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Tag: Windows

7 raisons de ne pas passer à Windows 7

by sylher on août.22, 2009, under Informatique

Probablement le dernier article de Wired sur les aperçus de Windows 7 (Seven)
Voici, les raisons de ne pas passer à Windows 7… Et là, il faut dire que ça fait mal, parce que c’est plein de bon sens.

7 Reasons to Avoid Windows 7

Windows 7, which hits stores in October, is shaping up to be the best version of Microsoft’s widely used operating system yet.

But nothing’s perfect. Windows 7, like any product, has flaws — some of them big ones.  Wired.com on Tuesday laid out a list of good reasons to upgrade to Windows 7, including an enhanced user interface, improved compatibility with newer hardware and a seamless entertainment experience. (For even more background, see our first look at Windows 7.)

Now let’s look at the other side of the story: The reasons you might consider skipping this upgrade altogether.

Upgrading From Windows XP Requires a Clean Install
If you’re a Windows XP user, upgrading isn’t as easy as inserting a disc and running the installation. Instead, you must back up your applications and files, wipe your hard drive and perform a clean install of Windows 7. After getting Windows 7 up and running, you must either manually reinstall your software and repurpose your file library or trust Microsoft’s Easy File Transfer to migrate your files for you.

We don’t see this as much of a headache, because data backups should be performed regardless of whether you’re switching to a new OS. Plus, a fresh install is preferable to ensure clean performance. But we understand why this would bug many XP users. For one, it’s time-consuming. For another, many are sensitive about their data, and they don’t trust Microsoft. (We don’t blame them.) Third, if XP is working fine for you, why fix something that isn’t broken?

Vista users, on the other hand, can upgrade to Windows 7 without a clean install. They might as well climb out of that train wreck, since it’s easy.

The Upgrade Is Expensive
Windows 7 isn’t cheap. Pricing varies based on the version you choose, but you’ll be paying at least $120 to upgrade from XP or Vista. And if you don’t already own a copy of a Windows OS, you must pay the full price of at least $200 for Windows 7.

In the software market, $120 isn’t ridiculous for an upgrade. Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard costs $130, for instance. However, Apple plans to sell its next OS, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, for $30 to current Leopard users. This Apple power move alone makes Windows 7’s pricing look pretty steep.

It’ll Cost You Time, Too

The customers most likely to opt against upgrading to Windows 7 because of money are businesses. Joe Ansel, owner of a company that plans development of science centers, wrote in an e-mail to Wired.com stating his reasons for not upgrading to Windows 7: “Upgrades cost us time and money as we find ourselves playing with our computers to make them do the things they used to do seamlessly — while the phone never stops ringing and you’re getting 60 e-mails a day. Make no mistake, as a business owner, the cost of the upgrade itself is nothing compared to the lost wages trying to get the new OS to do what the old one did.”

Ansel added that companies running obscure software will also feel disinclined to switch. Microsoft promises Windows 7 will support almost every piece of software compatible with XP, and in the few cases it doesn’t, there’s an XP virtualization mode ensuring backward compatibility. Still, companies invest thousands of dollars to create a stable IT environment, and it’s understandable why they wouldn’t wish to upset their non-Apple cart.

It’s Still Windows
Despite delivering an intuitive, modern interface in Windows 7, this OS is still Windows. In our first look at Windows 7, we complained about the OS’s inability to recognize an Adobe AIR file followed by its failure to search for software to run the file.

Also, Windows 7 doesn’t immediately know what to do with some pretty obvious tasks. When you insert a thumb drive, for example, you must tell Windows 7 what to do with it (i.e. open the folder and view the files) and customize a setting to get the OS to automatically behave that way. In short, when getting started you’ll have to do a lot of tweaking and customizing to get moving smoothly. That’s unfortunately an experience all Windows users are accustomed to — things don’t “just work.”

Security Isn’t Automatically Better
Computerworld’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols stands firm that Windows 7 won’t change anything from a security perspective: “Windows 7 still has all the security of a drunken teenager in a sports car,” he wrote. “Millions of lazy Windows users are the reason why the internet is a mess. If you already do all the right things to keep XP running safely, you’re not going to get any safer by buying Windows 7.”

