Most of us have read by now that Microsoft is going to replace some of the most essential applications in Windows by their Windows Live alternatives. I, for one, do not welcome this change at all. Can you imagine an operating system, which after install you can’t view your images with? Or one, in which there is no email application? Do we really want to rely on an operating system that is so barebones that it requires us to first download a 100 + Mb setup to achieve all these functionalities?
Let us have a look at the reasons why Microsoft plans to do so. Ina Fried from News.com has some details.
In a follow-up interview on Monday, Windows Live general manager Brian Hall said Microsoft made the decision to remove the tools from Windows for several reasons, including a desire to issue new operating system releases more quickly than it has in the past. The move also removes the confusion of offering and supporting two different programs that perform essentially similar functions.
“It makes it much cleaner,” Hall said.
Lastly, he said, making the Windows Live tools completely separate from the operating system paves the way for Microsoft to work selectively with specific partners.
“We can do things with specific partners to enable really great experiences that might be hard in Windows,” Hall said.
Cleaner? Please, this has to be a joke. Is Hall putting the blame of Vista’s huge installation size which is around 15 GB +, on these bundled applications? The applications that can be downloaded in a less than 150 MB package? That is ridiculous. How about the unwanted Tablet PC functionalities that are installed by default with Windows with the user even wanting it? Or the smart card reader service that most of us never use? This is how they put clean? Great.
Great Experiences? One of the reasons why OS X is loved so much is that it comes bundled with great experiences. Why does it sound so hard to provide a good experience for Microsoft with their OS? And what partners do they talk about. I’m afraid if these partnerships mean anything like the Internet TV in Windows Media Center which is not accessible from where I live, then I demand a refund as being an owner of several genuine Windows Vista licenses. Or the great experiences provided with the highly hyped and promised Ultimate Extras.
Anti-Competitive Laws. This is the only reason that sounds good enough. But didn’t XP and Vista go through these issues and are still alive? Why would they try to avoid these issues by putting their Operating System’s first run user experience at stake?
Be all protective of Microsoft’s great move for Windows 7 + Windows Live. But I’m afraid, with what came out of Ultimate Extras, an epic failure, I wont be surprised if they don’t update these apps every so often as well for 7. This is a big mistake they are making, unless they plan to chop the price of the best SKU for Windows in half with this announcement, which I doubt will ever happen.
Keep this in mind, these apps, if not bundled with Windows 7, wont make your OS lighter, because you’ll need them one way or the other. There are many other better ways of cleaning up the OS, then cutting up on the bundled apps.