I had a sort of 'wow' moment yesterday at work regarding Windows 7.
Yes.
I should be honest, the fancy user interface and other 'look and feel' embellishments of Operating Systems seldom interest me. I'm not saying that they are unimpressive or easy to accomplish, but just that I'm more easily seduced by innovations in core technology or functional aspects of the program. For instance, I disabled Aero on Vista and similarly, the fancy Compiz on Ubuntu. It is fun to play around for a little bit, but really, I don't need rotating workspace-cubes when all I'm doing is entering C or C#/ASP.NET in an editor.
So Windows 7 was pretty to look at when it arrived at work. It was fast, but is not every new system fast? My coworker and I were playing around with a Logitech webcam yesterday and we decided to hook it up to the Win 7 box. As usual, the NT Kernel recognized the USB webcam as a Human Interface Device. I assumed it would proceed and ask me about the driver disk, but to my pleasant surprise, it went online and downloaded automatically not just the driver, but also the utility software. Best of all, it worked! I was able to use Skype, indulge in narcissistic facial gestures, and admire myself on the screen.
I personally have a bad feeling when NT based OSes search the web to find 'solutions'. How many times has Windows tried to match the file's extension with a program by going online when it does not understand the launching application for an unknown file extension? How many times has it failed to deliver anything useful out of the process?
However, with the Logitech webcam, it all came together just fine.
My boss later said that his Win 7 box did the same thing when he hooked up his new Canon digital camera.
I must say I'm pretty impressed by this feat, and I will not cringe when Win 7 goes online to find solutions.
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