Poor Microsoft. Windows 7 isn’t even shipping yet and there’s already buzz about who loves — and who hates — the forthcoming successor to Windows Vista. Apparently, ZDnet’s Jason Perlow isn’t a fan of Windows 7. But Perlow’s ZDNet colleague Ed Bott offers a more balanced perspective on Windows 7.
For the record, The VAR Guy hasn’t given Windows 7 a try yet. He prefers his fully baked production operating systems (Apple Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux), though he occassionally wanders back to Windows XP. As Windows 7 matures a bit more, our resident blogger promises to give it a try.
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Microsoft made a fatal error in marketing Windows 7. They’ve defined their latest OS by another OS, Linux. So now Linux controls the fate of Windows 7. The Windows 7 mission is to “kill” Linux. Yes, an OS that has less than 1% desktop market share has become the focus of a company with a 90% desktop market share. What’s wrong with this picture?
Windows 7 might give Linux a hard time on Netbooks but Linux will continue its growth at a glacial pace. Nothing less than a climate change will stop a glacier. Everything in its path gets flattened. So When Windows 7 fails to crush Linux it will simply become the next Vista, that is, an OS joke.
Richard: The VAR Guy trashed Windows Vista, but for some crazy reason he thinks Microsoft is going to get Windows 7 right. For Windows 7 to succeed, The VAR Guy thinks the operating has to be:
1. slimmer than Vista
2. fast-loading
3. relatively secure
4. positioned for NEW high-end PCs (not existing installed base)
5. backed by at least three killer applications
That’s a challenging list. But the threat of Linux and Apple could finally get Microsoft motivated to deliver a good product.
Windows 7 could fail not because of the product but the fact that MS is missing 3 critical components:
1. Delivering what customer REALLY want, not what they think they want/need. A Great company can deliver what customers really want and it’s not easy, but when done right, everyone benefits.
2. Lack of integrity within their leadership. Their current CEO is less than visionary and lacks character that people can believe in and look up to. Great companies are great because of their leadership and the realization that it’s not about the product…but the people using it.
3. Bad Brand. Microsoft, as a company, has a bad brand right now. It wouldn’t matter if they released the greatest OS ever made…they have a bad brand right now and need to foster the building of their brand before expectations of Windows 7 sailing off into profit margin bliss….
Repeating the line that GNU/Linux has less than 1% market of the desktop does not make it so. GNU/Linux passed 1% about 8 years ago. GNU/Linux passed Mac OS about 4 years ago. Just look at Apples filings with the SEC. They give units shipped as about 3% of PCs shipped globally.GNU/Linux is growing quickly. A newer, better product from M$ will not prevent GNU/Linux from taking large portions of emerging markets: BRIC, netbooks, and other PDAs. M$ is trying to prevent losses in the realm of notebooks and desktops as well.
As long as M$’s product takes away the rights of end-users to use the PC for what they want, M$ will continue to lose growth to GNU/Linux. M$ is still growing but at a rate significantly lower than the growth of PCs. Look at client OS growth units for M$ compared to PC growth units. GNU/Linux is taking a lot of those. Look at M$’s latest 10Q: 8% growth in licence units while PCs grew by 14%. M$ is in trouble eventually even if the money is rolling in now. They cannot afford to have Vista II but they seem incapable of diversifying in the desktop market. Their plans since ancient times were to have different feature sets of the same product at different price points. They need a better plan. The world wants an operating system that works for us not against us.
GNU/Linux can plunk out new versions every year or so with more of what we want. M$ gives us less of what we want each time and they are releasing farther and farther apart because the bloat they have added gets in their way. You cannot mess with the competition forever by snowing the consumer. Eventually your product will be simply too bad to consider. That happened with Vista. If it takes them two years after a release to make their product acceptable, they are out of the game.
Robert: The VAR Guy agrees with your logic but thinks Microsoft will be motivated this time around.
Plus, consider this: Anybody else remember how bad Mac OS was before OS X arrived? Apple nearly drove its business into the ground — for good — during a decade of neglect.
Of course, Microsoft doesn’t have Steve Jobs’ vision. But irate customers should motivate the software giant to get things right this time around.
@ Robert Pogson
Yes, I know Linux use has long since gone beyond 1% of the desktop market. But that is the percentage most quoted by those who are dearly attached to Microsoft. So why go to all the trouble of building an OS to “kill” a competitor that Microsoft considers trivial? Microsoft is the only one who knows just how bad Vista’s desktop coverage was. Branding Windows 7 as a Linux killer is telling us just how bad Linux is hurting Microsoft.
“Anybody else remember how bad Mac OS was before OS X arrived? Apple nearly drove its business into the ground — for good — during a decade of neglect.”
If Apple was the same size then as Microsoft was then, then Apple would still be pushing a lousy (but much more bloated) Mac OS and Scully would still be in charge.
Richard: If Scully is entering the room The VAR Guy will exit.
I’d like the VAR Guy to give Windows 7 a proper test. Depending on which blog you read it’s the same as Vista, worse than Vista or the best thing since sliced bread.
In the end I don’t think it really matters. Poorly performing Windows 7 won’t kill Microsoft. This isn’t their last bite at the cherry.
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