store somewhen before hand and try it out on an iMac in store...it seems like it would work pretty well.

Edited October 24, 2009 by ENVY16

[Foxy]

Better performance doesn't hurt either:

Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

Which machine are you running W7 on? I have it running on a 24" iMac and an Asus TW100-E5 Workstation.

By my comparisons, SL feels faster and more responsive than W7 - YMMV.

I find SL easier to navigate, more responsive, and less convoluted. The act of simply dropping apps into the Dock in OS X

is leagues easier than the multiple clicking/pinning required to do so with the Task Bar, which won't even allow folders or documents to be 'pinned.'

The excessive animation in Aero leaves much to be desired, as it is not nearly as smooth, elegant, or as subtle as Core Animation/Graphics, and the

"In Your Face" UI of W7 grows tiresome quickly. The organization of menus and substructures in W7 leaves much to be desired - take a look at the Control Panel.

I prefer the ease of Quick Look to Aero Peek, and the flexibility of Exposé and Spaces to the Task Bar functions - not to mention, having to deal with The Registry,

DLLs, DRM, and other archaic Windows carry overs. That said, I'm greatly looking forward to testing SL out on a new Quad-Core i7 27" iMac.

When it is released. Hopefully, with the gradual development, implementation, evolution of apps which will take advantage of GCD and Open CL, performance will reach an even higher level.

Edited October 25, 2009 by Foxy

[DarkOverord]

Oh, I just realised why I can't aford an Mac Foxy. That Physics degree that takes £3200 of my money each year and is a lot more worth it.

Yes performance is nice. And in fairness I don't give a shit whether you like it or not. I do wish you'd tone down your elitest attitude Foxy. My housemate hates people like you. And he loves his macs. He also hates Google. God knows why, sommot to do with "refusing to use the biggest brands". *shrug* Yes. I will openly admit here and now. Macs run better. But it doesn't always mean they're worth that kind of money, I'm sorry but apple, Adobe, even Microsoft, are guilty of this, they're using prices that aren't valid for the current day market, specially in the current economics with countries in recession.

Edited October 24, 2009 by DarkOverord

[pooshoes]

"If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool"

I had a bit of a think about this quote, as it struck me as being a bit odd. After a while, I came to 2 conclusions.

1. You could market anything to a Mac user if you told them it's cool. Would you like some iCrack for your iPipe? It'll put your street cred through the roof!

2. Mac users think that having sex is cool. This clearly shows that Mac fans are virgins.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Pooshoes?

[GerbilSoft]

To everyone sick of the fanboyism here, let me point out a few lines:

I am shocked at how fast AAPL has gone up. Definitely my best stock. I bought a chunk in the 80s earlier this year. I was going to sell this morning but then it took off so I am still holding. I am itching to sell but how much higher is it going to go.. Its crazy.....

This is the single reason not to trust Foxy about anything with regards to computer systems. She owns Apple stock, so she has a financial incentive to convince people to get Macintoshes and other Apple products.

By the way, I have a Power Macintosh G4 that can be crashed (kernel panic) with a two-line Python script, running as a standard user. So much for "more secure".

[thesketchsector]

To be honest, I just prefer mac out of personal preference. I own a mac and I like it, but I'm not against windows. I'll say I'm excited to see what Windows 7 can do, and if I ever felt the need I'd get parallels and put them both on here. But for me, I just like Mac more. Nothing personal, Bill.

[Chris]

"If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool"

The creator of that analogy is a very intelligent individual, I can tell. :\

Better performance doesn't hurt either:

Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

.. As always, you're picking specific bits of information from the article to support your point while leaving information which disproves the usefulness in comparison to Windows 7. While Snow Leopard seems to be more optimized for desktop computing (and not by something I'd consider a large margin or purchase determining variable), it still falls short at utilizing the full potential of the hardware it's solely designed to run on. Look at their comparison framerates for Call of Duty 4, a game which isn't difficult to run on maximum settings on today's hardware.

[Brigado]

From the Windows 7 vs Snow Leopard article:

Ngo writes that he believes drivers are to blame for the discrepancy, but the differences are clear: If you’ve got a MacBook, run OS X; if you’re a gamer, use Windows 7, even on Apple hardware; for basic users, you’ll be happy with either system; if you’ve got money to burn, buy a Mac so you can run both OSes.

And that, for me as gamer, is why I'll always get a Windows over a Mac OS. Sorry Apple.

[DarkOverord]

The creator of that analogy is a very intelligent individual, I can tell. :\

I thought it was foxy herself >.>

Edited October 25, 2009 by DarkOverord

[Phos]

That graph is almost as professional as this one:

Edit: Or this one

First off all, "Multimedia Multitasking"? What does that entail? You might as well just say "things".

Shutdown and boot time? Fine, OSX is faster at that. My mouse has a mind of it's own but at least my OS of choice is good at starting up and shutting down!!

As for the last one, I just have to laugh. Apple software (intentionally?)* runs like shit on Windows. I'm also convinced that Boot Camp was essentially thrown together, or at least adds a great deal of bloat on it's own. Unless these tests were done on a hackintosh, there's no way to really avoid installing boot camp and have it still be fair.

*I have a 17 inch Mac Book Pro, with Windows on it. For example, Images appear the same with both OS's, but videos played in quicktime and iTunes have substantially less contrast than those played in other players. This appears to be intentional.

Edit 2: Brilliant, just fucking brilliant! They used 64 bit applications for this test... even though Boot Camp isn't meant to work with 64 bit anything, so the Windows installation is either a hack job or they gave OS X the advantage of 64 bit applications. I also love how it didn't even seem to cross their mind to use the same version of Quicktime for the tests. Even more hilariously, the OS's aren't even on the same brand of drive.