Good point. Because Windows 7 is still Windows, you’re again the primary target of attack for hackers and virus coders. Therefore, it’s up to you to protect yourself with anti-virus software and running update patches to keep the OS as secure as possible. (Compare this experience to Mac OS X Leopard, for which many don’t even run anti-virus software, because it’s more secure out-of-the-box compared to Windows.) Though Windows 7 does deliver some security enhancements, such as data encryption for thumb drives, and a feature for IT administrators to control which applications can run on a corporate network, these are not general security improvements that change much for the overall user experience.

Built-In Support for Egregious Hardware-Based DRM
Paranoid XP users won’t wish to upgrade to Windows 7 for the same reason they didn’t switch to Vista: Like Vista, Windows 7 includes support for digital rights management technologies that could potentially regulate how you use your media. Though some alarmists have called Microsoft’s DRM “draconian,” the implemented DRM hasn’t proved to bear significant consequences yet.

Ars Technica provides a thorough explanation of the DRM in question. In short, the technologies called Protected Video Path (PVP) and Protected User Mode Audio (PUMA) provide secure playback of video and audio media, respectively. “Little or no media actually demands the use of the protected paths, so on most users’ systems, Windows never invokes them,” wrote Ars Technica’s Peter Bright. “Play back unprotected media on a Vista machine, and the DRM subsystems simply don’t get used.”

Still, there are going to be people cringing in fear that one day PUMA and PVP will screw them over. And for that reason they’ll be sticking with XP — or a totally open OS like Linux.

Snow Leopard Is Almost Here
Apple’s next-generation Snow Leopard is arriving September — a month before Windows 7. Apple is promising its OS will deliver on many of the improvements Microsoft highlights in Windows 7 — 64-bit addressing, improved efficiency with task management on multiple processors, and others. It’s undetermined which OS is better, but from my own perspective as a long-time Mac user, I will say I already prefer the current Mac OS X Leopard to Windows 7. If you’re looking (or willing) to switch to a radically different OS, then OS X Snow Leopard is an option to consider before committing to Windows 7.

Conclusion
Do the cons outweigh the pros? That probably depends on how committed you already are to Windows. If you’re currently using Windows Vista, the upgrade to Windows 7 is a no-brainer. Most of those currently using Windows XP should also upgrade, to take advantage of Windows 7’s usability, enhanced device support, and other features. But if you’re currently using a Linux distribution or a version of Mac OS X, Windows 7 isn’t going to offer much to get you to switch.

L’article est disponible ici

J’ajouterais, que les européens et donc les français seront les dindons de la farce puisque la version du nouvel OS de Microsoft sera plus cher sur notre vieux continent.
C’est toujours agréable de se savoir pris pour des vaches à lait.

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7 bonnes raisons de passer à Windows 7

by sylher on août.19, 2009, under Informatique

Continuons, l’exploration de Windows 7 par les articles de Wired.
Aujourd’hui, les 7 bonnes raisons de passer à Windows 7(Seven)

7 Good Reasons to Switch to Windows 7

Landing in stores October, Windows 7 is sparking a surprisingly heated debate (in our forums, at least) on whether or not upgrading from XP is a good idea. If you’re in the “nay” camp, we’re going to lay out seven reasons why you should consider switching your stance to “yay.”

When scanning our list, we politely encourage you to ask yourself, “Do I really want to continue using an eight-year-old operating system?” Followed by “Don’t I deserve better?” Because no matter how comfortable you are with XP, you do deserve an OS that’s both newer and better, and Windows 7 will deliver. Not convinced? Then read on.

You Asked for This
Remember Vista? We know most of you don’t want to, and that’s because the OS fell short of many consumers’ expectations. As a result, many — especially power users — elected to skip Vista entirely, and have continued running Windows XP. Hence Microsoft’s attempt at a redo with Windows 7. This time around, the software giant made an effort to crowdsource feedback from Microsoft enthusiasts by distributing a free beta version of Windows 7 in January.

