It’s official. Bill Veghte, Microsoft’s senior VP for Windows business, told an audience of the Microsoft faithful at TechEd that Windows users should not switch to Vista. Veghte said, “If you’re just starting your testing of Vista, with the [Windows 7] Release Candidate and the quality of that offering, I would switch over and do your testing on the [Windows 7] Release Candidate, and use that going forward.”
In short, Microsoft is finally telling you what I’ve been telling you all along: Vista is junk.
Microsoft has actually been doing this for over a year now. First, in April 2008, Ballmer described Vista as a “work-in-progress.” Then, he said users should skip Vista in favor of Windows 7 in October (http://blogs.computerworld.com/ballmer_says_skip_vista).
How many times must Microsoft tell its knee-jerk fan club that Vista was a mistake before they get it.
Now, Microsoft wants you to switch to Windows 7. Except, what a surprise, after the Vista fiasco, cash-strapped companies aren’t eager to try Windows 7 either. Instead, they’re sticking with XP.
Could it be that one reason why desktop Linux is finally grabbing some market share is that, discouraged by Microsoft’s ‘upgrade’ paths and prices, users are finally willing to give alternatives a try? One can only hope.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Stryker // May 16, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I beg to differ, slightly. In this occasion, Microsoft is not telling people this time that Vista is trash-it’s essentially marketing it’s upcoming product at the expense of the old one, or old ones in this case (XP and Vista).
I don’t blame them, they want Windows 7 to succeed, as the future of MS may very well hinge upon its success or failure in the marketplace.
2 garry bloke // May 17, 2009 at 12:25 pm
@Stryker
While your view might be rational, I wonder how it sits with all the OEMs currently providing Vista?
Will they get money for re-stocking and installing MS Windows 7?
Will the OEMs feel pleased at this channel partnership arrangement?
Not that I care – GNU/Linux & KDE since 1998.
I don’t blame them either, whatever they can get away with, it just amazes me that they can still get away with anything.
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5 cwizard // May 18, 2009 at 11:13 am
Microsoft isn’t saying Vista is trash at all. What they are saying is that in this late stage of customers dragging their feet and getting off Windows XP… they might as well start their testing in the Win 7 platform instead of Vista. I’ve been using and supporting Vista Home/Business/Ultimate in a number of situations and in my experience, Vista is more secure and stable than XP.
To answer your question about OEMS providing Vista. We don’t care. When Windows 7 is launched, we’ll be OEMS providing Windows 7. I don’t understand the point of this commentary.
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