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Under the Hood, Windows 7 Is Vista's Twin

pcworld.com — Bottom line: So far, Windows 7 looks, behaves, and performs almost exactly like Windows Vista.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 12, 2008

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  • MeatPlow, on 11/12/2008, -19/+235No *****...
  • crazlunatic, on 11/12/2008, -9/+162this should be no surprise, microsoft even told us straight up: this is vista, but better
    don't see what the big fuss is about
    looks like its just biased writers trying to get good publicity with biased articles
  • canadia70, on 11/12/2008, -46/+196I like Vista.
  • DotNetWill, on 11/12/2008, -32/+147It was always going to be, despite what alot of people say Vista isn't that bad of an OS so this is tidying up. It's just a shame it's not going to get a fair chance.
  • concretemech, on 11/12/2008, -8/+94Did any one really think they would create an entirely new operating system in a year? I switched to a mac this year, and leopard and snow leopard are still essentially OS X, which is fine. For people that like windows this is a good thing, just like people that like OS X aren't looking for a whole new operating system every year. Just be thankful that they are starting to actually make frequent revisions.
  • seltaeb4, on 11/12/2008, -40/+117Of course it is. It's just "Vista" renamed "Windows 7" for public relations purposes.

    If they wanted to be honest, they'd call it "Windows Edsel."
  • FutureGuy, on 11/12/2008, -30/+104Which is a good thing. Anyone who has used Vista on decent hardware would agree. Those who have only seen those Apple Ads obviously wouldn't. Vista is an incredibly stable OS and much more easy on the eye then XP. I hate it that I still have to use XP at work. This author is blatantly biased or doesn't have a clue. Now hold on a second, let me run for cover....
  • malice8691, on 11/12/2008, -6/+60Ok. ive been following some of the reviews for windows 7 and this reviewer's opinion is completely opposite of what everyone else is saying. I'm a little suspicious.
  • monkeyrun, on 11/12/2008, -5/+48How long did it take for them to develop Vista?
    They are not going to just scrap everything and start over.
  • ry4nsm1th, on 11/12/2008, -3/+46Nah it is just Mojave under the hood, they got it all wrong.
  • robotfriendly, on 11/12/2008, -6/+47WHY DON'T YOU YELL AT HIM SOME MORE, THEN YOU'LL GET YOUR POINT ACROSS. ***** FACE.
  • Quick2822, on 11/12/2008, -7/+40Well if it runs as well as Vista x64 does on my machine than that will be great, though no performance boost is kind of a let down.
  • Darkyuubi, on 11/12/2008, -12/+45I don't understand. Who thought Windows 7 was a new operating system from the ground up again? I certainly didn't.

    Lets face it. The failure of Vista falls partly at the feet of Microsoft, but partly also because of its bad publicity. For the last time. Windows Vista is NOT A BAD OPERATING SYSTEM. If you have the correct drivers to run the thing, apart from minor user interface annoyances (UAC anyone?), the operating system works just fine.

    The under-the-hood upgrade was done from XP to Vista. (Much like Leopard to Snow Leopard for all the fan boys who are not in the know). Microsoft doesn't need to improve any of that stuff. To say 7 is lip stick on a pig is quite misinformed. In actuality, its quite the other way around. 7 is Microsoft's attempt at actually making those under-the-hood improvements shine. By taking better advantage of all the technology they've built into Vista (all the new interface we've been seeing takes advantage of Aero), people would actually understand what the big deal is. Vista, in retrospective laid down the internal ground works for Microsoft's future operating system for at least say the next 10 years. (Again, much like what Apple is trying to do with Snow Leopard). There never was any wow in Vista because no average user could actually see any of the massive internal improvements. 7 will change that. That is why yes. Under the hood, Windows 7 IS Vista's twin. Is there a problem?

