First on the bad list is a repeat of a complaint that was leveled at Vista &mdsah; that there are too many editions. Putting aside the Enterprise edition, which only volume licensing customers will ever see, Windows 7 comes in five flavors:
• Starter
• Home Basic (only available in developing nations)
• Home Premium
• Professional
• Ultimate
Microsoft claims that these editions are required to offer the end user with the right range of features at the right price. Personally, I think that the old days where there were two editions of Windows, Home and Professional, were better because it meant far less end user confusion.
However, the multiple edition model does allow Microsoft to chisel more cash out of confused consumers, so in the end it's a good thing for company shareholders.
Then there's that Starter edition. The Starter edition is a crippled version of Windows that used to be available only in developing nations. It's crippled in that you can only run three applications at any one time, it's missing a whole bunch of new UI features such as the Aero UI, and there are no Media Center features.
The problem with the Starter edition of Windows 7 is that this edition will be offered by OEMs on cheaper systems, such as netbooks, so be careful when buying cheaper systems and make sure that you're aware as to how these limitations might affect you.
There's also an ugly side to Windows 7, and it relates to the UI. I said earlier that overall I was impressed with the UI changes that Microsoft had made, but there's one are that I feel rightly deserves the "ugly" label, and that's the newly revamped TaskBar.
The problem isn't so much with the TaskBar as the default view that Microsoft has chosen for the way it handles having multiple Windows open. The default view crams the windows together on the TaskBar and makes it difficult to find the Window you want.
Fortunately, it's easy to fix this. Just right-click on a blank part of the TaskBar and choose "Properties" and then "Combine when taskbar is full."
It's a simple fix to what could otherwise be very annoying.
Overall, Windows 7 looks set to be a great Windows OS, perhaps Microsoft's best since Windows NT 4.0. However, it remains to be seen whether it will be loved like Windows XP, or hated like Windows Vista.
