The big question flying around corporate hallways (at least the ones I’ve been hanging around lately) is… will Windows 7 be another Vista? That is to say, another disappointment at the box office? It’s probably premature to speculate but that never stopped me before.
I think Windows 7 will do very well, actually. It will use Vista drivers, so the universe of supported hardware will be very large right out of the starting gate. Second, unlike Vista, it looks as though Windows 7 will not require massive injections of hardware horsepower to take advantage of its features. Third, and on a related note, Windows 7 feels quick. Even though the product is still in beta, it performs better than Vista on my test system.
There are other factors at work, too. Microsoft seems to be taking some steps to make User Account Control more palatable. Instead of providing a dozen cryptically-worded Group Policy settings that took most of us weeks to fully comprehend, Microsoft is offering fewer, and more understandable, choices to help us make our own compromises between security and usability. Also, Windows 7 appears to have less baggage. Several applets will no longer be installed by default. Administrators will have more control over what binaries get installed.
Perhaps the most important consideration for readers of this blog is how well all those vaunted “synergies” with Server 2008 really stack up. Future entries in this space will take a look at that question – however, we should remember that if Windows 7 comes out this year, it will likely be placed into more Server 2003 networks than Server 2008 ones. So even if the “synergies” are significant, they may not matter, at least for awhile.
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