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5 ways Microsoft can kill the Windows 7 buzz
Yes, the internet is all atwitter about Windows 7 and that should be great news for Microsoft. Unless, of course, they manage to suck the wind out of the sails.
How would that even be possible?
1. Keep confusing everyone with the versions
Yesterday it was announced that there would be six versions of Windows 7 for sale. Half of those, however, you'll never really see as a consumer, because the emphasis will be on Premium, Pro, and Ultimate.
The Upgrade won't actually upgrade your existing OS, just your license. Wait, what? So the Upgrade requires a doing a fresh install? Oh, that's not misleading average consumers.
There isn't going to be a netbook version, but Starter will be available everywhere. It's only an option as a preinstalled OS from system builders. But you won't want Starter anyway, because Ultimate runs fine on under-powered systems. And you can only run three apps simultaneously with Starter, which severely hampers usability.
But they're still going to release it. So there.
2. Offer non-compelling Ultimate extras
Vista Ultimate owners, I feel for you. Where are your awesome extras? What is it that cost you almost $400?
What will Windows 7 Ultimate get you? Bitlocker? Really? Most potential Ultimate users probably already have a good encryption solution like TrueCrypt, which is free. Booting from a virtual HDD? Interesting, but why not stick with your favorite desktop virtualization app, like VirtualBox or VMWare?
Wait, wait! You get all the language packs, and that's exciting, right? I guess that's good news if you're a polyglot.
3. Fix things in a way that unfixes them
So long, annoying UAC! Man, that sure was a drag in Vista. The downside is, malware written by a 6-year-old can now disable your UAC completely without you ever knowing about it. As Long Zheng pointed out, all you need to protect against that is a simple prompt when something tries to shut off or modify UAC. Is that too much to ask?
The biggest unfix: startup repair. In the name of all that is holy, why does it need to take 40 minutes? I can pull my hard drive, install it in another desktop, run chkdsk on it in Windows, and throw it back in the offending system in about a quarter of that time. I can reinstall Windows 7 from scratch in that amount of time.
Thanks, but that kind of fix I can do without.
4. Don't provide killer examples of your new functionality at work
Federated search connectors are an awesome idea with tons of potential. Who has come up with the most interesting ones so far?
Microsoft? Nope. Enthusiasts.
Why is that? If this is really an exciting development, then why aren't there some really great connectors for download from the Personalization site?
And what about IE8? It's going to be right there on most Windows 7 desktops, so why aren't there any really cool web slices? Even the MSN offerings stink, and they don't render properly half the time.
5. Release Windows 7 before it's ready
Vista took a beating because it wasn't fully cooked when Microsoft pulled it out of the oven, and people weren't too happy about it. Don't get me wrong - even in its present state, Windows 7 can out-OS Vista. It's just that there are bound to be issues that pop up if it gets rushed out to consumers before 7 is totally ready.
The temptation is strong for Microsoft to get the RTM done in time for the 2009 holiday season, but this release really needs to be a complete about face from what we saw with Vista.
Comments
22
Subscribe to commentssetFeb 7th 2009 5:51PM
1. Versions are not confusing; only Vista Basic of the various Vista editions should have been scrapped. However, I think MS would have been smarter to have no "Business/Pro" edition of Vista and just included those features in Office 2007 Ultimate as part of Groove. People just buy whatever is preloaded on their systems anyway. Without a hobbled version like Home Basic, it doesn't matter.
2 and 4 are debatable. People want beautiful systems that they can customize easily without needing design skills. This is something MS has never done well: changing desktop elements is arduous and turns out ugly. MS could use its resources to make lots more themes, icon packs, and the like-- where the color choices look good together. Rather than "Ultimate Extras," they could bring back Plus packs, or they could sell customizations online like mobile carriers do for ringtones. Having a centralized Desktop Store akin to the App Store on iTunes with plenty of free, paid, and 3rd party gadgets and fonts could be a huge money maker for MS and developers. Plus, it could update installed components automatically, like for added icons, etc. I guess this is what Stardock tries to be, but their themes aren't my thing.
This has not been mentioned, but it seems related: the "Windows [Live]" naming paradigm is stupid. At the least, the Windows Live part of the name should be after the product's functional name: e.g. instead of "Windows Live Mail," it could be known as "MailLive" (or "Mail7.") "Windows Photo Gallery" could be "GalleryLive." "Windows Media Player" could become "PlayerLive." This way, "Live" would be a distinctive way to name windowed, launchable apps (rather than gadgets), so that people could search about them online easily and they wouldn't be clumped all under 'W' in a Start Menu list. Also, they would better convey some kind of automatic online synchronization and interconnectivity, unlike Windows CardSpace, for example, which is a mysterious orphan in Vista. Then, MS could offer yearly "OS upgrades" even if it's just for the latest versions of Live apps + a new premium theme, but which would still be enticing. Much of the time, I feel MS should just hire me to sort out their mess, but that's not exactly humble of me.
AnthonyMar 7th 2009 1:17PM
For the record though, you don't need the starter edition to run great on netbooks. I've been running the Windows 7 Beta on my Asus eee PC 904ha. All the drivers are supported, as well as the critical power management software supplied by Asus (originally for XP). I'm dual booting Ubuntu and Win 7, but I'm surprised by how light Win 7 is in comparison. They run at almost identical speeds, but Win 7 did not need the tweaking Ubuntu did to run well. Ubuntu needed the eee kernal and a little command line work to get the wireless running. Win 7 just needed... plain old install.
Anyone who is worried about Windows 7 ultimate not running well on netbooks really has nothing to worry about, it feels as light as XP does on the same hardware.