Three years ago I wrote: Windows Seven in 2010. Does Anyone Still Care?
I simply don’t get it: Vista is barely out, nobody seems to like it, CIO’s refuse to upgrade, analyst firms tell them to wait, individual users who tried it switch back to XP, others time their new PC purchase so they can still get an XP machine – generally speaking Vista was as poorly received as the ill-fated Windows ME.
Apple is gaining market share, the major computer manufacturers are offering Linux PC’s, the Web OS concept is getting popular, applications are already on the Web – can anyone clearly see the shape of personal computing in 2012? (Yes, I know MS plans for 2010, I’m just adding the customary delay.) Will it still matter what OS we use to get on the Internet? How can Microsoft be so out of touch?
I was right and I was wrong. Right in the assessment, that Vista’s main competitor was Microsoft’s own solid OS, WinXP – there was simply no reason to upgrade. Yet as buying new computers with Good Ole XP became increasingly difficult, many of us got stuck with Vista. I was wrong in not foreseeing that Vista would turn out to be such a disaster, that millions of Vista victims would end up paying the ransom to get out of the trap and get the version of the OS that actually works: Windows 7.
What followed was two peaceful years when Windows computers simply worked. Yes, They Just Worked. Almost like a Mac. 
Then the unexpected (?) happened. Windows 7 has started to behave like Vista. For a month or so four Win7 computers in my household can’t go to normal sleep: they have unexpected shutdowns, causing startup next time in Recovery mode, they keep on trying to install the same Win Updates again and again, taking long minutes to shut down, then configuring on startup only to fail and start again:
Utter crap. What have I done to deserve this?
So here’s the Conspiracy Theory: it’s not me, and it’s not a failure. It’s the beginning of the intentional Vista-ization of Win7. Microsoft has learned from the XP / Vista fiasco, they know it would be close to impossible to get us out of our comfort zone with Windows 7 to upgrade to Win8 – but it’s coming, inevitably coming. They have to make the Win7 experience just as painful as Vista was to get us buy Windows 8.
There, I’ve said it. Already feeling better
And yes, @cwood, you are right, I should have gotten a Mac.
Related articles
- Windows 7 Expands Lead Over Vista, Still Dwarfed by Windows XP (pcworld.com)
- They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know. (e1evation.com)
- Windows XP still more popular than Windows 7 or Vista (news.consumerreports.org)
There is a bit of sick truth to the whole idea. Windows 7 in the office is actually getting our entire development team (of hard core leading .NET Programmers) to actually encourage and help management find reasons to buy us Mac Book Pros to work on. The simple fact is, it’s better to do .NET Development on a Mac Book or a Linux Machine now than it is to do so on a Windows Machine. Just a few observations:
Linux & OS-X boot much faster than Windows, any version of Windows.
Linux & OS-X run services faster, have .NET support via Mono which is actually faster and more efficient, and can run Windows in a safe virtual environment. If Windows breaks, just roll back to the backup/saved point of the virtual machine running Windows. All is ok again.
.NET has Silverlight support on both OSs, which ironically often allow Silverlight Apps to run faster than under IE (any version) on Windows.
The other things that keep pulling people away from .NET; Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Sinatra, and other services and stack elements run much easier on Linux or OS-X.
Simply, both Linux & OS-X run flawlessly in comparison to Windows.
The Internet runs on Linux, rarely on Windows, and a massive number of developers use OS-X these days to build sites and applications for use on the Internet.
Did I mention, the cloud exists today because of open source technology. In large part, no more like a MASSIVE contribution to cloud technology, has been solely Linux and the various *nix variants. Windows has played no part in the development of this amazing technology and only now do they even contribute after years of sitting on the sidelines.
So yeah, conspiracy or not, the cards are stacked against Microsoft these days. They need to really focus and raise the bar even higher if they intend to stay in the game! 🙂
you know I did notice all those exact same problems when I installed sp1 on win7 ultimate. I have a low end MSI laptop with an icore3, 128gig ssd and 8gigs of ram. It will not go to sleep and get a black screen so I have to hard boot. random crashes and have gotten stuck on a few updates. nothing a delete of the SoftwareDistribution folder cant fix.
good conspiracy theory. ruin your winning software and sell the next best thing. as long as they dont start updating cars that are only two years old then we will be fine.