In the past, if you had a problem with Windows that prevented Windows from booting, you were limited to either downloading a third party system recovery disk like the “Ultimate Boot CD“, or booting from the Windows disc and working from the awkward command line to fix problems.  Windows 7 includes a utility to create a bootable disk to fix problems from a familiar graphical interface.  This tool could be a lifesaver if you perform such tasks as dual booting into Linux.  A common problem that occurs when doing that is that if you change your mind and decide to delete the Linux boot loader (normally grub), you end up with no way to boot into Windows.

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Linux as a Desktop has been a work in progress for years now.  After being flamed for complaining about it’s weaknesses, I decided to give it another chance to be fair.  Most of my complaints have been about not being able to work with multimedia well so I decided to try out the newly released Linux Mint 7.  That distribution is based on Ubuntu and comes with the more questionable media codecs and libraries pre installed.  I have always preferered Fedora because it is more cutting edge, but it requires research an trial and error just to get it to play a DVD.  Once Mint was installed, I popped in a DVD just to test it out and it started right up.  I wasn’t able to play around with any mp3s as I was unable to network with my Windows machine, but I’ll get back to that later.

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Here it is.  The first weakness I’ve found in Windows 7 and surprise, surprise, it’s related to the same problems that occur in every new Windows version.  That’s right, its driver support, and its a problem that unfairly plagues Microsoft.  The problem is that manufacturers don’t do their job and support the new versions of Windows before it comes out and therefore the average consumer gets upset at Windows when their shiny new peripheral doesn’t just work.  This is a point at which Apple succeeds with their iron fist rule of the platform, but Microsoft continually fails by relying on OEMs for support.

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1 – Windows Search Field.  No need to always browse the start menu to run programs.  Press start and begin typing the name of the program you want, and Vista/Windows 7 searches programs and files.  So if you click start and type paint then Paint runs.

2 – Built in ISO Recording.  This feature has finally made it into Windows in the Windows 7 beta.

3 – Automatic Defrag.  Vista includes built in automatic scheduling of disk defragmenting that is so smart, you don’t have to set it.  It automatically schedules periodic defrags on new disk volumes.  This feature previously required buying expensive third party defragmenters like “Diskeeper”.

4 – Windows Memory Diagnostic tool.  Located in the administrative tools folder, this tool lets you run a memory diagnostic (which is scheduled to run at boot time).  Previously, you had to have third party software such as memtest86, which required you to create a bootable disk and run the tool at boot.  The Vista tool handles the task natively, scheduling the test at boot, then reporting the results after you log into Windows.

5 - Better handling of media through the autoplay feature.  Tools like Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Media player better integrate with the autoplay feature.  For example, when you plug in a memory card.

Honorable mention – Linux like ability to add favorite folders to file browsing dialogs.  You can drag a location you will use often to the left side of the file browser dialog to save it there for quick access.

For any person fed up with Windows may discover that Linux is a desktop alternative that can even run Windows apps natively.  As a matter of fact Linux has become much more user friendly and a lot of the formerly snobbish Linux forums on the web now cater to the newbie as well as the Linux veteran.  An aspiring noob may do research, choose a major distribution such as Ubuntu or Fedora, and even get the OS installed and running.  However, the user will immediately run into a standard Linux problem.  Most commercial media formats are not free and while Windows and MacOs software either pays for the software needed to playback certain video or audio files (called codec software) or uses free alternatives, Linux itself is designed to be free and open source.  This means, in order to legally allow you to use and modify the OS freely, the developers have to disable or not use codecs that aren’t licensed freely. › Continue reading…