Is anyone else already sick of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt Microsoft is already sowing about Windows 7 or whatever will follow Vista? I’m not sure if I’m more disgusted with Microsoft for not having the courage to support Vista (or the brains to do it right during development) or the trade press falling all over themselves swallowing the garbage Microsoft hands out. Maybe I’m more disgusted with the press. Yes, definitely. Microsoft’s job is to sell products, and the press’ is to report objectively on the market. They’re not doing so when they fill the air with rehashed Microsoft “next Windows” propaganda.
Vista has been out about 18 months, if you count the few packages shipped in December 2006 as really shipping. Volume shipments started just over a year ago and there’s a Service Pack out, so we have to say Vista is in full swing. It has at least three more years to be the only desktop operating system from Microsoft, based on the last several actual ship dates for new versions of Windows.
Microsoft knows well how to seed the market with promises that “the next Windows is great, just hold on a couple more months.” They’ve started that earlier with Vista than normal, probably because Vista delivers so little value over XP (or even Windows 2000 with some third party utilities).
As Aesop said about 4,000 years ago, the bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The bird we have, Vista, isn’t worth much. I guarantee the bird in the bush, Windows 7 or whatever they call it, won’t be much better. And it certainly won’t be here until 2010. if you believe otherwise, you deserve what you get.
Technology Is Broken 