Just Noise | by Johanan Sen

Steve Balmer and Bill Gates gave the world a preview of Windows 7, Microsoft’s follow-up to Vista, at D6 this week.

According to my bosses’ bosses’ bosses’ bosses, Balmer and Gates, Win 7 will be released in the fourth quarter of 2009. Balmer also commented on the ‘leaked’ snapshots that made their rounds back in March, stating that they were either ‘fakes’ or taken during a much earlier stage of the OS’s development.

Anyway, what was supposed to get the world a’buzzin’ was Win 7’s multi-touch interface, alla iPhone (don’t hate me, it’s an effective reference). It was tagged as a big leap forward for the PC platform. Judging by the blog entries and news articles that have been posted since though, the presentation failed to impress.

Commentators were watching closely, hoping B&G would be able to build some hype around the ailing brand. But after seeing the Microsoft Surface, iPhone and iPod Touch demo-ed over and over again, this past year, the people needed more than a two-finger zoom trick to get their hype glands going.

While there was a certain appeal to seeing a Surface-like machine with a Start Menu and regular-looking Windows desktop, to many it just made the demo smack more of the familiar and seem less extraordinary.

But hey, let’s not forget that Windows 7 will benefit from 2 more years of R&D. And in that time Redmond will be able to learn from the next jungle cat Apple places on plexiglas shelves (wink). OK, that might seem a little cruel, but come on – Start Search & Spotlight, Gadgets and Widgets – it is going to take Microsoft a long time to live down their cocoa-rip-off and rightfully so.

Taking even that into account you can’t help but feel bad for Vista. The market’s been a little too harsh on our ole’ pal Windows, with many users digging their heels into XP soil and refusing to upgrade.

If I’m being honest, things have gotten better with my Vista machine. While I still use an iMac with Leopard off and on, I find that I turn to my PC more than I used to, even outside of work. The security features have really proven their worth and Defender has become less of a nag over the past few months.

Also, with Apple’s Mac OS X being the easiest to hack (as they proved at CanSec West this year) I kinda feel safer surfing on Windows. Never thought I’d say that, let alone write it. While I may not be sold on Windows 7, I am coming ’round to liking it’s older sista, Vis…oho, I am not finishing that rhyme.

I think if Microsoft hangs in there with Vista (no pun intended), as our hardware catches up, the perks of using a more advanced OS will become evident, encouraging more XP users to move on up. It’s just a question of how long that takes and whether my software giant can/will hold out.