Did We Get Used To Hating Windows?

If you search the internet for Windows 7 sucks, the results aren’t what you would expect. Most are old and people don’t seem to be complaining all that much about the Win 7 OS these days.

I want to make clear to appease the fanboys, fervent Linux and fervent Mac users that I’m not advertising Windows. But what I am saying is that generally speaking, the Win 7 OS works pretty darned good; this is for some very specific reasons.

BSoD? What BSoD?

A common thing that happened in Windows in the past was affectionately known as the "Blue Screen of Death" when your system locked up. Microsoft, being they actually have a sense of humor, released a free screen saver mimicking it.

These days the only way to see the BSoD in Windows 7 easily is to use that screen saver. And heck, since Service Pack 3 in Windows XP it’s been a while since most have seen the BSoD.

Driver support was fixed a really, really long time ago

When Windows Vista was released, a lot of stuff didn’t work. I’m not going to say otherwise. But then the vendors (like nVidia) caught up with the times, and by Win 7′s release just about everything you can think of worked in the Windows OS again. Sure, there’s always going to be that guy that says, "My X doesn’t work!", but the blunt truth is that the vast majority of PC hardware works in the 7 OS without complaint.

The point is that for Windows detractors that say, "Windows user? Ha! Prepare to spend hours and hours downloading drivers!", that’s simply not true with the 7 OS.

The overall opinion of Windows 7 is a favorable one

For those of you who say, "Favorable? According to whom?" Here’s a good place to start. And you’ll find another like that. And another. And another.

Why do some people still say Windows sucks?

I’m left to believe the only reason why anybody says Windows sucks today is simply because they’re used to having that opinion.

A popular opinion is that Windows 7 is the best Windows since 2000. And yes, that is very complimentary given the fact 2000 is a very solid, stable operating system.

Another thing is that all the old complaints about Windows when strictly looking at it as a usable OS don’t seem to apply these days. Win 7 is not anywhere near as crash-prone as the first XP or Vista was. As stated above, downloading drivers for "hours and hours" is a thing of the past. If a program locks up, it doesn’t take down the whole OS with it.

In fact, I think the only reason why anybody would say Windows sucks now only has to do with the activation process. Personally, I’m one that deems the "Windows activation" process to be an invasion of privacy and I’ve never thought it necessary nor required – yet that’s the way it is.

Do you think Windows 7 is a good OS?

I’m particularly looking for the opinion of those who use Win 7 daily. Do the old complaints of previous editions of Windows still apply to the 7 OS?

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David M
Windows is not perfect, but it is the best thing going if you do not want to be tied into the higher costs for hardware and software for a Macintosh, along with the severe hardware limitations of a Macintosh.
Were I to give Windows 7 a grade, I would give it a B. Its doing okay in my opinion.
With Windows I get all the hardware choices in the world along with reasonably priced software. Not to mention the competition, which is always benefits the consumer.
http://www.bytehead.org/blog/ Bryan Price
I’m happy with 7. I was running Windows 2003 Server as a workstation before, and I have to say that I like the eye candy.
I don’t like the enhanced security, although I’ve learned my way around it though. But I can see where that would help a lot of people in their security, although I’ve had to delouse my share of Vista machines. One has to wonder how bad it would be if it wasn’t Vista…
Setup certainly was a breeze with Windows 7. Of course, I don’t have to go through all the fixes to make 2003 act more like a workstation.
Microsoft needs to fix a few things that don’t quite work like they should (backup in my particular case — complaining that a file is open when it’s supposed to be doing a shadow copy doesn’t impress me).
I still get a blue screen regularly. VIDEO_TDR, I keep upgrading the NVIDIA drivers, but it still happens. It’s a result of my running BOINC and the SETI@home software that runs on my GPU. A bigger video card might help, but that’s not in the budget right now. And if it were bigger, then there’d be other projects that I run that would then start running. I ever find a time when I don’t have any GPU units to run, I might just turn it off. It doesn’t happen often enough to cause me much of a headache, and I log right back into my account after it happens anyways
David Kennedy
I was going to say, GPU drivers can still take windows down, but Bryan Price beat me to it. AMD’s drivers and/or Catalyst software will certainly crash 7 from time to time. Who knows whose fault it is….AMD points to MS, and MS points to AMD. Same old, same old.
On the plus side, I will say that you are right, most things just work with 7. Usually right out of the box with no CD or driver needed. Even some things that Microsoft says aren’t compatible (like an old Dell multifunction printer I have) work just fine.
http://joshlucy.info josh parsons
I am a die hard Linux Xubuntu user but I recently got windows 7 and I’m actually happy with it probly cause it looks and fills a lot like Linux Icons on the panel and the ability to use desklets know if they could just add a central area to find and download applications
richtea
Surely you have been waiting for this: I dislike Windows 7 and would not have it on any of my computers. It seems to me that the overall dissatisfaction with previous operating systems, combined with the hype (marketing buildup) preceding the release of 7 was so well delivered that the masses have gone for it headlong. Mark: I am no Windows basher. I run Vista on a notebook, and am quite happy with it (unlike the multitudes). I would not swap it (“upgrade”) for anything. It has its hitches but it is a mature product, which as ever is one of the reasons to make it preferable to 7. I can only assume that the numerous compaints about Vista were caused by installinf it on outmoded equipment; with a reasonably chunky HD and RAM, the thing is fast and smooth. As for XP vs. 7, I do not see the latter as a suitable replacement on machines that definitely now need a refurbishment. There, it would be Linux and nothing but.
Kidd
I really like Win7, because I liked Vista’s eye candy, but not how sluggish the OS is in general. Regardless, it is not without flaws, and while Win7 supports most drivers that worked for Vista, I had to trash a 1-year old PCIe Wifi card. It wasn’t a new product when I bought it, just new to me. There were XP and Vista drivers out there, but none worked with Win7, and I had to go spend another $50 on a ‘new’ card, and I’ve been happy since. But, for business- I have the only Win7 computer at work, and we have 2 HP Designjet 1050c plotters. HP has decided not to support the plotters for new operating systems, and Windows has done the same. I understand a company cannot support old products forever, but a $5000 plotter should have been supported for ALOT longer than it is. Here comes ‘xp mode’, which is just a VM that I have to keep open all day, so I can plot to those older plotters, but then I have to keep AutoCAD 2010 on my x64 OS, and AutoCAD 2007 on my VM. After all this complaining, yes, it’s annoying, but I’m in a very small niche that ran into all of these problems, and for most users, Win7 is still a superb OS, and I’m happy to be using it all day.
bob
I like windows 7….it’s just easier to use and to navigate around in.
Windows 2000 we ran it many years on our old office computers, never had any problems with it, we even had the power go off a few times at our business and windows 2000 just booted right up again with no problems.
Had a friend come by to visit me one day and told us to get rid of windows 2000 that it has a lot of bugs etc. I think he doesn’t know what is talking about. I didn’t argue with him since he is a highly paid network tech.
darryl
I’ve been using Windows 7 since the beta release. I’ve been a windows fan through the good and the bad. I like being able to tweek my own system and play with. That being said, I can still tweek, and have a stable operating system at the same time. I especially like that it finds all of your drivers without a big search.