Five years in the making and this is the best Microsoft could do?

There are only few people who know that if you look out of your 'Windows', the world is much more vivid and beautiful. Apple is known for its good looks, but it’s excessively expensive, while Vista is a big disappointment (check Tech Cold War 2007!).

Vista keeps earning awards it most certainly does not need

Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.2 and Windows Vista Service Pack One were both released in February of 2008. Linux Ubuntu released the latest version of its operating system, nicknamed Hardy Heron, in April. I tried out each of these three operating systems to see how they compared.

In the tech world this phenomenon is known as “software bloat” or “feature bloat.” It's a well-documented problem and a frequent complaint about Windows OSs—Vista in particular. In addition to being buggy, the extra features tend to bog down your system by demanding more processing power and memory. Computer-makers: Don't load up operating systems with features and then make us sweat to figure out how to get rid of the fat.

"LONDON, May 23, 2007 – Ubuntu 7.04, commercially sponsored by Canonical Ltd., was honored by PC World with a 100 Best Products of 2007 Award. The article is available now on PCWorld.com, and will also be featured in the July 2007 issue of PC World, which hits newsstands June 12."

There has been a meme going around in the Linux world that Vista is really a dog and that Microsoft is only managing to make its numbers by jamming the new OS down the throats of unwilling customers. Now I admit I don't use Vista and haven't spent a lot of time benchmarking it against Ubuntu or Mac OS X or any of the other non-Microsoft alternatives.

So you thought Vista’s desktop looked slick? Or the latest Leopard desktop is coolest thing after sliced bread? Well you probably haven’t been properly exposed to Linux’s customizability.

For developers, the open source world of 2007 was all about updates and interesting new projects. From a new version of Eclipse to a new scheduler in Linux, developers around the world contributed their free time to make their lives and the lives of others collectively easier. But in hindsight, the significance of 2007 may well be that the GPL finally grew some teeth.