Fixing a broken Windows

So the title of this post summarizes how I feel about Windows 7. I downloaded it from IEEE (thanks little for the info), and upgraded my computer from Vista to 7. Here's my impressions:

Windows 7 really feels like Vista 2.0 to me; it feels like what Microsoft should have delivered two years ago when it came out with Vista, instead of the slow, bogged down black hole of an operating system that's about as annoying as that little fairy from Zelda on the N64. Vista is a demon of an operating system that hogged resources (albeit is slowly getting better with regular Microsoft updates) and tried to hide all of its flaws under a flashy new interface. An interface, which, to those used to Windows' paths was about as confusing as Narnia to navigate.

Now, as a computer engineer, I was taught that an operating system should be minimal, shouldn't hog resources, and should really be a mere tool to whatever you are trying to do on a computer. That is why I do, and will always dual boot in Linux.

But this article is about my honest, geeky impressions of Windows 7. I am pleasantly surprised by how functional and fast this OS is. Windows 7 feels like Microsoft's closest attempt to the textbook definition of what an operating system should be; fast, functional, and easy to use. Microsoft decided to take one from Apple and polish up the task bar (to anyone who has used a Mac, it feels very similar to that now.) and overall succeeded. However I am annoyed that now in my toolbar, I will no longer be able to read if someone has gchatted me while I'm multitasking at my computer. Sigh.

Continued impressions tomorrow...