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The Windows 7 GUI from a Linux user's perspective

tgdaily.com — Not many Linux users were impressed. The only significant feature Linux doesn't already include natively in its many free versions is multi-touch. But will these nifty new Windows 7 features be enough to keep Microsoft's user base happy? Or is it finally time for a change?

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 30, 2008

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  • zombiepig, on 10/29/2008, -7/+93Really bad, inaccurate article.

    Full of stupid comments like:
    "Beryl is an add-on to Linux, one that's easily downloaded and installed in Ubuntu."
    "the Gnome 2.4 desktop (by default - can be upgraded to Beryl with download)"

    Also wanna point out that linux distros are likely to see full multi-touch support in the next round, it'll be available in the next x server, and compiz has already been adapted for it.


  • AtraNoxVII, on 10/30/2008, -22/+76"Not many Linux users were impressed."

    Now you know how we feel about your OS.

    ;)
  • kd420, on 10/29/2008, -2/+53As a Linux user, I have to say that MS has stepped it up with 7. There are a number of features that look cool AND useful (such as dragging windows to edges, peaking at windows). Hopefully they are being truthful here when they say it can run on 1gb ram, but almost all companies low ball requirements anyways. The big question is the cost to upgrade from Vista. In a perfect world, it'd be a free upgrade, but I guess we have to look at it from MS's view of profit maximization.
  • dist0rtedwave, on 10/30/2008, -14/+55OMG, you run linux???? Can I touch your hand? Also, here is my baby, please... please be its godfather.
  • gavintlgold, on 10/29/2008, -4/+44Yeah, where has this guy been? Beryl was dead like 1 1/2 years ago.

    Long live Compiz Fusion.

    I was impressed by Windows 7. I like what they're doing with it. I think it will challenge Ubuntu a bit more (which is actually catching up in terms of usability--setting up network printers and network cards is now easier than windows, and faster, IMHO). More and more people are hearing about Open Source nowadays, and there was the article about Ubuntu taking a little bite out of Windows' market share.

    If Windows 7 is actually successful, Ubuntu will be forced to truly work hard to get stuff like multitouch working in a user-friendly way, and perhaps rework their look and desktop setup. If they work on their appearance, they can attract new users (I know I know, it's bad to judge based on the look of an OS, but that's what people like doing. If it looks ugly they give up, thinking it's not worth it).
  • Polly, on 10/30/2008, -3/+36"Not many Linux users were impressed."

    Well imagine that.
  • dcherryholmes, on 10/30/2008, -3/+31To the guy who said it took him a half hour to get Ubuntu into a usable state.... I think you're even selling it a bit short. Considering it's a live cd, and half of what a lot of people do is web-oriented in the first place, it's in a "usable state" right off the CD boot. Beat that, Windows!
  • shethinkmefunny, on 10/30/2008, -7/+35The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the new Windows 7 UI was KDE 4. That's definitely not a bad thing though - KDE 4 is going to be an excellent DE, and they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This may be a sign of things to come - now that Linux has reached rough feature-parity with its commercial bretheren, the ever-accelerating development of open-source software will put it at the forefront of innovation, with MS and Apple playing catch up.
  • chipotlehero, on 10/30/2008, -2/+21To me it looks strangely similar to KDE
  • MWeather, on 10/30/2008, -0/+19"Really bad, inaccurate article."

    Agreed. Xorg has multi-touch drivers.
    http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/
  • inactive, on 10/30/2008, -6/+23Since when does Linux have a GUI?

    Gnome, KDE, Fluxbox, XFCE, etc. are not part of Linux.
  • walkertexas69, on 10/30/2008, -0/+17But if it only needs 1GB to run well then it will run even better on 2GB... a little efficiency wouldn't hurt.
  • ebarras, on 10/30/2008, -2/+18Please stop with this Linux vs Windows stuff. It is clogging the Internets. If it works for you, use it... Nobody cares anymore. A computer is a tool. An OS is a tool. If it gets the job done, yay! Next topic please.
  • CaptObvious, on 10/30/2008, -0/+14From the article:

    "gadgets which are no longer locked in the sidebar (they can now be moved anywhere on the desktop)"

    I can do this now in Vista...or am I reading this wrong?
  • tagnarth, on 10/30/2008, -1/+15MS Seems to do stuff like this quite a bit. They will spend tons of time making a large intricate base that has tons of potential. It then makes a release that's barebones and kinda meh.. After that it takes advantage of that base and shows off it's potential.

    Windows 95 = Base
    Windows 98 = Show Off

    Windows 2000 = Base
    Windows XP SP2 = Show Off

    .NET 1.0 = Base
    .NET 2.0 = Extend the base with Generics, Anonymous Delegates
    .NET 3.5 = Show Off: LINQ, one of the most beautiful additions to any programming language. Silverlight, WPF, XNA all show the benefit of the work put into 1.0 and 2.0.

