Last week Microsoft asked me to start working on Windows 7 for them, which I started to do this weekend. It's a little ironic, because it means I'll be basically skipping Vista in my home setup all together, but I'm willing to do that.
It's a pretty seamless install (might have been the fastest Windows install I've ever done) and the casual user wouldn't notice much difference graphically from Vista but for more transparency in borders. But it certainly isn't as bloated as Vista - the install is a lot smaller and everything seems to work much faster than with Vista (especially copying files). I had a few problems with IE8 and some JAVA incompatibility with some web sites that were frustrating, but all in all it's a huge improvement.
But where I was really impressed (and what this web site might care about) was the new Media Center experience with my music files on the Xbox 360. It's similar to how Vista handled finding an album (that was copied and added to iTunes) however those with huge libraries will appreciate it's faster user experience. What was most impressive to me was the wall of album covers it created while playing a song. Check out the screen shots below from
another users experience: Find an album to listen to:
<img src="http://blog.retrosight.com/content/images/WindowsMediaCenterWindows7Build6801/SmallMusicGalleryMissingCoverArt.png" alt=" - " />
The Now playing screen (the album cover wall scrolls):
<img src="http://blog.retrosight.com/content/images/WindowsMediaCenterWindows7Build6801/SmallMusicNowPlaying.png" alt=" - " />
Use my Xbox controller or my Logitech remote to rate songs:
<img src="http://blog.retrosight.com/content/images/WindowsMediaCenterWindows7Build6801/SmallMusicRatings.png" alt=" - " />
Have a couple thousand albums to scroll through? They have a feature for that...
<img src="http://blog.retrosight.com/content/images/WindowsMediaCenterWindows7Build6801/SmallMusicLibraryTurboScroll.png" alt=" - " />
All on my big screen and through my stereo. Super slick.
There's more about the pictures and video experience as well.
