Windows 7 should be 64 bit if Microsoft wants it to work

This is just one of those opinionated topics I hate to read. But then again its my personal opinion on my blog and I am trying to express an opinion. To make sure that Windows 7 really works they need to make sure that they don't have 5-6 different versions. They need to keep things as simple as possible. At max two versions one home and the other professional. Having half a dozen version just ends up confusing people.

The second suggestion might seem stupid at first but in the years to come can push not just Windows but the complete computer industry with it. They should only have a 64bit version of Windows 7. This might seem stupid at first but if you look at the legacy this can really pay off well in the end. Firstly to run Windows 7 you would require a 64 bit processor which will take care of the hardware compatibility issues that occurred with Windows Vista. All programs running on anything less than Windows 7 will work on it but not the other way around. Let me take an example which might make the whole scenario a little more clearer. When Windows '95 launched it was a 32 bit OS which could run any program which would run on Windows 3.1 but programs being developed for '95 would not run on 3.1, since people bought new hardware to run it they never faced the problem which users faced when moving from XP to Vista.

Since people tried to run Vista with less than 1 GB RAM and a whole lot of crap ware pre-installed, most machines that came loaded with Vista ended up being resource hogs. No one liked the new interface since it was slow, which to no real fault on Microsoft's part became the label that MS is still living with. To get rid of the image and have applications specially designed for Windows 7 a giant leap to 64 bit will really go a long way in in pushing people to use Windows 7. Windows Vista seems like a burden as of now since anything that runs on Vista will run on XP so no one see's the reason to go ahead. The same thing is with Windows 7 is every application that would run on Windows 7 runs on XP no one will bother upgrading.

The main thing here is perception and Vista now has the unfortunate perception of being slow. Given the right hardware Vista can really work well but since no one bothers looking at it's easy to blame Microsoft. Not that everything in Vista is perfect but they end up receiving a lot more criticism than they deserve.

Windows 7 can change the tide if they make sure that it is run on the right hardware. And a push towards 64 bit computing can really be giant leap for not just Microsoft but all the hardware and software makers around the world.

With the advent of faster internet connections Microsoft can store a complete repository of hardware drivers online and make it seamless for people to install new hardware. It is there in Vista and partly in XP but things can be made a lot more smoother without the need for disks to store drivers. So the moment you install a new hardware it checks for drivers on disk and then online in its repository and if it still fails then asks for the disks.

Not sure why I wanted to write it but this is something going on in my mind right now and thought of putting it into words. I am not a Microsoft fanboy or a Apple/Linux/BSD/... hater, but I think that if there has to be a major push for 64bit computing Windows 7 can do it. Again when I say 64 bit computing I am not talking about the advantages of going 64 bit. There never really is the advantage its really all very clever marketing and that's what I am talking about.

Let me come back to the classic example of Windows 3.1 and Windows '95. Windows 3.1 was 16 bit with 32 bit extensions. Windows '95 was 32 bit from ground up. Anything that would run on 3.1 would run on '95 but not the other way around. In the next 2-3 years after Windows '95 was launched there were hardly any software that was being developed for Win 3.1 and it died a natural death. With Windows XP and Vista there are numerous changes inside but they never came to the forefront since Windows XP has turned out to be the dominant OS and there are hardly any applications where I need Vista. That is where playing the 64 bit card can really drive sales for the complete industry as a whole.