So 7 comes without these apps built-in now, also without Parental Controls, but you can go download them from MS's site? Why is that?

I think that article sums up why many people don't upgrade their Windows systems - its still a risky roll of the dice in many ways.

I don't think I ever mentioned getting a BMW for less than a Civic, or performance on par with any BMW from any Civic. I stated we could drive Civics instead of S2000s.

You may see buying a Mac as an "emotional decision", but OS X still comes with email, Parental Controls, an address book, and calendar software built in. Vista has over 50 million lines of code, and if MS is simply stripping out functionality to get a lean OS, I'm not impressed.

 

I highly doubt removing those features made any significant impact. Perhaps they merely decided that most users aren't using those functions--they're using different software, such as outlook or FireFox.

 

Its possible, but email, an address book, and calendar are pretty big parts of using a computer. Maybe MS is folding it all into Office so you can buy the apps, or maybe its going to fold them into its cloud computing efforts.

 

It's all packaged into windows live essentials (which is free and similar to Google Pack).. I don't know why they aren't just including it; possibly anti-trust legislation or in an effort to try and get people to use Windows Live. I think it's mainly the latter. Microsoft is going to be pushing simultaneous collaboration and sharing.

 

the reason is that NOBODY uses the basic mail, calendar and address book in windows. all that info is stored on peoples yahoo, gmail, aol account anyway. business users will have outlook anyway.

the items they removes were simply basic programs that mimic what your cell phone could do through POP and IMAP.

making a big deal out of this is like complaining if they took out the online services folder and the preinstalled MSN, netzero crap.

 

I guess its just a big deal to me as its a core functionality coming from the Mac side, but you're right, I don't use them on my PC because they never worked that great.

You say the Windows apps just "mimic what [a] cell phone could do [through a network]", but on a Mac, they mirror what the phone does if you have an iPhone or Pre (when Apple isn't blocking the sync services). All your information is seamlessly carried on the computers and iPhones/Pres so you can make changes anywhere without worrying about version control. Of course, that's tethered, but there's the networked capability as well.