Microsoft
October 30, 2009
Microsoft unveiled Windows 7 this week. It didn’t take long for the first reports of problems to begin trickling in. How is it possible that the biggest software company in the world, with something like 96% market share, cannot roll out a new product without taking two steps backward for every one forward?
It’s not like expectations are very high. Vista was such an unmitigated disaster that Windows 7 would have to cripple the user’s computer immediately upon installation for it to be viewed as a downgrade. Despite millions of dollars in advertising, the Official Random Stock Survey of People I Know (ORSSPIK) reveals that NOBODY in the entire world liked Vista even a little bit. The highest praise I’ve heard for Vista was “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.” Wow, there’s a ringing endorsement.
Yet still, Microsoft rules the world. The small but happy group of counter culture radicals who insist on using Apple Computers because “they just work” notwithstanding, the world runs on Windows. If Bill Gates wants to include a bit of software that automatically deletes your favorite pictures of Danica Patrick in a bikini and replaces them with pictures of Nancy Pelosi in a bikini every hour, you’ll just have to make do. You’ll find a work around. You’ll buy a third party patch. You’ll do whatever it takes because Microsoft has a stranglehold on the Operating System software that makes computers go.
So, as business and personal users convert to the latest and greatest Windows product, computer consultants everywhere will put in overtime. IT staffs at companies big and small will use this to happily justify their existence and maybe even ask for a raise. Mac sales will go up a good bit, but that bit will be almost imperceptible to Microsoft’s bottom line. It’s a sure bet that Mac will use whatever headaches Windows 7 causes to create some very funny “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC”commercials. So if you’re a PC user looking for a silver lining to Windows 7, that’s about the best you can hope for.
