twitter's Journal: PC Magazine: Interest Shifts from Vista to Windows 7

Windows 7 vaporware is the last nail in Vista's coffin.

In case you hadn't noticed, the massive weight of interest has now almost completely shifted from Microsoft Windows Vista to the largely vaporware Windows 7.

This is testament to how royally screwed up Microsoft's Vista go-to-market plan has become. On the one hand, it insists that Vista is a huge success, with tons of sold licenses and happy customers. On the other, the company recently offered Windows XP Home as a low-cost PC OS. Clearly, there's a disconnect. Now, even more damaging to Vista, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer just used an important tech conference to preview major innovations on Windows 7.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are also guilty of doublespeak. Each has been quoted extolling the virtues and success of Vista. Yet, days later,) they're explaining how Windows 7 will be lighter, faster, and more componentized. Does anyone else but me think this is nuts?

I'd say the real problem was that a lackluster Vista failed to generate any interest in the first place and it has cost M$ it's dominant position. The upgrade train requires improvements that M$ is incapable of or unwilling to provide. Windows 7 will share the same fate but some people will try it out because M$ will promise them it has fewer bugs than Vista. Same old same old, but Windows 7 won't get the chance to fool many people. GNU/Linux offers real performance gains and is being picked up by hardware vendors. By the time Windows 7 comes out, people will have already made up their minds to migrate to free software or Apple.

Game Over.