The title says it all, I would like to get an estimate of the number of users who would purchase adobe software if it were available on Linux.

As I  mentioned in my previous post, I tried out Windows 7 to verify the hype surrounding it and found it very lacking when compared to Linux or OSX. The only reason I have to continue using windows is Adobe Photoshop which I dont really like to be perfectly honest. I want to find out if there are enough buyers for Adobe to consider a Linux version.

Please cast your vote *once* and post a comment if you choose other.

I have been a linux user for quite some time and I loved my stay, although I needed photoshop and had to shift back to Windows (cs2 didn’t work with either crossover or wine on linux for me). Since I dont really like Xp and Vista after using Ubuntu, I decided to give Windows 7 a try.

After getting hold of the ISO I found out that my burner didn’t work, how was I supposed to know that it didnt work, I haven’t used that darn thing in a year. I needed another install method so I used a usb that was lying around. I did a little research and found out that I needed vista to make the usb bootable, so I was stuck there. I could have waited a few hours and go over to my neighbors house to do the install, but I don’t have that kind of patience.  I spent around 4 hours figuring out how to make the usb bootable using the other PC which had xp installed, all of which failed.

Its really late and I am dead sleepy, but I decide to use my recovery disk to install vista and then make the bootable usb and install 7, I know that’s pathetically long and sad but I was desperately in need of photoshop and vista sucks up too much ram while xp simply sucks. An hour has passed and my recovery discs failed to work, i tried them twice.

I gave up and decided to install xp. I am now in Xp and it occurs to me that I can install 7 from the usb once the OS is running and I was right. If this would have occurred to me a little earlier, I would have saved a day of hard work. Now 7 is installing and I feel so proud of myself, it was like winning a battle.

Long story short, I installed windows 7    Sorry you had to read the long story first.

First impressions

Unlike previous versions of windows or Ubuntu, 7 had a very lively start up animation and booted up pretty fast, fastest of all others in my case. The colors were very refreshing and was a welcome change when coming from Ubuntu. Major interface changes like the taskbar which shows only the icons make me wonder why it took so long to come up with that solution. I found it easier to use, more manageable and a much simpler way to manage windows.

There have already been a lot of reviews regarding new features which I will not waste your time with here, I want to address the more subtle changes that make this a great OS.

What I like about Windows 7

Updated Apps

Some of the apps have been given a visual and feature overhaul which were very welcome. The ribbon interface which has been integrated is a pleasure to use, It simplifies the interface and makes it very easy for less experienced users to use the application. Paint, Wordpad, WMP, Calculator have turned into actually usable apps.

The calculator has become much more useful and has prettier interface.

Maximizing

By dragging the window towards the top end of the screen, you can mazimize it. By dragging it down, you can minimize it. I like using this feature from time to time.

Faster

It has a faster boot time, shutdown time, login time, than vista, probably the same as xp. It doesn’t seem to slow down if you stay away from resource hungry apps. I have noticed an increase in file transfers too.

Font Management

Font management has radically improved over previous versions. You can easily install any font by right clicking and selecting install. You can show and hide fonts without deleting them, so you now see only those fonts that are needed. Each font family is grouped together, this really cleans up a lot of mess.

Taskbar

The taskbar is a great addition, it saves a lot of space & time.

PreInstalled Codecs

Windows Media Player had quite a few codecs installed which saved me quite some time, although it wont play many formats like mp4 & mkv.

What I dislike about windows 7

No wmp taskbar view

I have the habbit of watching videos while working. In xp, vista, or ubuntu, I could very easily accomplish that, in 7 I cant. This is a huge disadvantage.

Crappy font rendering

I really missed using the amazing rendering of fonts ubuntu used to provide. This is a great disadvantage, especially for a designer.

Lacking compatibility of the taskbar with firefox

The tabs in IE show up as diff windows and allows you to select any tab, the same does not work in firefox which makes this feature worthless.

SLOW SLOW SLOW

Some things like boot etc are faster but there are many other things that are really slow, like wmp, explorer, start menu, search, sidebar, image viewer. If you have a GB of ram and a dual core 2ghz proccessor, you should be able to accomplish everyday tasks . With snow leopard coming out, and ubuntu working on a faster version, 7 doesnt stand a chance – speed wise.

Too slow for Netbooks

I dont see windows 7 working well on netbooks, it is just not fast enough. I would much rather use a customized version of Ubuntu which works smootly rather than 7 with all its issues.

Hardware support

I had and have problems with my touchpad, mic, webcam, all of which were instantly supported in Ubuntu.

No built in Antivirus

Wouldnt it be crazy if your Acer laptop had a problem and you called Dell customer support, Why should I have to buy an Antivirus software from avast or symantic when the problem is with windows. If I spend my hard earned money on a copy of windows, I expect a product that works without any addons or 3rd party products.

Conclusion

Even though windows 7 is a great visual upgrade, has quite a few features, and has a lot of hype surrounding it, I am not convinced that it is any better than Ubuntu or OSX and I will be shifting back to Ubuntu as soon as possible. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been, it is simply Vista service pack 3 and it does not deserve to be sold with that ridiculous price tag.

What do you think

Let me know what you think, do you think Windows 7 is a fad and overhyped, looking forward to your comments.

Microsoft has started to do some actual work which might do some serious damage to Linux. Windows 7 is coming out with some pretty impressive stuff and I am pretty inclined to try the beta out. I haven’t done any actual testing but reviews have got me caught up on it. It might be worth using if MS keeps at a good pace.

If it is indeed faster, less annoying and better looking, Ubuntu will need to outdo them or it will be loosing a good number of recent converts due to Vista’s “you know what” problem.

I wont be paying for Windows 7 anytime soon, but I will think twice before removing it if it comes preinstalled.

I had already talked about a few reasons to dislike Ubuntu and some features it could implement.

BTW, after checking out the Windows 7 website, I started liking Ubuntu again. Way to go, you almost changed my mind with a crappy website, atleast hire a good designer for gods sake.  Part time bloggers who wrote reviews about it are better marketers than M$ is, did the 60 billion in revenue run out?

Give me your views on the situation, do you think Microsoft might actually for once in a whole lot of years come out with a product worth its price tag downloading.

When Google got into the scene, Yahoo was the king of the jungle. Google had a weapon to hunt, it was simplicity and a powerful search algorithm. Yahoo was shown real competition by two geeks in their garage.

It is true that no matter how good looking an interface, the power of search will always win, but how long do you think will it take for a smarter mathematician to make a better algorithm in his garage. It is just a matter of time and that day does not seem to be very far.

In my opinion Google needs to prepare for rainy days. It has the money and the staff to get better, why not spend a little more in the design department.

Enhancing the search interface isn’t exactly an easy job, but these guys at RefSeek have done a great job.

I am not saying that this is the absolute best but it is indeed an improvement and I am certain that there will be more to come in the future.

The above snapshot shows how much more pleasant it is to look at RefSeek’s design than Google’s.

I might be wrong and this is only my opinion, if so please correct me. I would like to hear what you have to say, so send in your comments.

If you have not already heard of the Graphical User Interface Competition I am hosting in a few weeks, you can learn more about it here. I am looking for sponsors for this event, if you are interested you can contact me at kumailht@gmail.com