Gizmodo published their first impressions of the Windows 7 operating system currently being developed by Microsoft. Microsoft allowed developers and reviewers get a sneak peek of this Vista replacement during this week's Professional Developers Conference. Gizmodo and other tech blogs have indicated Windows 7, although still incomplete, looks to be a better version of Windows than Vista. Improvements in boot-up time, work-flow, performance, and user interface all take center stage with this new version of Windows.
In the Gizmodo article, one new feature listed for Windows 7 hopes to improve customer experience with home networking. As I read how the new feature, HomeGroup, is described...I'm sort of disappointed.
HomeGroup is a re-do of classic workgroup networking, only with the home in mind. The feature will only work on Windows 7, so to test it I'd need a second loaner unit. Still, having set up a basic HomeGroup, at least the initial interface and Microsoft's literature suggest that this will simplify viewing content across multiple machines, and sharing printers and other products. Let's hope so, because it could also be one of those classic "Why won't this work for me????" networking wizards. (Or is it just me who gets those?)
Don't get me wrong, I applaud Microsoft for simplifying and viewing network connectivity. However, I'm troubled that HomeGroup will only work on Windows 7 systems. In my own home, I currently have a mix of XP, Vista, Linux, and Mac OS X systems. I just wonder how long it is going to take most families to see any real benefit of HomeGroup in Windows 7? Even for those homes without Macs and Linux systems, it is going to take a few years before those Windows XP and Vista systems are replaced. It will be interesting to see how HomeGroup evolves in later versions of Windows 7.
Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing Windows 7 in action as I've always felt that Vista is this decade's version of Windows ME. At the very least, it is finally nice to see Microsoft move away from Vista in hopes that seven is truly a lucky number.