科技前沿:微軟的巔峯之作Windows 7
A Windows To Help You Forget
In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft's long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company's reputation, and the productivity and blood pressure of its users. PC makers will rush to flood physical and online stores with new computers pre-loaded with Windows 7, and to offer the software to Vista owners who wish to upgrade.
With Windows 7, PC users will at last have a strong, modern successor to the sturdy and familiar, but aged, Windows XP, which is still the most popular version of Windows, despite having come out in 2001. In the high-tech world, an eight-year-old operating system is the equivalent of a 20-year-old car. While XP works well for many people, it is relatively weak in areas such as security, networking and other features more important today than when XP was designed around 1999.
After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced. It's a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use. Despite a few drawbacks, I can heartily recommend Windows 7 to mainstream consumers.
Like the new Snow Leopard operating system released in August by Microsoft's archrival, Apple, Windows 7 is much more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary product. Its main goal was to fix the flaws in Vista and to finally give Microsoft customers a reason to move up from XP. But Windows 7 is packed with features and tweaks that make using your computer an easier and more satisfying experience.
Windows 7 introduces real advances in organizing your programs and files, arranging your taskbar and desktop, and quickly viewing and launching the page or document you want, when you want it. It also has cool built-in touch-screen features.
It removes a lot of clutter. And it mostly banishes Vista's main flaws -- sluggishness; incompatibility with third-party software and hardware; heavy hardware requirements; and constant, annoying security warnings.
再過兩個星期，到了10月22日，微軟(Microsoft)漫長的操作系統惡夢就將結束。屆時微軟將發佈比Windows Vista速度更快、功能更強的新操作系統Windows 7。很少有人喜歡Windows Vista，這款產品損害了微軟的聲譽，影響了用戶的生產力和血壓。個人電腦廠商將向實體店和網店供應大量預裝Windows 7的新電腦，並向希望升級系統的Vista用戶發售軟件。
隨着Windows 7的上市，個人電腦用戶終於能有一款強大而新潮的替代產品，來淘汰穩定、熟悉但年代久遠的Windows XP。儘管早在2001年就上市，但Windows XP仍是目前最受歡迎的Windows操作系統。在高科技領域，一款擁有8年曆史的操作系統就相當於一輛擁有20年曆史的汽車一樣。雖然XP受到很多人喜歡，但很多方面的性能相當薄弱，例如安全性、網絡連接性以及其他現在重要性超過1999年左右XP設計時的性能。
衆所周知，微軟上一代操作系統Windows Vista口碑不佳。繼承者Windows 7表現如何？《華爾街日報》“數字生活”欄目作家莫博士在仔細測評後說，Windows 7成功補救了Vista敗績。
我使用預先發布版的Windows 7已經有9個月了，最後這個月在很多不同機器上對最終版軟件進行了大量測試，我相信這是微軟所推出最好的Windows版本。Windows 7提高了生產力，操作令人愉快。儘管還存在一些缺點，但我仍衷心地向主流消費者推薦Windows 7。
今年8月，微軟競爭對手蘋果公司(Apple)發佈了新的雪豹(Snow Leopard)操作系統。和雪豹一樣，Windows 7更多的是一款改進產品，而非革命之作。其主要目的就是解決Vista的缺陷，最終給微軟用戶一個淘汰XP的理由。但Windows 7帶來了諸多新功能和調整，讓你更加輕鬆便捷地使用電腦，帶來更加令人滿意的體驗。
Windows 7在組織你的程序和文件，安排你的任務欄和桌面方面作出了實際改進，能夠迅速地在你需要的時候，瀏覽和啓動你想要的網頁或文件。這一軟件還有很酷的內置觸摸屏功能。
Windows 7取消了很多繁瑣之處，基本上消除了Vista的主要缺陷──反應遲緩、不兼容第三方軟硬件、繁重的硬件要求以及不斷跳出、令人心煩的安全警告。
