Good Job, Microsoft

So apparently, Microsoft CAN make a great operating system.

Although I’ve been using the Windows 7 Release Candidate for a couple of months now, I’ve found myself using Microsoft’s latest OS more and more over the last couple of days.  First, because of some last minute testing before it was deployed to the two Windows users in the office.  Second, because I needed to check the ODBC functionality for our on-going FileMaker/MySQL project in the office.

What’s really surprised me so far, is my willingness to use Windows 7 vs.. Apple’s Snow Leopard.  Given, some of the desire is simply a result of Windows 7 being the “new” thing.  But, so far, I’ve really found Windows 7 to be the equal to Snow Leopard.

I really hope Microsoft is able to counter some of the attacks it’s gotten (mostly from the Apple community, I would say). Some of the things they’ve mentioned so far:

• The “transition” from XP to 7 isn’t nearly as awful as some people (and the “Get A Mac” Ads) are trying to make it.  The app provided by Microsoft, Easy Transfer, really does a great job of taking the user step-by-step through the transition process.  All you really need is an external hard drive and the ability to read directions.  Given, it took a little while (~ 45 min.), but that was nearly 20 GB of files each way.  Moreover, everything was exactly where it needed to be.  Documents were in the documents folder, media carried over correctly, bookmarks were saved in Internet Explorer, even generic folders on the hard drive were carried over correctly.  Sure applications don’t transfer, but guess what?  They’re not going to do that in the transition to a Mac either, and in fact, some programs might not even exist in Snow Leopard.
• Speaking of application transitions, Windows 7 does a great job of using “XP Compatibility Mode” for those legacy applications people might have.  I sure would’ve liked something similar for the programs that simply refused to work after my Snow Leopard upgrade.
• One other thing that occurred to me while using Windows 7 was Apple’s selling point of Snow Leopard having Exchange support out of the box.  Well, that’s fantastic, and the implementation Apple’s Mail and iCal is fairly seamless.  However, just like Entourage, the Mail/iCal combo still isn’t Outlook.  Nothing ever well be, even Microsoft’s upcoming Outlook for Mac.  Why would Microsoft worry about building in Exchange support for Windows Mail (or similar software solution)?  Besides, from all accounts, Exchange Server 2010 looks to offer full Outlook Web Access across all major web browsers. And seriously, I’d like to know who’s using Exchange e-mail and doesn’t have access to a copy of Outlook?  Even the poorest of college students are probably offered a free copy on their campus.  The lack of intelligence and diligence to take advantage of the available technology isn’t Microsoft’s fault.

Now I should mention I don’t plan on completely switching from Snow Leopard anytime soon, the applications I use the most (Coda, Transmit, Sequel Pro, TextEdit) don’t have a good equal in Windows. But that goes both ways. I plan on doing all blogging exclusively under Windows thanks to Windows Live Writer (the best blogging software I’ve ever used). More software like that, and the excellent Windows 7 should put a little more pressure on Apple’s development teams. Now if Microsoft could just make a decent cell phone …