So, Google have finally revealed much more about their plans for a new operating system – Chrome OS. As someone who loves the web, bringing an OS which focuses solely on the web is a pretty interesting idea.

I actually had heard Microsoft were looking into doing something similar and found Windows Azure. From what I can tell both focus on cloud computing (pretty much involves having programs and all on the web rather than on PCs, all managed in one central location). They have different uses though and aren’t the same at all.

Google Chrome OS

Google’s OS pretty much involves taking away everything from your computer apart from the web browser. No applications or anything, just a browser. So the sole use of your PC becomes getting onto the internet. Every application you use from creating documents to email are all opened instead through the web browser (e.g. Google Documents, Gmail).

Overall, it’s an interesting idea. Google knows that it’s not for everyone (I can’t see myself being able to work with just a web browser, especially when I’m doing web design or playing games) but it’s brilliant for those who just want a fast and secure computer. For those who only use their PC for Microsoft Office, email and the web – Google’s OS will definitely be a simpler (and I’ll assume cheaper) option.

Here’s Google’s little animation explaining the Chrome OS for anyone who hasn’t seen it:

I also found a concept video which Engadget had on one of their Chrome OS articles, which shows what Chrome OS is likely to be like:

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft’s OS is being released in 2010. It’s mostly a developer release so far, so that developers can begin to develop programs for it. Its idea seems to revolve more around Microsoft hosting applications/data and managing it all for developers. Users then access the programs from the Internet.

Pretty similar to the cloud computing idea of Google’s Chrome OS except Microsoft Azure isn’t an OS for the users, it seems to be an OS that will be running at Microsoft for users to connect to using their own PCs with their own OSes. More like a back end OS from what I understand.

Interestingly, the main similarity is that both OSes use a sketch style video to explain themselves. Here is Microsoft Azure’s:

Personally, I liked Google’s video better. Microsoft’s video is aimed more at developers, whilst Google’s video is aimed at the average person. Google’s video is way more interesting and understandable.

Either way, it looks like we’ll be hearing even more about cloud computing over the next few years (maybe under a different name if the IBM and HP CEOs get their way). Thank goodness Mozilla isn’t looking to create their own operating system just yet.

After all my frustrations with Windows Vista on my laptop, I jumped on the opportunity to get a free copy of Windows 7 from MSDN:AA. While most of the most frustrating issues I had with Vista were because of third party programs (e.g. the ASUS stuff that came default on the laptop, ZoneAlarm and Firefox not playing nice with each other in Vista), there were some frustrations with Vista too.

I thought I’d list my favourite things about Windows 7 first, then move onto the dislikes.

Things I like about Windows 7

• Can change the colour of the taskbar and windows whilst keeping the Aero look - Whilst this isn’t a big thing to some, for me this was really irritating in Vista. The Aero look was great, but from what I remember, you had a choice between black and black. In Windows 7, you can adjust the colour to whatever you’d like whilst keeping that look. You can even adjust transparency to full so you don’t need a colour and the background comes through (looks quite nice like that in my opinion!).
• Desktop background rotation in themes – Whilst this was possible through third party apps, I don’t think it was possible on Vista without them. In Windows 7, you can have various background images on rotation. Themes which have come with Windows 7 even have sets of high quality images pre packaged. Once again, this might not be something people care too much about but for me, aesthetics is a huge thing on a PC I’ll be using all day.
• Shutdown button on start menu again - The one thing which really annoyed me about Windows Vista was the shutdown button was on a separate menu (you had to click an arrow and then choose it). This led to me clicking whatever was below shutdown on the menu quite often (I think it was sleep, which my laptop didn’t do very well). This drove me insane. In Windows 7, it’s back to common sense with the button on the start menu again. Note: Upon googling this, you can apparently fix the Vista button to have shutdown on the start menu (http://www.vista4beginners.com/shut-down-button-start-menu). If only I’d googled it before! Though it’s a tad annoying for a default setting to be completely against how users expect it to be. How’d that pass usability testing?
• Nice transparency effect on Alt-Tab – Windows 7 does a nice effect where it hides other windows whilst you are Alt-Tabbing (seems to only do it sometimes though?). I liked it and thought it was a nice touch.
• Windows Media Center looks pretty cool - I liked it in Vista but in Windows 7 it has another nice look to it.
• Feels more stable – It could just be my imagination but my laptop actually feels like it’s running better and has less issues.
• ASUS and ZoneAlarm issues gone – In Vista, much of the time when my laptop started I couldn’t click in the middle of the screen without putting my volume up/down (to bring up the volume animation in the center). This was an ASUS thing (from what I could tell) which irritated me but I could never find out exactly what was doing it. Thanks to installing Windows 7, all those programs aren’t installed any more and I could install the ASUS programs I wanted. The middle of the screen issue is now gone. The Firefox and ZoneAlarm issue is gone too (used to crash Firefox quite often), but that’s because I’ve installed PC Tools Firewall Plus instead. I don’t think ZoneAlarm is compatible with Windows 7 yet. So in the end, changing to Windows 7 was like a formatting of all the junk preinstalled on my PC by ASUS and the ZoneAlarm/Firefox issue was a bonus which I guess Microsoft can take credit for if they want.