Oh, and:

The excessive animation in Aero leaves much to be desired, as it is not nearly as smooth, elegant, or as subtle as Core Animation/Graphics, and the

"In Your Face" UI of W7 grows tiresome quickly.

Sure, the window that quickly whisks itself down to it's bar is more garish than the genie effect:

Edited October 26, 2009 by Phos

[Foxy]

Windows 7 is sweeping things up with a strange bubble of positive thinking mainly achieved by the fact that it looks pretty. It has a nice gloss on it, but when it comes down to it the UI is obtrusive, which is exactly what OS X has been getting away from over the years, by toning things down and making them more functional. Unfortunately people don't see this, they look at Windows 7 and think "ooh shiny", they look at OS X and think "oh, grey". But when it comes down to it Windows 7's interface is distracting, and frequently annoying, while OS X's you forget it's there until you need it to do something in a couple of clicks. I've yet to find any of my common tasks as easy to achieve on Windows 7 as in OS X, as I find myself have to take all kinds of annoying extra steps.

The underpinnings of Windows 7 are ultimately the same, and are based on the same flawed components that have been there since Windows 95, possibly even earlier! They removed a load of bloat from Vista, and that's great, but really it should never have been there in the first place.

Functionality wise, productivity-wise etc. they have made little to no real progress at all, it's all eye-candy and fluff. What have they done that could really matter in the long-run? Snow Leopard has added great new technologies onto a heap of great new technologies, that Windows, C#, and .NET simply don't have. But what's more, many of these great new technologies are open-source, not proprietary, or anti-competitive.

And I don't see how Windows 7 wins on stability, as I've seen it lock-up three or four times on a clean-install, doing nothing really out-of-the-ordinary. That's lock up the entire system, not just a program ceasing to respond (which is the program's fault not the OS). I've also had it randomly crash during start-up!

[Remy]

Snow Leopard has added great new technologies onto a heap of great new technologies,

What, exactly? apart from half assed 64-bit support?

And I don't see how Windows 7 wins on stability, as I've seen it lock-up three or four times on a clean-install, doing nothing really out-of-the-ordinary. That's lock up the entire system, not just a program ceasing to respond (which is the program's fault not the OS). I've also had it randomly crash during start-up!

I haven't had it lock up once. Point?

[Chris]

And I don't see how Windows 7 wins on stability, as I've seen it lock-up three or four times on a clean-install, doing nothing really out-of-the-ordinary. That's lock up the entire system, not just a program ceasing to respond (which is the program's fault not the OS). I've also had it randomly crash during start-up!

Windows 7 is stable if you aren't running it on shoddy hardware. OSX has just as much a chance to lock up if those are the circumstances.

I've never had Vista x64 nor Windowx 7 x64 lock up even once on my desktop because of a Microsoft-related issue. The only issues I've run into, which were resolved fairly quickly, involved nvidia's driver support.

[Foxy]

Windows 7 is stable if you aren't running it on shoddy hardware. OSX has just as much a chance to lock up if those are the circumstances.

I've never had Vista x64 nor Windowx 7 x64 lock up even once on my desktop because of a Microsoft-related issue. The only issues I've run into, which were resolved fairly quickly, involved nvidia's driver support.

to come out and state that one is more stable than the other, given presumably nothing more than your own limited personal experience isn't really going to change anyone's opinions one way or the other, is it?

Unfortunately, it probably will at least bring out people to question SL over Win 7. Those people are generally inept and rely on simple statements like this to make computing decisions. However, if people are smart they'll test both and see what happens you know? 

Is SL unstable? I don't know. In my limited user experience on three very different machines I have not found SL to be unstable.

Perhaps you might want to validate your argument with the type of pc you are using with the operating systems and the environment you are using them in e.g what workloads and programs. Just a thought to give more substance to your statement.

  

I call "Troll"

I call mega troll.

What the you are saying is 

- Your Seven never hangs (or very rarely because of driver .... well it IS a hang IMO)

- Your OSX never hangs

- consequence: Win7 is more stable

#Windows 7-running computers with problems/# of total computers with Windows 7 installed

Vs.

#Snow Leopard-running computers with problems/# of total computers with Snow Leopard installed

Come back with real data and we'll talk. Second the troll comment.

[Tornado]

to come out and state that one is more stable than the other, given presumably nothing more than your own limited personal experience isn't really going to change anyone's opinions one way or the other, is it?

Perhaps you might want to validate your argument with the type of pc you are using with the operating systems and the environment you are using them in e.g what workloads and programs. Just a thought to give more substance to your statement.

I call "Troll"

I call mega troll.

Surprise surprise, its perfectly acceptable for the Mac fan to say Windows is a shoddy unstable piece of shit based on biased anecdotes, but if anyone dares challenge that notion they are trolling.

By the way, he wasn't saying this:

- Your Seven never hangs (or very rarely because of driver .... well it IS a hang IMO)

- Your OSX never hangs

- consequence: Win7 is more stable

The consequence you construed from his statement is entirely a product of your own mind.

Edited October 26, 2009 by Tornado

[Foxy]

give your win7 registry a month or two of use and come back here and try to claim that win7 is more stable than OSX. you'll be singing a different tune.

even the best maintained systems fall victim to MS' registry inefficiencies at some point in my experience.

[Phos]

give your win7 registry a month or two of use and come back here and try to claim that win7 is more stable than OSX. you'll be singing a different tune.

even the best maintained systems fall victim to MS' registry inefficiencies at some point in my experience.

Cool story bro.