Monday, July 13, 2009

Should you Upgrade to Windows 7?

There has been a frenzy at Amazon.com and other e-tailers created by people wanting to upgrade to Windows 7. Is Windows 7 really that good? Should you shell out your hard earned dollars to upgrade. Here is my advice:

1- If you are a Vista User ... You should run as fast as you can and Windows 7. From what I have seen so far it is an improvement over Vista. But then it does not take much to improve Vista. I beleive that most of the frenzy driving up the orders of WIndows 7 are Vista users who cannot wait to unload Vista. But don't get your expectations too high. Consider Windows 7 as Vista Service Pack 4. They should have fixed the issues with Vista in the first place and not charge people to upgrade. I think the Microsoft marketing boys have been watching the tactics of the Russian spyware developers. Sucker people into downloading a virus and then charge them an upgrade to get rid of it. Sorry Vista users but that is the way it is.

2- If you are a Windows 2000/Windows 95 user .. Get a life and get on with the times.

3- If you are a Windows XP user .. first upgrade to Windows XP SP3 and then wait another year for Windows 7 SP1. Windows 7 offers no compelling features such as speed and or new tools for making cool content. And based on Vista experience it will take MS another year to fix all the bugs. There is no sense in spending money unless you need a feature that is only found in Windows 7. Given the fact that the there are no new compelling technology in Windows 7, I would wait and stretch my Windows XP investment as long as I can. If you are looking to upgrade all your hardware within the next year, then I suggest getting a test version of Windows 7 setup to make sure that all your applications still work. And then upgrade sometime after Windows 7 SP1.

4- If you are a Mac OSX user.. then rejoice and wait for Snow Leopard. You have already made a great choice.
5- Don't get suckered into buying Windows 7 ultimate or Enterprise. Stick with Windows 7 Professoinal or Home. The other versions are simply not worth the extra money.