    Windows Vista = Base
    Windows 7 = Major Show off

    Vista was a huge undertaking to overhaul the graphics subsystem, shore up the security and add many new API's for developers. Now that they have that base of the 3D graphics system they can start to show it off. Linux has taken quite a bit of time to move to the point it has all these nice features. Mac OS X as well, Apple got lucky by using existing software too.
  • Benno, on 10/30/2008, -1/+14Without a decent CLI or virtual desktops I don't get much work done :(
  • CaptObvious, on 10/30/2008, -12/+25You're not impressed by the fact that it offers more than Vista while being free?
  • powatom, on 10/30/2008, -5/+17Uhhh - have you ever actually used Linux? Once it's set up, it will stay stable until you decide to go ***** about. Windows is a nightmare from a stability perspective.
  • GutterMoo, on 10/30/2008, -2/+14Last time I checked Linux does that stuff just fine. You just happen to be a moron who fails to realize that there are better things out there.
  • jeffkee, on 10/30/2008, -1/+13Shouldn't you view the Windows GUI from a Windows user's perspective?

    It's like asking a dog to taste cat food and provide opinion, it seems.
  • GavinZac, on 10/30/2008, -3/+14Couldn't. You -couldn't- care less.

    Saying that you could care less implies that you care at least some bit. If you -couldn't- care less, you don't care at all.
  • patm1987, on 10/30/2008, -0/+11I still have DDR1, even 1GB of ram would run me around $75 for the cheapest. Fortunately I do have 2GB of memory, but on my college income I could not justify switching over to a new mobo and processor (still have an AMD X2 4600+ socket 939). So, 2GB is a big deal for me as well as many people I know in the same boat here.
  • MWeather, on 10/30/2008, -1/+12Are they finally going to go with a modern filesystem?
  • sphigel, on 10/30/2008, -2/+13No offense but what is the big deal with needing 2GB of RAM to run Vista? You can buy 2GB of DDR2 for $30. It is the absolute cheapest way to boost performance on your computer. I don't really see how not running well on 1GB of RAM is a problem for any OS. Hell, I wouldn't want to run Leopard on only 1GB either.
  • cubicledrone, on 10/30/2008, -3/+14Bash is the GUI. Windows still can't do pipes right, and pipes were part of the UNIX shell when Millard Fillmore was President.
  • dalittle, on 10/30/2008, -4/+14I could care less about multi touch. I could care less about some fancy device docking thing, I could careless about some fancy tool bar, I could careless transparent windows.

    I want 15 sec or less boot up times, stability, and speed. They should get rid of the registry and make it easier to operate (ie not 8 ways to shut the computer down).
  • foolfoolz, on 10/30/2008, -4/+14id rather have less glossy crap and special effects. I know vista was all about the "wow" but I dont want my OS to wow me, I want my programs to do that.

    And where are workspaces. Anyone know if windows 7 has workspaces yet?
  • zeebo, on 10/30/2008, -3/+13Really? I've always seen KDE as trying to immitate and expand upon Windows and MacOS X, while Gnome tends to be more similar to classic Mac OS, BeOS, AmigaOS, and various other lesser known UIs. Of course, the configurability is there to make Gnome a Windows clone, but most distros now go with something closer to its default set up.
  • CaptObvious, on 10/30/2008, -14/+24Have you even tried it? Ubuntu installs with less headaches on my Inspiron 1525 than Vista or XP. Intel ICH8 requires special drivers in the XP installation before it will even see the HDD, same for Vista. It took me over two hours to get Vista to a usable state (SP1), with Ubuntu it takes less than 30 minutes.
  • LastDitchHero, on 10/30/2008, -2/+12Ummm, I use Linux and it seemed alright. Really guys get over the Windows bashing. Microsoft has made serious strives with XP and will continue to do so. So Linux better start innovating a little more than "hey we aren't Microsoft" or hey we run on really low end machines well.
  • TheOther1, on 10/30/2008, -0/+10And Mac users like to be smug
  • covertbadger, on 10/30/2008, -3/+13Depends on your perspective. For me, an Xmonad dektop is far, far more usable and productive than Windows or OSX on their best day. I don't have any hardware it doesn't work with, either.
  • OrangeSoda31, on 10/30/2008, -0/+9That sounds like what a linux user would say about switching to windows...
  • DomZy, on 10/30/2008, -0/+9I want the "peek at desktop". At the moment I have to settle for having fade to desktop as a hot corner. Overall I'm impressed that Microsoft are getting off their asses and actually improving the user experience. That being said, my default partition isn't going to be changing from linux anytime soon over the next few years.
  • CaptObvious, on 10/30/2008, -0/+9No it doesn't. I can close it after I remove all the gadgets and place them on the desktop.
  • cubicledrone, on 10/30/2008, -2/+10Breaking news: Without Linux, the Interweb would go dark like a 1953 RCA television. BBBEEEEOOooooooo.... *click*

  • zeebo, on 10/30/2008, -0/+8I've been playing games with it for months. I didn't know there was a problem, but then I use the premium wines most of the time.
  • DeathfireD, on 10/30/2008, -0/+8@sphigel - Considering Ubuntu with Compiz and all the bells and whistles Vista has can run on less then 1GB of ram with no problem at all, I'd say Microsoft screwed up big time. Thank god Windows 7 seems to have a better handle on ram consumption. I feel bad for the people that think it's ok for an OS to need more then a gig to run flawlessly.
  • Akairenn, on 10/30/2008, -28/+36More what? More dicking about with configuration files before you can actually get to work?

