'Windows 7 is Vista, just a lot better.'

      With this phrase, Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, has defined the company's new operating system in October last year. With Windows 7, which should be ready later this year, Microsoft expects to correct the flaws that make the current version of Windows so criticized, and thereby maintain its leadership in personal computers.

      So far, the copies of Windows 7 has earned the praise of beta testers. Even so, there is no certainty of success in the long term. The scenario of personal computing is changing rapidly, like The Cloud Computing taking the place of applications installed on the micro. It is natural to question whether Windows is ready to accompany these changes.

Performance comparison

      The number one complaint from Vista users is that the system is too slow. The operating system itself is a voracious consumer of resources from hardware. And, what about Windows 7?

      In a computer with Core I7 2.67 GHz processor and 4GB of memory, the PCMark Vantage tests (tasks related to photo editing , video, music, games, communication, productivity and safety) were used to compare the performances. So the tests showed the Windows7 27% faster than Windows Vista.

      As the PCMark Vantage does not work on XP, another test was performed using the PCMark05 to compare the Windows 7 performance with the XP performance. The results: the benchmark showed the Windows 7 only 0,6% slower than the XP, and 12% fastar than the Windows Vista!

      With this, there is no doubt that the system is really faster than the Vista. But a CPU with two cores and at least 2gb of memory is still required for good performance.

XP on the board

      If the number one complaint of Vista users is the slowness, the number two is the incompatibility with older programs and equipment. There is no solution for all these compatibility issues. But the cases involving only software could be bypassed with the XP mode of the Windows 7.

      This feature uses the Microsoft Virtual PC, that run a virtual machine with the XP. So, the user can install a program incompatible with the Windows 7 and open this application as any other, just noticing the old window appearance. It’s a great feature, but only will be present in the Professional and Ultimate versions.

The versions

The Windows 7 will be available in six versions:

- Starter: pre-installed in simlple computers and netbooks

- Home Basic (won't be sold in USA): without the aero interface

- Home Premium: with the aero and entertainment functions

- Professional: with XP mode and support for corporate networks

- Ultimate: will have all the other features and some others, like the BitLocker Encryption

- Enterprise: sold only to enterprises

Would you like to take your own conclusions?

If you wanna download the Release Candidate testing version to take your own conclusions, you can download it from the Microsoft here.

Wallpapers

If you will wait the final version and wanna use the oficial Windows 7 wallpapers now, you can find a pack here. The high definition wallpapers are spetacular!