Take a retrospect upon all the past OS Microsoft had rolled out these years, and you will soon realize that no one, actually, became the great WOW when they were just released, even Windows XP, as to which people had been furious over Microsoft for XP’s greater demand of memory and bad compatibility to old peripherals.

IT takes time to discover, understand, fall in love with, stick to, and resist future replacement for a new operating system.

People don’t like to fix unless it’s broke, let alone to pay several hundred bucks every two or three years for such a fix, meaningless in many eyes. Microsoft had learnt a serious bitter lesson through their ambitious but rather unsuccessful promotion for one greatest OS in history, Windows Vista. They now know that people, though shouting out for embracing CHANGES, barely really want to change their desktop Windows.

Today’s market is quite different compared with history. You don’t sell just because your goods are good, as people, mostly without habits of reasoning, had been asking for more excuses to waste their money. Unfortunately a sacrifice of such trends is Windows Vista, which is, for most parts, a ground breaking OS that fundamentally shaped the industry.

However, as a player in market, Microsoft has to sell to make a profit. They got their lessons, and packed it into the new title release, Windows 7, or rather Windows Vista Take Two. More animated UI, elegant icons, small system footprint, efficient resource management, revamped versions of various components, stripped out unpopular parts, different themes…fundamentally, Windows 7 is one OS that is made to customers’ order, both from Vista’s and XP’s.

Built on the much flamed while already very mature basis of Windows Vista, Windows 7 had been greatly received since it got into the public’s eyes. Versioned Windows 6.1,Windows 7 had not encountered any major problem along the way of development. Now that it had reached the RC milestone on time, its bright future is not hard to predict.

Personally, I believe Jim Allchin is the guy we should thank and respect greatly. It’s Jim’s braveness that secured Vista’s progress, which secured Windows 7’s greatness. Were there no Jim in charge, who insisted on bringing more promising technologies into the making of Windows though some being not so mature at that time, Microsoft might had released Windows Vista back some quite earlier time, say end of 2005, then by end of 2007, they could bring on Windows Vista SP1, revamp its UI and name it as “Windows 7”…and eventually within 2009, the world is expected to see the present Windows 7 come around, in name of “Windows 8”…

Taking much means taking time and the project will become quite risky, both are the goals any company wants to avoid by all means. Windows Vista could be “worse” in reception while way better in laying the ground, but even Jim couldn’t get Steve to tolerate their unspeedy but meaningful development progress. So WinFS is postponed to Windows 8, maybe…

Steven Sinofsky, the present Windows project manager, would be quite preferable judged by today’s market. I believe, for him, Windows XP SP2 will definitely become a new OS major release, say Windows GT, likely, an idea not so unpopular in Redmond back in 2004, aborted by Jim Allchin’s serous disagreement.

Of course, Steven had his great effort devoted, but when it comes down to the fact, I think Jim laid the ground and built the construction while Steven just decorated the office.

 

Whatever, Jim is a techie while Steven is a markie…and now is markie’s world…

 

Anyway, Windows 7 will be successful, and when that congratulating day comes, please do not forget Jim’s great effort and people behind Jim working day and night but got unsubscribed to Windows 7 development.

 

Greatest respect and best wishes for Jim, ever.