    So for the last time. Fanboys please stfd.
  • OUberLord, on 11/12/2008, -10/+42I can safely say that I've used Vista since its first release candidate was released on both my work and home PCs and haven't had a single issue that could be directly attributed to the operating system. I had some hardware issues with really old peripherals, and a couple of really old DOS based programs don't function properly, but I know about and understood the reasons for the lack of some legacy support before I even installed it. For as much as people hate it UAC is easily turned off, and it comparatively isn't much of a system hog when you ignore how superfetch artificially inflates actual memory usage.
  • e68895f, on 11/12/2008, -5/+36Windows 7 - same taste, different dressing.
  • craeyon, on 11/12/2008, -9/+38The article sounded a bit biased
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -3/+30Armed with his mighty blade, the majestic Scimitar of Sweeping Generalisations (+2), Johnnynapalm ascended to the highest peak of the mountain, and delivered his daming verdict to the huddled thousands gathered below...

    "You *****!"

    Suddenly, a rumble sounded in the heavens, dark and malevolent like the growling of a fearsome monster disturbed in his cave. Stormclouds grew thick and black in the sky and without any warning whatsoever a bolt of brilliant lightning crashed down upon the peak, burning to vapour all trace of the mighty warrior from the face of the Earth...and a voice, larger and more terrifying than the chaos at the end of the world, said:

    "*****."
  • one1plus1one, on 11/12/2008, -6/+33You're putting your entire online-social-network at risk, with those 3 words!

    Thus, I dugg you up for your bravery in making such a comment!
  • vuke69, on 11/12/2008, -4/+30Yes
  • angelgabe, on 11/12/2008, -6/+31Doesn't anyone remember that most modern operating systems are based off of older ones? Windows Me was a polished 98, which was a polished 95. Windows XP was a consumer friendly 2000 which was based on NT... Windows 7 will be a polished Vista. Nothing wrong with taking a mediocre product and making it better.
  • PleaseJustDie, on 11/12/2008, -0/+23Windows ME was polished with paint thinner...
  • badtzmartin, on 11/12/2008, -49/+72Somewhere, Steve Jobs is chuckling...
  • likwidfuzion, on 11/12/2008, -3/+26I like turtles.
  • Shaggy3, on 11/12/2008, -3/+25I love the decline of moral with these Windows stories.

    1. "OMG about time Windows turns around and puts out a good product"
    2. "Ahh another Vista, saw that one coming" (This story)
    3. "Microsoft is ***** ***** *****. They need to stop making operating systems."

  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -32/+53Uninformed, uneducated, inexperienced FUD spreading morons. The lot of you.
  • one1plus1one, on 11/12/2008, -8/+28I'm sticking with Windows-XP-Media-Center edition for another few years.

    I like dabbling in Linux, OS-X, and sometimes Vista.

    But XP-Media-Center is where I feel most at home. In a few more years I'll outgrow it, and then I'll be on the hunt for a new OS to call home.
  • itsbob, on 11/12/2008, -7/+26So which one is the evil one?
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -0/+19Windows ME was NOT better than 98se. I tried to block it out of my memory but now I remember the horror of late nights in front of friend's/family's broken winme boxes. The horror!
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -1/+19karlitzor, i admire your trolling skills
  • twiztidsinz, on 11/12/2008, -1/+19Kershek...
    Please, explain to me how nVidia's ***** drivers are Microsofts fault?
  • gllopc, on 11/12/2008, -2/+20This article wasn't about how it 'looked', but how it behaved.

    The digg submission title was correct: "Under the Hood ..."
  • RizzoFrank, on 11/12/2008, -4/+21The reply button. Do you use it *****?
  • archer75, on 11/12/2008, -3/+20Windows 7 is built on Vista. Vista made the architectural changes and Windows 7 makes the other changes. We all knew this years ago.
  • KloroFormd, on 11/12/2008, -9/+25"You sound like a bitter MS fanboy, who can't afford a Mac."

    Or maybe he's simply an MS fanboy who refuses to pay $1300 for $500 worth of hardware.

