Hello. Remember us - Microsoft?

Anyone?

Please don't buy a Mac.

We're still the same Microsoft, er, I mean, we're different now, we've learned.

Look, mmmmm Windows 7 - now even faster and more secure.

Why is everyone laughing?

Please don't buy a Mac.

Look we've sold 20 million phones with WIndows on. OK, we haven't sold them and we know there's precious little alternative for the mobile manufacturers. But still, please don't buy a Mac.

Hello?

Anyone?

Dell has been pre-installing cruft in the 2000s too.

I got a T-mobile G1 yesterday. Fantastic. Really, really amazing. My windows based unit will be duly recycled to one of the kids very soon.

"Windows will remain at the centre of people's technological solar system"

If thats the case, Im from a different universe & grateful for it.

Compred to Mac OS X and the majority of Linux disto updates, Windows 7 is a valid upgrade in that is contains lots of new stuff.

However, there is an awul lot of stuff on blogs and comments stating how much better is already is than Vista and "it's what Vista should have been"....WTF?!

It's like the transition from Windows 95 to 98, or Win2k to XP - it's the fucking same! Features like the UAC config tool aren't new, it's just that in Vista you needed to edit the registry or a group policy to do it.

Other stuff are to be honest cosmetic. It's Vista with a new SP and a few new features!!! Now I like Vista personally, always ran it on new hardware (rather than a desktop from 2004!) and I understand the point. Never had a problem with it.

Yet El Reg, most of it's commenters and a shit load of press slate Vista - but are singing the praises of Windows 7. It's madness, as very little has changed in terms of architecture, security, permissons, UAC, driver support etc.

It really does look like the possibility of buying a PC with a decent operating system that isn't bundled with a tonne of rubbish you don't want seems to be fleeting away. I checked out the bankrupcy sales for some new base units, the other day, but it was just full of Vista machines.

"When I say 'Windows' I'm sure you think about a PC, even though we are extending to the phone and the cloud."

I distinctly recall having a WINDOWS mobile phone a few years back.

Dunno about the cloud, but it was certainly a steaming pile.

So it is expensive to get to and intense radiation will quickly kill you. I am happy for windows to stay there.

Win ME

"Dell has been pre-installing cruft in the 2000s too."

This is a smart move on their part. Every sane person will re-install the OS if it comes despoiled with such junk, and at that point Dell can turn their backs on any support queries. Result!

"Windows will remain at the center of people's technological solar system"

will it fuck

I want a single computing environment that can be accessed on any suitably specced device. It should be able to tell whether I'm accessing it via my phone, my car or my PC, and it should be possible to run it either locally on top of a hardware layer or as hosted either on a server or in a virtual machine. I don't want to turn a DVD into a coaster because I lose my network connection half way through the burning process, and I need to be able to listen to music on my phone even when I have no signal, but I still want to be able to access it on a net cafe or at work.

With storage costs being so low and with processing power now high even in small, cheap devices, I see no reason why I should need a live net connection to be able to work with my centralised, net hosted environment. What I suggest would be a central net based service that downloads your computer environment onto your device when you buy it. The environment then runs locally, with any changes being uploaded to the image held on the server. When I turn on my PC, updates to the image made on one device will be applied to the cached image on my hard drive, thus minimising the data transfer. However, it should be possible to access this environment without having to download it at all.

This way I get the best of both worlds - the convenience of cloud computing combined with the stability and computing power associated with PC computing.