Things I dislike about Windows 7

• I couldn’t upgrade directly from Vista Home Premium – My laptop had Vista Home Premium, whilst I was installing Windows 7 Professional. Apparently you can’t upgrade directly, you’ve got to install on top of it. So all your installed programs are no longer installed… etc as you get a new registry and new user folder (could copy your documents and such if you really wanted). This worked in my favour a bit in terms of fixing issues with programs I had installed as it was like a formatting of my hard drive without actually losing all my data. It did force me to have to backup everything just in case and didn’t really tell me that my files would be okay – I got the impression everything was going to be formatted. My files were all still there after the install but the Windows folder and Users folder were placed in a Windows.old folder (convenient I guess).
• XP mode not out yet – Yeah, so i’m being a bit impatient here… but the XP mode for Windows 7 (let’s you run programs which would otherwise not work in Windows 7) isn’t released yet. It’s being released with the official release of Windows 7 from what I read. I’m eagerly awaiting it so I can see if I can run Flash MX 2004 on Windows 7 (doesn’t work right on Vista, ruining my hopes of doing Flash work easily on my laptop).
• Weird issue with my wireless encryption – For some reason my wireless’s encryption wouldn’t let me connect using Windows 7. I had to change my wireless router’s settings and security before it would let me on. The old settings worked fine in Windows Vista and even on Ubuntu and my brother’s PSP, just not Windows 7.
• How do you shorten Windows 7′s name? - With Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME (ew.), XP, Vista, you could generally refer to them with one word (e.g. “I’m using XP”). With Windows 7, it feels kinda wrong? “I’m using 7″ just sounds too short and weird. Needs one extra syllable I think. Everyone seems to refer to it as “Windows 7″ which sounds way too formal.
• Took about 30 minutes to try to shut down then BSOD appeared – Only happened once but was enough to irritate me and hope it never happens again. I’d tried to shut it down but it struggled on the “shutting down” screen. Took about 30 minutes, then blue screened. How do you fail shutting down a PC? Hope it doesn’t happen again.
• Decides to install updates on shutting down without asking – In XP, it gives you an option to shut down with/without installing updates. In Windows 7, it decides to install them without asking. Apparently Microsoft decided we were all not to be trusted with this choice. Not a good thing for a uni student who needs to shut down his laptop quickly after a lecture is finished. Or for a laptop which is about to run out of battery. After a quick rush to shut down my laptop due to it having pretty much no battery left, Windows 7 decided that it needed to install updates before shutting down (whilst telling you not to shut down the power in the process). I had to run to a power point and plug it in just to ensure my PC didn’t damage itself.

Things I’m still unsure about

• The new taskbar – Well, it hasn’t grown on me yet. It groups items on the taskbar by program and has a separate popup for each individual window selection. It seems to add to the clicks needed to switch windows and often made me forget I had things open (similar to when I’m using a Mac). It is kinda cool though, that might just be because it’s something new. I did like the Windows Media Player button which shows play/pause/stop functionality when you hover over the icon though. Definitely some possibilities there.
• UPDATE: After changing the Windows 7 taskbar to separate each window away from the default application groupings and display labels again (like it looks in XP) I’ve found it to be really useful! It still has the additional Windows 7 functionality, just without the grouping which was getting a little irritating to me.

Overall verdict: So far, Windows 7 hasn’t really bugged me much at all. As soon as I got wireless working I was pretty happy. The two shutdown issues were definitely irritating at the time but have only happened once each. The aesthetics look pretty great (which are a huge part of my judgement of an OS as I’m sure you can tell). I’m quite happy with the level of customisation that is inbuilt. Really looking forward to seeing how XP mode works.

I’d give Windows 7 about a 9/10 so far. In comparison to Vista (6/10) and XP (9.8/10). A perfectly working XP mode would possibly be enough to push the rating up to about a 9.5.