    That said, I still prefer XP. Since installing Vista (with SP1 streamlined), I've had more blue screens than XP ever gave me. 7, in one month, and yes I'm counting. Note that this count does not include pre-SP1 Vista, as I've never used anything but SP1.
  • aznhomig, on 11/12/2008, -5/+20Because Apple fanboys keep giving him money for stuff they already have?
  • OUberLord, on 11/12/2008, -3/+18You are correct. I've used both an ATI 4870X2 and an Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS, on both Vista 32bit and 64bit, with no issues. The DirectX10 performance differences are marginal at best, usually running in the 5% to 10% range, so I can't say I've lost any sleep over them and every game I own including preview code runs fine. I don't use hibernate or sleep modes often, but I have used sleep on my home PC every so often and can't say it's ever not came back up. Neither machine is a laptop, and though I haven't seen any battery life benchmarks I would imagine that the significantly higher graphics card draws of Vista would make battery life shorter than XP, not to mention the resource usage increase, but the former is just a matter of turning off Aero and the latter should be expected when you transition from an operating system nearly a decade old. Driver compatibility I have had exactly one issue with, with my Creative Audigy 2 sound card, but I can't blame Microsoft for Creative dropping the ball.

    I didn't say Vista had no issues. My point is that most people who complain about it are just jumping on the bandwagon and have little clue of what they are talking about.
  • tjex, on 11/12/2008, -6/+21Well lets not forget that is in an ALPHA pre-release. Not even a beta. So there are quite a few things that can change from now till launch date. But saying this, I was quite surprised how fast they managed to get Windows 7 up and running and ready for mid 2009. So it only makes sense that it's heavily based on Vista.

    Too bad, I was waiting for Windows 7, I guess I'll have to dive into OS X instead and run XP as a back-up in dual-boot or emulation.
  • epyon180, on 11/12/2008, -4/+19I have to admit that windows 7 sounds interesting and I will probably switch my home machine to it when it is released but I am wondering why Microsoft is going to charge full price for this since it is the next major release of windows. This just seems like an optimized version of windows vista with a better UI (not that there is anything wrong with that). Say what you will about apples OS releases but there have been at least 2 or 3 tangible features that I use everyday with the each OSX release. It will hurt to pay $200 plus dollars for this when it is released.
  • jakem1, on 11/12/2008, -1/+16@Kershek: OuberLord clearly said that he hadn't has any problems caused by the OS. All your examples are driver problems.
  • Davers, on 11/12/2008, -8/+23It's sad how many people I talk to who gawk at me when I mention that I run Vista on one of my PCs... I ask them why they don't like it, and 95% of the time, it's just because of what they've been told; they've never actually used it. Apple needs to focus on getting a larger marketshare by making their product better, not by making people hate the competition for no good reason.
  • robotfriendly, on 11/12/2008, -4/+19I find this article a little hard to believe since the Windows 7 demo at PDC was run on a netbook w/ 1gb of ram. Vista on a netbook w/ 1gb? Not going to happen.
  • 4degrees, on 11/12/2008, -3/+17the one with the goatee.
  • MasterQ, on 11/12/2008, -13/+27did windows 98 not look like windows 95? and did windows 2000 not look like windows 95 and 98? and did windows XP not (besides for the new colors and stuff) look like windows 95, 98, and 2000?

    it's windows... of course it's gonna look like other versions of windows
  • wheresaldo, on 11/12/2008, -14/+28Totally irresponsible article... how you can judge a software based on pre-beta... the authors just want attention... and Digg users dumb enough to give it to him

    The article feeds on Microsoft haters....

    Digg is losing it value when articles like this get on the home page... sad
  • oblique63, on 11/12/2008, -3/+17umm... wasn't that the whole plan to begin with?
    Vista -> backend tweaks
    7 -> interface tweaks ?
  • chasemassey, on 11/12/2008, -6/+19I've heard some good things about Win7. Listen to last week's This Week In Tech. One of the guys suggested running it on a netbook. According to them, Microsoft has really tried eliminating unnecessary clock cycles in the OS.
  • aserer511, on 11/12/2008, -3/+16the desktop interface and app/instance management are RADICALLY different, though,even if the kernel is similar
  • archiesteel, on 11/12/2008, -4/+17He probably didn't get a free laptop out of it... :-)

    Seriously, did the other reviewers go to the same lengths to test it? This guy was pretty thorough.
  • abajaj2280, on 11/12/2008, -7/+19you just reminded me of a hermit crab
  • DteK, on 11/12/2008, -0/+11Win ME == Worst OS ever
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