You complained, you demanded, and in response Microsoft slapped something together to ship October 22. The result? The overall presentation of Windows 7 is familiar enough to welcome XP users, but fundamentally it’s different enough to make you change the way you think of Microsoft. (I can vouch for that, being a long-time Mac user and ex-Windows fan).

Upgrading Won’t Screw You Over
Microsoft has its loyal fans in mind, including those clinging for dear life to XP. The tech giant promises that Windows 7 has been coded to support almost every piece of software that runs on your XP system. If, in the rare case one of your XP programs doesn’t work on Windows 7, you can still run it in a virtual environment called XP Mode. What’s especially cool about this mode is you won’t have to toggle between an XP emulator and Windows 7. The apps running in XP Mode appear like ordinary windows that are part of Windows 7.

Also, the Windows 7 upgrade chart may appear intimidating and confusing, but prior to release Microsoft plans to release a compatibility checker that will automatically scan your system to tell you which version of Windows 7 is for you.

Automatically Installed Device Drivers
This is only a minor improvement, but it addresses a major pain in the ass in earlier versions of Windows. Who has time to scour the internet for a device driver to work with hardware such as a video card or an external hard drive? Life is too short for that garbage work, and fortunately Windows 7 does this chore for you. Plug in a new piece of hardware, and the OS will find and install the driver for you. XP has this feature, sort of, but it works better in Vista and much better in Windows 7. No more of those annoying yellow question marks. Good riddance.

Piracy
Yarr! We know there are plenty of you out there downloading pirated digital booty, especially in Windows land. But it’s never been convenient to be a pirate compared with being a paying customer. For example, if you’re a legitimate buyer purchasing movies off iTunes, you can easily stream your media to your legitimately purchased Apple TV. If you’re a pirate, you’d have to go through roundabout programs and hardware to re-create the experience.

Windows 7 is an OS practically made for pirates. Want to display your movies, photos or music on your TV? Bam! Windows Media Player will do that out of the box if you have a Wi-Fi enabled TV, or an Xbox. No extra programs to install: Windows Media Player seamlessly communicates with your Wi-Fi device to display your illegal content in all its glory on your fancy HD TV.

And sharing media is easy, too. Want to download all of your brother’s music? Bam! HomeGroup, an easy networking feature included in Windows 7, will make that super easy between computers running the OS. Immediately upon plugging in to your network with Ethernet or Wi-Fi, HomeGroup will ask if you wish to join the group on the network, allowing you to set up easy file sharing in minutes.


A Better Interface

The new Aero features, which we covered in our Windows 7 first look, will change the way you interact with your computer. Aero Peek will prove the most useful: The feature displays outlines of all your open windows behind your active window. Each outlined box contains a thumbnail previewing its corresponding window to help you choose.

Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan, who has been using AeroPeek for six months, provides an excellent perspective on Aero: “It breaks the instinct to maximize windows as you’re using them; instead, you simply let windows hang out, since it’s much easier to juggle them.” Makes sense, doesn’t it, for a generation of multitaskers? Aren’t you tired of Alt-Tabbing over and over and over?

Another feature, Aero Snap, makes it easier to resize and tile windows to fit the available space. (Read more about Aero Snap and Aero Peek.)

Words aren’t enough. You really have to try the OS to understand why these UI enhancements are a big deal. We get the idea that the people dismissing Windows 7 haven’t yet tinkered with it, and we highly encourage you to download the release candidate and give it a test drive. But do it now: The download is only available until August 20.

More Advanced Hardware Support
Technology evolves faster than living organisms, and Windows 7 is also designed to work well with upcoming hardware. Touchscreens are getting more popular in the mainstream (thanks largely to the iPhone), and sure enough Windows 7 includes multitouch support. (Check out a video demoing how it works.) If 2010 is indeed the year of the tablet, as we predict, then Windows 7 just might be the winning OS in that new landscape.

If you’re not interested in touchscreens, think multiple processor cores. At some point when multicore computers are more widely available, affordable and energy efficient, an eight-year-old OS like Windows XP isn’t going to know what to do with all that extra processing power. Microsoft has already hinted that Windows 7 will scale to 256 processors. That’s more than enough, but you get the picture: This is a new operating system designed for newer systems. You’re going to need to upgrade eventually, so why not do it now, so you can get a good feel for the OS, rather than later?

