By Andrew McKay, Yahoo! Canada
Wednesday was my last day as a trailblazer of sorts.
I’ve been running early versions of Microsoft’s Windows 7 for over a year now, as part of a widespread testing program. By the end of the test cycle, there were over 8 million instances of Windows 7 running worldwide, each feeding bugs and fixes and usage patterns back to Microsoft.
On Thursday, Microsoft launches the finished version of Windows 7, hoping to usher in a new era of computing, and erase memories of Windows Vista.
Not that Vista was terrible – far from it. The problem was, it wasn’t great. And everyone wanted great. And Microsoft screwed some things up – like not making sure everyone else’s products could work with Vista. But ever since Vista launched almost 34 months ago, I’ve heard two words over and over: 'no thanks.' public perception always wins, and the verdict on Vista was this: 'doesn’t work'.
So when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed up in Toronto on Wednesday to build buzz for Thursday’s official launch of Windows 7, even he knew how much was riding on his words.
“This is a big day, primarily because I’m here,” he joked.
He was open, and honest, about the tough sell Microsoft faces with a jaded public.
“I think we all understand the clock and evaluation process and consumer interest start (Thursday),” he said.
“It’s an unusual time to be launching the most significant version of Windows in, frankly, a long time.”
No kidding. Not only is Microsoft trying to convince consumers and businesses to upgrade in tough economic times, but it’s also coming off the heels of the Vista era, which may have actually killed the upgrade cycle that the entire industry used to rely on.
For the first time, waves of buyers purposely rolled back the software on their computers, which means they haven’t needed to upgrade their hardware, and, as of Thursday morning, will be two versions behind on Microsoft’s flagship product.
Ballmer was coy about whether Microsoft would fix that by forcing users off of Windows XP.
“You’re not going to feel ‘forced,’ you’re going to feel ‘excited!” he teased.
Still, Ballmer’s optimistic that, much as Microsoft says it learned from Vista’s shortcomings, customers will notice a difference as well.
“I think most people say they like (Windows 7) because it’s simpler, faster, and more responsive.”
On that note, he’s right. That’s probably the biggest change from Vista to 7; instead of just telling users what was going to work, Microsoft asked for feedback, over and over and over.
While I leave the technical analysis to others, I can say this: it works. Really well. Windows 7 is, in retrospect, what Microsoft set out to create with Vista – a cutting-edge, game-changing, ready-for-the-future platform.
The computer world is infamous for its cliques: Mac users will buy anything that’s thin and sleek and has an Apple logo on it; Linux users think it’s not worth having unless you can tear it apart and build it yourself. But for the rest of the world, the only thing that matters about the computer is whether it works: can you listen to music, run your programs, talk to your friends, organize your files, and make it do everything you want it to do?
Windows 7 is as close as the tech world can get right now to making all of those things happen. Ballmer knows it, the beta testers know it, and the company’s partners know it. We, the trailblazers, have been carrying it around as a sort of secret for months.
None of that will matter, though, unless Microsoft is able to convince the only people that count: the customers. That process, which will be harder than ever, begins Thursday.