Windows 7 is just around the corner. The new Microsoft operating system is already in public beta and there is now a commitment to move directly from that to a release candidate. So, with a 2009 release almost guaranteed, the drive to sell the OS to the masses has begun in earnest.

Let’s be clear on this – Windows XP is still the darling of the PC OS market for most people. This may be wrong in light of Vista being improved and corrected since its initial fudged release, but there are a lot of people who simply refuse to let the aging operating system die.

Vista was not enough to tempt most individuals and organizations to switch from XP. If anything, Vista was too different and too alien to make it a success. Lashings of negative media coverage also massively hindered Vista’s assault on the minds of the masses. This doesn’t look like a problem for Windows 7.

Microsoft knows how important Windows 7 is to its business. Sure, Vista has made the company money over the past few years, although whether that’s only because of the virtual stranglehold Microsoft holds over computer manufacturers is open to debate. But Windows 7 needs to not only sell well (guaranteed) but also reverse the thinking of millions of once-loyal Microsoft customers who know longer like or even trust what the company is doing.

If Microsoft can persuade those businesses that have eschewed Vista in favor of sticking with XP to switch to Windows 7 at the earliest opportunity, then it would virtually ensure success in this endeavor. According to PC World, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently reached out to the people who run businesses and organizations, urging them to make the switch.

He said:

If you deploy a four or five-year old operating system today, most people will ask their boss why the heck they don’t have the stuff they have at home.

[Windows 7 is] a pretty good step forward in terms of what users care about.

Ballmer admitted that it is too early to “start beating the big drum” for Windows 7 but did employ a kind of gentle persuasion technique to avoid doing exactly that.

Windows 7 won’t be perfect, but then what operating system ever is? But the new entry in the market from Microsoft does seem to have everything necessary behind it in order to deliver the goods, including positive media coverage. Now if only Microsoft decided to give Windows 7 away for free, then I think we’d all rapidly have a new-found respect and admiration for the company.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 6:12 am under Microsoft, Opinion, Technology, Vista.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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