The 64-bit version of Windows 7 can handle bigger system memory, too, scaling up to 192 GB of RAM, compared to the 4-GB limit for the 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows 7, and 128 GB for the less common 64-bit edition of Windows XP.

Oh, yeah, speaking of new devices — Windows 7 is tweaked to better suit those trendy netbooks, too. These puny devices are low-powered and thus limited in performance, and Windows 7 will run better on them thanks to its improved memory management. For example, Windows XP allocated video memory for unseen windows, but Windows 7 does not. It uses video memory only for visible windows. That equates to a more responsive netbook with longer battery life.

It Looks Sexier
A superficial reason, we know, but we’ve become so intimate with our gadgets that their looks are important, too. Windows 7 will make your new PC look new, unlike the boring-as-vanilla UI of Windows XP. Extra detail, polish, gradients and a UI that will clear your desktop of clutter should all make Windows 7 a more attractive choice.

L’article est disponible ici

J’avoue que ça me laisse dubitatif tout de même pour les arguments avancés. Surtout pour le côté sexy, l’interface plus ergonomique, et surtout la mise à jour aisée à partir d’XP et même de Vista.
J’attends de juger sur pièce. Parce que MacOS ou Linux n’ont pas à se plaindre sur ces sujets.

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Premier aperçu de Windows 7

by sylher on août.15, 2009, under Actualités, Informatique

Je ne me lancerais pas dans une analyse complète du dernier OS de Microsoft qu’on nous prétend merveilleux.
Je préfère lire ce qui se dit sur le sujet.

Cela tombe bien, Wired se lance dans une série d’articles pour plonger (par la fenêtre) dans Windows 7 !

First Look: Windows 7 Shapes Up as Microsoft’s Best OS Yet

By Brian X. Chen

Good news, everyone! If you’ve been stuck in a time loop using Windows XP, which is nearing eight years old, or Windows Vista, which is just annoying, you can finally break free: Windows 7 is almost here. Microsoft delivers a slickly designed, vastly improved OS that will warp you to the world of today. This upgrade is big, and it’s hugely recommended for Microsoft users.

When we say big, we mean really BIG — so we’re not going to bombard you with an epic overview covering every single aspect. Rather, today we’ll guide you through an early look at some major new features and enhancements we tested in the almost-final version released last week. And in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 22 launch of Windows 7, we’ll continue posting our impressions, testing more features of the OS on various types of hardware.

We’ll start with interface, move on to performance and usability, and then we’ll conclude with the “funner” stuff. Let’s begin exploring, shall we?

Revamped Interface With Improved Presentation
Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 will be like ditching your old Toyota Camry for a sexy, new Nissan GT-R. Everything from the typography to the icons, and from the toolbar to the windows, has been refined with some extra detail, polish and shadows. Finally, Microsoft creates a clean, modern look that competes with Apple’s finely designed Mac OS X Leopard.

To accompany the new look, there are three new features that make the Windows 7 interface pretty groovy: Aero Peek, Aero Snap and Aero Shake. They’re window-management tools, similar to Apple’s Exposé in Mac OS X. Aero Peek is the most significant: When triggered, the feature displays outlines of all your open windows behind your active window; each outlined box contains a thumbnail previewing its corresponding window to help you choose.

Aero Snap (see screenshot above) is pretty cool, too: Drag a window to the right side of the screen, for example, and Aero Snap will automatically adjust the window into a rectangle that takes up the entire right side (same happens if you drag to the left). And Aero Shake is a cute feature: You click and hold onto a window and give it a shake, and any visible windows behind it will disappear (minimize, not close).

A major change appears in the main toolbar glued to the bottom of the screen. Rather than clutter the bottom of your screen with annoying rectangular tabs, your open applications are instead contained in a small square displaying only the icon of each active app. With AeroPeek activated, you can also preview thumbnails of the activity of apps by hovering over their corresponding taskbar icons. That’s certainly a welcome change now that many of us multitaskers enjoy running a multitude of apps at once

If Internet Explorer 8 is your browser of choice, there’s a bonus: Hovering your mouse over the Explorer icon, you’ll be able to preview all the tabs you have open in a stacked view, letting you go directly to the tab you wish to browse.

