I’ve been using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 RS (modified to look almost identical to Windows 7) during the day for a few months now and I’ve been loving it. At home though I’ve been using Vista on my main computer, where I do most of my design work and I’ve been hating it.
It’s not that Vista was out right horrible. It was just kinda horrible. And any bit of horrible in a software product really is too much of it. Seems obvious but it’s actually hard to get rid of horrible at times. It shouldn’t be, but whenever you have lots of people working on something you have lots of ideas. Things get fractured communication and development wise, let alone “vision”. It’s sad but true. Not inevitable mind you.
But I digress.
I like Windows 7. In fact I have to say I like it enough that I no longer really care about Mac OSX. Mac OSX is nice, it has a few quirks that I don’t care for (where’s the maximize window button!), but with how incomplete Vista was feeling and how old XP was feeling I was seriously looking to give it a shot.
Then Windows 7 came along, and for the first time since the beta of XP I actually cared about Windows. With 7 I’ve had many “iPhone Moments”. These are moments I’ve termed from my initial few months with my iPhone, when I’d think of something and try it and it just worked. Windows 7 has provided many of these. Something Vista never did.
It really comes down to “iPhone Moments” for me and many other users. To get what you expect but to deliver it in a new manner. When I started thinking about this and my waning interest in Mac OSX I started to realize half of the appeal of Apple was the entire package, not just the OS. This is what Apple really gets, and what Microsoft only seems to get with the XBox and its development tools. The package deal is what really matters, the entire user experience.
So in the end what I really want right now is Macbook Pro hardware with Windows 7. An OS that supports all the apps I use and love and has those great moments delivering me what I expect in a new manner.