    Linux is no threat to Windows on the desktop. It never has been; I really doubt it ever will be.

  • Sokkratez, on 10/30/2008, -2/+10Not needing to use a command line is what defines a good GUI.
  • SteveMax, on 10/30/2008, -1/+8To be fair, the default filesystem in most Linux distros is ext3, which is hardly modern. Next year the push for ext4 should increase, but it is still a stopgap measure before btrfs. OS X uses HFS, which basically is as ancient as NTFS. Only Solaris and FreeBSD uses a really modern filesystem, ZFS.

    However, both Linux and OS X have a next generation filesystem announced, even if it's not ready for prime time or not fully deployed yet. Microsoft had WinFS, but you can't mention that near Redmond anymore without being shot.
  • smotpoker, on 10/30/2008, -1/+8@she

    "now that Linux has reached rough feature-parity with its commercial bretheren, the ever-accelerating development of open-source software will put it at the forefront of innovation, with MS and Apple playing catch up."

    Windows and OSX have been playing catch up for years already in many regards. FS journaling, remote GUI capability out of the box, multiple desktops, access control, better cpu scheduling, network stack, raw sockets, etc etc etc. The only aspects Linux doesn't really lead in is current PC hardware drivers, DRM'd media, games and maybe some GUI features/polish; but it is constantly making headway in most of those areas and in nearly all others it is superior and Windows/OSX is just catching up. (Remember, we're talking OSes here, not individual applications or specific gui components).

    @brett

    You seem to either be mistaken or something.

    "I see KDE as playing catchup with Apple and GNOME playing catchup with Windows. I mean GNOME *just* released the ability to pick a program to run a movie if a DVD it popped in, or photo collection software when a camera is plugged in."

    On what basis do you assess who is catching up with who? What do you mean by "just"? I know my mom's gnome has had that ability for at least a year and my sister's KDE for at least 2-3 years. I would be willing to bet they existed well before then but I didn't ever really use too many removable storage devices or gnome/kde much personally. Perhaps the options were a bit more hidden before (sorta like the "Open With..." menu option in Windows is/was) or something was broke in your installation.
  • zeebo, on 10/30/2008, -1/+8That's what Linux is these days. That's why its the first choice of anyone building any kind of small device, whether it be an embedded system, or a netbook. As systems like splashtop become more popular and virtualization improves, its likely that windows will only exist as a virtualized legacy mode, much like it already does for Mac users.
  • TheNik, on 10/30/2008, -0/+7OH ***** X-WINDOW BURN!!!!!
  • gkyler, on 10/30/2008, -8/+15Am I missing something or is Windows 7 beta basically just Vista renamed with a few tiny mods? Not really a bad thing since Vista is hardly as bad as the media makes it out to be - In my opinion the best update is the fact that User Access Control/UAC has 4 annoyance levels, with the default being far less annoying than in Vista. One big gripe so far is the lack of the start menu classic option... I'll just have to get used to the new start menu, or perhaps the final version will include it
  • PFS1, on 10/30/2008, -0/+7For me, the Windows 7 interface really shows the strength of Plasma in KDE4. When I saw the new taskbar for W7, I thought, cool, it would be nice if something like that was made for a *nix DE. Then I realized, hey, there's no reason someone can't just write one as a plasmoid for KDE4 so it's an option. A lot of people complain about about the KDE4 look and feel- I don't think they understand just how flexible it is. No, it's hasn't reached feature parity with 3.9 yet, but those options are coming, alongside the incredible flexibility that's inherent out of the box.
  • snached, on 10/30/2008, -0/+6Ever hear of DLL HELL?
  • darkharmonics, on 10/31/2008, -0/+6Aren't they measured in the millions? Oh yes the estimated 8 million users expected to adopt ibex definitely do not exist.
  • cesclaveria, on 10/30/2008, -0/+6"open up terminal ...whenever I want to do something..."

    I have read this reason many times and I still don't get what this people is trying to do, you don't need the terminal to do any normal stuff, most system setting can be tweaked from GUI and there are great apps to work with, so unless you really like it or are doing something advanced there are just a few times when you really need to open up a CLI.

    I usually have konsole open for weeks, but that is because I like to work there.
  • MWeather, on 10/30/2008, -1/+7ext3 isn't modern, but it's a hell of a lot more modern than ntfs or fat32, and there is nothing stopping you from using almost any filesystem you want, and many distros do/have (SUSE only recently moved from having ReiserFS as standard).

    I'm not sure what you mean by ext4 being a stopgap before brtfs though, since Theodore Ts'o seems to be pushing btrfs as a stopgap until ext4 is ready.

    http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/20/ ...
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