Best Thing About Windows 7? It’s Not Vista.
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 22, 2009 at 8:55 AM PT
“I’m Steve Ballmer, and I’m a Windows 7 PC.”
With those words, spoken at a big company event in New York City (see video below), the Microsoft CEO launched the newest version of Windows, the one he hopes will regain the customer goodwill lost with its predecessor, Vista. There’s no question that the stakes are particularly high this time around. Vista was widely maligned as mediocre, and Microsoft (MSFT) needs something to reverse three quarters of declining Windows sales.
By most accounts, Windows 7 fits that bill. Reviews of the new operating system have been largely positive, calling it faster, more secure and easier to use that its predecessors. Our own Walt Mossberg describes it as “the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced…a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use.” Quite an endorsement, but one that was hard won. According to Microsoft, more than eight million people participated in the Windows 7 beta program–more than for any Microsoft beta program ever.
In any event, if any OS has a shot at succeeding Windows XP as the world’s most ubiquitous operating system, it’s Windows 7. “I think Windows 7 will be the biggest, one of the biggest, products to hit the tech industry this year,” Ballmer told CNBC. “Just because Windows is used on about one billion computers around the planet. There’ll be another 300 million machines that ship this year, and the diversity of PCs that ship with Windows 7, the simplicity that Windows 7 brings–I think it’s a pretty banner year.”
Comments
You know, I am a simple non-tech person, with two Vista machines approaching three years old.
I never had a lick of trouble with Vista, and neither did tghe huge numbers of millions of people from whom you never hear.
And, please do not give me that business of how many horror stories about Vista you can tell me without being specific.
You guys ought to think about what you would do for a living without Miscrosoft around.
Posted by Richard Mitnick at October 22nd, 2009 at 1:19 pmWindows will never come close to being stable as UNIX, and that is why Mac OS X rocks!
Posted by Tony Martin at October 22nd, 2009 at 10:47 pm