Windows 7 – What I want from my computer
I’ve never seen the comparison in writing but I can’t be the first person to compare Microsoft’s Windows Vista to the Ford Edsel. Wikipedia says of the ill-fated Edsel:
There is no single reason why the Edsel failed, and failed so spectacularly. Popular culture often faults the car’s styling. Consumer Reports cited poor workmanship. Marketing experts hold the Edsel up as a supreme example of corporate America’s failure to understand the nature of the American consumer. Business analysts cite the weak internal support for the product inside Ford’s executive offices. According to author and Edsel scholar Jan Deutsch, the Edsel was “the wrong car at the wrong time.”
Reading this today, I couldn’t help thinking of the comparison with the equally ill-fated Vista. Maybe it’s the workmanship, maybe it was the design, I don’t know; but I do know that I get a significant number of customers who say that they want their current computer running Windows XP to be fixed because they don’t want Vista. What a nightmare it must be to be the Vista product manager in Redmond.
A former colleague of mine, David Craig who is now Chief Strategy Officer at Thomson Reuters, always liked to compare building software to building cars. I think using computers is a lot like using a car, there are certain things you want:
- Familiar and easy to use – don’t fool around with the controls, put the steering wheel and the brake and the clutch where I expect them. Don’t make me have to learn to drive all over again just so you can prove how clever you are.
- Works as expected – when I turn the key the engine should start when I push the switch on my door the window should open, when I reach under the seat I should find that thingie that lets it move up and back (right next to the old Coke can and stray Cheetos)
- Is dependable – always starts, never stalls, doesn’t make funny noises.
This brings me around to Windows 7. I’ve been using it as my main OS here at Chaos House* since the beta became available earlier this year. I can report that it is not nearly as annoying as Vista and makes some nice improvements over Windows XP. It has been very stable, although the Release Candidate I am using now has ironicly been less stable than the beta. I would be very hesitant to recommend to a customer that s/he use a beta version of software, especially something as important as an operating system, but for a customer that really dislikes using Vista, I would say that help is on the way (toward the end of 2009).
* Referenced with a tip of my cap to Jerry Pournelle who I think was the first, best blogger ever.
