Should I Upgrade to Windows 7?

The first thing you need to think about is "Do I need to" "or "why do I need to" upgrade to Windows 7. Is there an advantage for me to do so considering my current usage profile?

I recently read a review comparing Windows XP with Windows 7 using a reasonably configured PC. Windows XP came ahead on some counts, Windows 7 on others (but not by a lot in either case) except in the "multimedia" area where windows 7 came further ahead. So I guess if you are heavy into multimedia, maybe. The differences except for this again posed the question "Should I upgrade to Windows 7" as the gain looks minimal.

This leaves functionality. "Is there any extra functionality in Windows 7 that I may gain advantage of" First one should consider that many new features in Windows 7 (like ISO image burning) you probably already use other programs. Paint for example has been jazzed up in Windows 7, but you probably already use much better graphics programs.

Look at it this way, in my opinion most Windows upgrades are mainly for show and to add some extra functionality to keep driving revenue into Microsoft. Microsoft gets steady revenue from new PCs already installed with their operating system. This is independent on which version of windows is installed. They keep pushing up their revenue by creating new Windows versions. They get this extra revenue by you and I upgrading. If they did not do this then this would be a revenue stream lost. I think this is where "Vista" fell down they tried to rush it out to get this revenue stream going and it fell in a heap, thus Windows 7.

Now Windows 7 didn't fall in a heap but it is considered "bloatware" That is, it has so much so called functionality and frivolity that most users would only look and use a fraction of its capability. Most operating systems are like this even Windows XP. Compare it to when VCR's came out. Most people just wanted to push a button to watch a video or push one or two to record, yet they were presented with so many options to do this that most people sort of gave up. The same thing with remote keypads. There are so many buttons that most people did not know what they did.

Getting back to "should I upgrade to Windows 7". Are you happy with Windows XP? Does it do everything you want? Well stay with it as you are not going to get any extra benefit from upgrading. Later on you may need to, as support for Windows XP will vanish (and it will eventually) and even then you may not want to upgrade.

I have been in the computer systems business over 35 years and one thing I have found is that most problems occur when new updates of existing operating systems, (patches, fixes etc) are installed. When these stop being installed the operating system became very stable. I have found this with many "Mainframe" systems I used to look after when existing system support updates were discontinued. I would see Windows XP the same. As soon as support is discontinued many new problems disappeared. Unfortunately you may eventually have to upgrade to windows 7, as programmers will start developing programs that will only work on the Windows 7 operating system.


Source: http://goo.gl/kIJcq