Windows 7
I have not yet tried the new Microsoft operating system called Windows 7. But I have some observations on their marketing strategy anyway.
My perspective comes from a guy who began doing elementary computer programming and using home personal computers in the pre-DOS days almost 40 years ago. Actually DOS was a very nice operating system (OS) which was fast and stable. Microsoft bought DOS from another company, and then started marketing it as their own. They did not write it, but they are good salesmen. Unfortunately DOS wasn’t geared towards using a mouse, or colors and graphical applications, and simple-minded individuals who couldn't type or were lazy had problems using it, so improvements and advancements were required to dumb down computers and make them more readily available to everyone.
After DOS the guys at Microsoft began selling Windows 3.1 then Windows 95, Windows 98, and Vista. They had lots of minor improvements and variations in between like the Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, the Home Edition, etc. I’ve used most of them. Many times the new OS is not 100% backwardly compatible, so one finds that some of your software has to be re-purchased too.
In every single case there were lots of Windows users who complained vigorously that the Microsoft operating system was unstable, it crashed frequently, and took far too long to load. Almost 30 years after I bought my first home computer I still feel this way. They have made some genuine improvements, but it still takes forever to load and is still very vulnerable to hackers and other malevolent jerks and getting hung up.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Macintosh user, although I do have many egotistical friends who go on-and-on-and-on about the vast superiority of their Macs. I never bought into the idea. It has always seemed to me that Apple computers, cell phones, and mp3 players were very pretty, glitzy, and had some very nice features, but that they were more than a little over priced.
If you look at Microsoft’s marketing strategy for their new OS which they are calling Windows 7, it seems to be basically the very same one they have always used. In so many words they seem to be saying to the consumer, “Yes, we agree that the windows operating system you have been forced to use in the past is total crap, but this newest version really is nirvana, and we have now solved all of those problems.” Yes, sure, I believe every word you are saying.
After having gone through this many times, and being disappointed each time, I think one can readily understand my skepticism.
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