May 27, 2008-Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer demo Windows 7 during the Wall Street Journal’s annual D6 conference in Carlsbad, California.
What in the world were they thinking? I really applaud the fact they are finally giving the consumer reasons to buy their new OS, showcasing the type of new media features that made Windows XP so popular. Unfortunately, they were not showing Vista, but rather an early version of Windows 7 slated to be released in late 2009. (Link to conference interview and demo below)
I find it so hard to believe that Microsoft is running away from Vista so quickly. Does this mean that the new security features that were introduced in Vista have been abandon, features like: User Access Control (UAC), split security tokens, BitLocker, and IE Protected Mode. Since I’m guessing no, than why-O-why don’t you just make the new media features in Windows 7 an “R2″ like upgrade for Vista? I feel like I need to give Microsoft a pep talk (visualize a caring Dad’s arm around Microsoft’s shoulder).
This is the best I can do; I can only emphasize to Microsoft how important it is to get this right. Your customers do not want to wait another 15 months just to get a media upgrade when they could have been benefiting from the Enterprise features already in Vista. Please don’t ask me to go back to management and tell them that we have to wait a year and a half because an XBox and an IPOD had an affair and produced Windows 7. I think Vista has a lot to offer small and large businesses and it is time to let your customers know what path they should follow. Please don’t send us down the path of Windows 7 unless you really plan to abandon Vista, because if we have to go through this type of indecision again in another year you will lose a portion of your customer base, and it won’t be because of your competition’s funny commercials.
