Windows 7 Will Fix What Ails Ya
Microsoft’s latest and greatest OS has launched and Apple’s latest ad reminds us to take the general praise from pundits with a grain of salt. We’ve been here before. We’ve heard a lot of things about how this time it’s going to work better, run more smoothly, and so on. But in the end Windows is complex, it’s a patchwork of systems that are integrated to varying degrees, written by so many engineers — or people who I hope are engineers anyway — and tested by various testers and programs of varying skill — that it’s going to have problems. Big problems. They might not appear right away, but they’re coming, and it’ll take a Service Pack or two to iron them out, and then new ones will take their place.
It’s going to break games. Some small games, some big games, some games whose publishers won’t care enough to patch them. Some publishers who won’t be able to afford to patch them. Some publishers who no longer exist to even try to patch them. Such is the fate of gaming on Windows — some software will not run exactly the way it did on previous versions.
I don’t delight in shining a cold light on Windows 7 like this — frankly I wish it did do everything incredibly well, solved world hunger, and brokered world peace — but really, we’ve been down this road before, and the story never really changes. The bottom line isn’t the reviews and praise you hear from the press about the OS today, it’s about seeing how it does over the next year or more up against a plethora of hardware options and game software on those configurations. In other words, the jury is still out.
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” Such is the fate of gaming on Windows — some software will not run exactly the way it did on previous versions.”
Such is the fate of gaming on any non-console format – this is what happens when you have a plethora of different hardware configurations to deal with instead of a fairly rigid platform. The only change over the years is that broadband uptake and the decreasing relevance of the PC as a games platform has increased developer indifference and after-launch patching. Blaming this on Windows is frankly letting developers off the hook and ignoring the faults inherent in PC gaming – the same faults that are also its strengths.
Well, beyond a minor speedbump in the road, my upgrade has gone quite nicely, and the computer is much more efficient than it was under Vista. As for the Speedbump. It will be mentioned in this week's podcast.
Really, though, the ad is a little disingenuous. It's not like Mac OS X was around for all of the Windows releases they mention in the article.
mac has nothing else than hoping the windows present will make them any good. but it wont. also who wrote this article. it is as it says that the complex of the combination of hunderds of motherboards gfx ram etc is windows fault. and NO we havent been this road before.
The road thas we have been before is from mac hearing that with them all are going to be great. and we see how great was the previous version of mac os and now with mac os x be have a bug that eat user data? the most advanced os has also the most advanced bugs??
good try mac but, sorry i dont think so this time. and with ssd hdd to be cheaper and cheaper even the speed advantage on multitasking will not be noticable. they start this “war” im a mac and im a pc. just wait a few months to see how it goes. just wait and see..
And Apple continues to impress with their commercials.
Yes, I loved seeing them get progressively younger, all the way back into the 1980s.
Apple better hope the OS starts to collapse yet again. If not, they'll be stuck going back to just talking about features. This was a dangerous approach though, considering how Windowsy Leopard has become with all its minor issues that frustrate the hell out of power users like me. Still, Snow Leopard should fix all of… waaaaaaaait….
And Apple continues to impress with their commercials.
Yes, I loved seeing them get progressively younger, all the way back into the 1980s.
Apple better hope the OS starts to collapse yet again. If not, they'll be stuck going back to just talking about features. This was a dangerous approach though, considering how Windowsy Leopard has become with all its minor issues that frustrate the hell out of power users like me. Still, Snow Leopard should fix all of… waaaaaaaait….