Columns
Prolog:
So let me get this out in the open once and for all. I like Vista (hell, I even like Microsoft, but folks can be killed for saying that sort of thing round here, so that one's between you and me). Yes, still: even 18 months into Vista's life, after so many vitriolic lines have been written about the poor OS that you feel Microsoft would have got a better press if it admitted to causing global warming, sponsoring seal-clubbing tournaments and eating the world's very last After Eight mint.
And I can already see the queues of gleeful Microsoft bashers winding up their beating sticks in readiness for Windows 7. The anti-Microsoft mood has been building up steam ever since Vista was released, with a combination of bloggers and journalists taking it in turns to jump up and down in fury about some real (or perceived) weakness. I'm reminded of life in the playground, when there's a swing in opinion against you - or Jim with the glasses, Mike with the crazy hair, Bill with the stammer and love of programming - and all you can do is wait for the tide of insults to pass over and move somewhere else.
I saw this in action a handful of days ago, sitting in a central London screening room while product and technical managers from Microsoft demonstrated the new beta of Internet Explorer 8. What got the biggest response from the gathering of bloggers and journalists? Not the new (albeit morally dubious) InPrivate feature, not the way it will keep on working even if a site in one of the tabs causes a crash, not the multitude of security features. No, the only appreciation the esteemed
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But this is no sane way to treat a heavyweight piece of software. Internet Explorer 8 is a genuinely impressive web browser, albeit one that's now being overshadowed by Google Chrome, and it needs to be judged on its merits and demerits, rather than the fact its developers happen to work for a company that begins with the letter M.
I'll admit that Microsoft doesn't always help itself. While the "Mojave" experiment (where a group of self-confessed Vista haters, who'd never used it, were shown a video of Microsoft's "new" OS in action, gave it tremendously high marks, and were then told - shudder - that Mojave was actually Vista) may have seemed an excellent idea in Redmond's Starbucks-fuelled marketing boardroom, it merely added more grist to the anti-Microsoft mill among bloggers.
It's possibly not the best idea to sell Windows 7 as the continuation of Microsoft's work on Vista either, but it's clear this is the angle Redmond has decided to take. "That's a big step that came through in Vista and will continue to be a design feature in Windows 7," said John Curran, head of Windows, Microsoft UK, when I asked him about componentisation in the new OS.
Could he give me any hint about the new kernel? "Windows 7 is going to be based on the Vista kernel... the device drivers and hardware requirements are going to be largely similar." And so on. Whether it was voice and handwriting recognition, photo handling or security - everything was just a continuation of the fine work Vista had established.
To me, this is talking Windows 7 down too much. But I suspect it's no accident. Microsoft is deliberately underplaying the new OS, partly because it was badly stung after promising so much with Vista - and having to drop so much from the final release - and also because it's desperate for XP users, businesses in particular, to upgrade. Shouting about how marvellous the next operating system will be won't win you any friends on the current Windows sales team.
