Windows 7 Preview Fails to Impress

At the D6 conference in nearby Carlsbad, CA, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer provided a sneak preview of what they're calling Windows 7. Microsoft had hinted in recent weeks that Windows 7 might be a replacement for the badly maligned Vista, one of the biggest product failures since New Coke.

But what was shown was nothing of the sort. But what Gates and Ballmer presented was a touch screen interface that responds to gestures that allow you to do finger painting and move pictures around the display. What does this have to do with an operating system that helps us in business and fixes all the problems of Vista? Absolutely nothing.

Walt Mossberg was polite in his interview, but he, like other observers, must have been wondering how out of touch Microsoft is. Remarkably, what they showed was demonstrated several years ago by Philips and Hewlett Packard, and more recently by Apple. Some of the features are already in Apple's iPhone and notebooks. But when you're a monopoly and have little real competition you can live in your own world. What's more surprising is a company with such smart people and huge financial resources has been unable to develop truly innovative products on their own, and need to resort to copying others.

Comments

[peterg76]

To those who have been paying attention, Microsoft was always like this, though they seem to have more trouble hiding it lately.

[SamThornton]

Correctamundo! The only innovation MS contributed to the mix was DOS, an operating system Bill Gates appropriated from an independent programmer. Windows was based on the original Macintosh OS, which was gleaned during a short-lived joint operating agreement with Apple permitting access to Apple source code. And MS Office, again a suite of applications appropriated from another independent programmer. The MS expertise has always been their adroit manipulation of contract law and distribution agreements. When they've tried to push the technology, they've invariably created more problems than they could solve.

[RebelAlliance]

I am not a MS fan, but finally had to turn to the dark side and give up my Mac a few years ago because I got sick of seeing programs (games admittedly) that never came out on the Mac platform (now of course the gaming industry is moving to the game console...arrrrgggghhh). Having said that I refuse to buy Vista due to all the problems. My geek friends and I call it "Windows ME 2" after that other wonderful OS Bill & Co. came up with. I am also freeing up a partition on my drive for Linux, just don't know which version yet. But install a new MS OS? Ha ha ha ha.

[Stefan Roberts - Huffpost Blogger]

See Stefan Roberts's Profile

I completely agree -- I was a die-hard Microsoft fan until Vista. I upgraded everything and had nothing but troubles with it almost from day one, and so I was eventually converted to Apple operating systems. All I can say is now me and my MacBook Air are inseperable (except my iPhone wants to share in our techno-love!).

Gates and Microsoft have singularly failed to address the needs of the modern businessman, and have instead resorted to rehashing their own old ideas, in the hope we might not notice!

[Bendra]

Stefan, I want to do what you did. I'm afraid. I'm in my 60's and I fear a learning curve. Can I buy the Apple that purports to run a Windows platform and not die from the learning curve? Will my QuickBooks work?

I

[phil28]

I use QB for the Mac. While not as powerful it does everything I need. You can easily move your QB PC file to the Mac. I was going to run Windows on my Mac, but found I never needed to after installing QB and Office for the Mac.