Then there’s the Start button at the bottom left corner — a feature Windows fans have grown to love. It’s very similar to the old one, functioning almost exactly the same. The main difference is the addition of a gradient to give it a fresher aesthetic. As for functions, a very useful addition to the Start menu is a search bar that instantly appears at the very bottom. This will make finding and launching files a snap.

Performance and Usability
You’ll immediately notice Windows 7 feels a lot faster than its predecessors, and that’s because memory management has been smartly re-engineered. In older versions of Windows, every application you have open is sucking up video memory, even if the windows are minimized. This isn’t the case in Windows 7: The only windows and apps using video memory are those visible on your screen. Windows users are accustomed to closing applications to boost performance, but that’s going to be unnecessary with Windows 7.

Smoother performance would be a waste if usability weren’t improved, too. Windows 7 won’t disappoint. Remember in Windows XP when you hooked up an external hard drive and it was unrecognized, requiring you to search the web to find that stupid effing software driver? Windows 7 includes up-to-date files, which should automatically recognize your device, and in most cases it’ll “just work.” If, for some reason, Windows 7 isn’t compatible with your attached device by default, it’ll search a database for you in an attempt to find a file to install.

Similarly, Windows 7 tries to streamline networking of peripherals, such as printers and scanners, with a feature called HomeGroup. Let’s say you’re running Windows 7 on computer B in your household, and computer A is the one hooked up to a printer in another room. If computer B is on the same network as computer A, Windows 7 will search for the printer driver on computer A and share it with computer B. The same networking feature will also allow you to share folders and files between networked computers. There’s a catch to this seamless networking: HomeGroup is an exclusive Windows 7 feature. So if your other machine is running the Mac OS, or Linux, then forget about it.

There are also some annoyances that will remind you, “This is still Windows.” When plugging in a thumb drive, for example, Windows will ask you what you want to do with it: Play audio, play a movie, or open the folder to view its files. It’s a thumb drive, for God’s sake: Recognize it and just open the damn folder! After receiving such notifications you can tell Windows 7 to automatically perform one of the aforementioned functions when a specific type of device is attached (see screenshot at right), but we wish the OS would just know what to do.

We also found the software-compatibility checker to be kind of lame. For example, when we downloaded TweetDeck, a .air file which requires Adobe Air, Windows 7 didn’t recognize the file extension and offered to do a search for compatible software. That search did not discover Adobe Air — a pretty popular format — so we were disappointed.

“Funner” Stuff

We were vastly entertained by the desktop backgrounds included with Windows 7. They’re freaky, bizarre, fascinating, disturbing and, in some odd way, beautiful at the same time. We’re speaking specifically of the wallpapers in the “Characters” section, illustrations that Microsoft collected from artists around the world.  Take a gander at the screenshots above and below to see for yourself.

Microsoft improves on the entertainment experience, too. Windows Media Center gets a utilitarian makeover that looks a tad like Apple’s Front Row (and we’re not complaining). The revamped program makes it easy to browse your movies, photos, music and so on by tapping a few keys. Nice big thumbnails display previews of your media to make your collection look nice and perdy.

A feature we have yet to test (once we get the proper hardware) with Windows Media Center is the new media-streaming capability. If you have a Wi-Fi enabled TV, you’ll be able to seamlessly stream your Windows Media Center content onto the television set. This should make piracy a blast.

More to Come
We’ll continue exploring the intricacies of Windows 7 in the next few weeks. Coming up next: Windows 7 touchscreen support; an in-depth look at the Windows 7 Media Center, including NetFlix streaming; and tips on multitasking with Aero. Stay tuned.

L’article original ici même

Le constat est qu’il y a eu de vrais efforts pour livrer un OS qui a de la gueule mais pas seulement.

Windows 7 sera plus rapide, et mieux intégré que ses prédécesseurs.
On pourra toujours regretter le manque d’interaction avec les autres OS (Linux et Max OS) mais est ce vraiment si étonnant.
Reste, que c’est un premier aperçu, attendons les autres articles.

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