OK, I have no evidence of rampant indulgence in illicit substances in Redmond, but it’s hard to find another explanation for this image being standard-issue wallpaper:
!= has more on the potential symbolism (perhaps subconscious) in this image. And also links to a rather fascinating article about microscopic, holographic photos embedded in the Windows Vista installer disc. While it’s truly an impressive achievement, one wonders whether Microsoft’s R&D priorities are really in the right place with this.
Posted in honor of today’s availability of the Windows 7 Release Candidate as a free download. Yes, I am downloading it now. (I just blew Kosh’s mind.)
Update: Yes, this is trivial. I’m petty. But still, first impressions and all. The first few screens of the installation start-up were a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the white-on-blue terminal screen look of the Windows XP installer.
But I have to wonder about this particular screenshot. Could they really not fit that text on one line?
Also, this window has a more-or-less Vista-style interface. Before this there was a screen where I had to pick my language preferences, and that window looked like the Windows 2000 interface. Which “classic” Windows interface style will the next screen feature? And was this walk through the museum of Microsoft OS antiquities really intentional?
Oh, and I almost forgot… did they really mean to put the red “close window” X there? It glows when I mouse over it. Must… resist… temptation…. I can only assume clicking it would cancel the installation. But would I get a chance to confirm that rash decision? Wouldn’t a smartly labeled “Cancel installation…” button have made more sense?
Usually they get artists to make some of the screen stuff, music, etc. Don’t go down the rabbit hole!
Seriously I can’t wait to hear more on what you think. Is wrap around text and X’s is all you got? There are a couple of other UI inconsistencies as well. Check out the box and text for jump lists and then the system tray box. Couldn’t they make them look the same? It is miles more consistent than any of their other OS’s I have seen.
I’m sure I’ll have more comments once I get it going. Overall I have to say I am genuinely impressed with the installation process, these minor complaints aside. It was way faster and more slick than any Windows install I’ve ever seen. And the 2.4 GB download this morning went surprisingly fast as well.
I’ll be playing around with it more today and will probably have a few more trivial complaints to vent here.
Looking forward to hearing what they are. I do not have it installed on any of my PC’s, so anything you get from me will be second hand info I have gathered from my various sites I read. All my computers are pretty old. What am I saying, they are very old. I get all the hand me downs from my friends, so I never have a newish computer. I recently got a laptop about 5 years old that runs XP pretty well. I am going to get another 5ish year old Dell that I may put 7 on. I was thinking about trying Ubuntu on one of my old systems but it doesn’t meet the minimum requirements (yes that old, it is a old win98 system). Oh well, that computer should go to the recycling center.