Journal twitter's Journal: Windows 7 Failure Log. The Crash of Vista 2.0 1
Update 04/26/2011 Windows 7 does worse than Vista at world domination and Windows profits decline from 2008. Sales per desktop PC shipped fall to 66%. The figure is worse when you consider things like netbooks, smart phones and book readers.
Update 10/22/2010 Windows 7's first birthday leaves the company with little change to it's bottom line and can be written off as a commercial failure as Vista was. Microsoft has fired more than 10,000 since I started this log and the collapse is accelerating. Despite the hype, there have been no technical changes and business market share is in the single digits. I'm going to update this log, but in the mean time, please enjoy Techright's excellent Vista 7 Reality Log.
My Windows 7 sucks video collection is updated. This is where you can find real problems from real people.
The Vista 7 Failure Log as it was written.
Windows 7 is Vista 2.0 and is following Vista into oblivion because M$'s development method is broken and their business model has been discredited. Out for more than a year, The OS has not been taken up by business, M$'s revenue is flat and more layoff are on the way. Like the fictional "Mojave Experiment", Windows 7 is mostly a name change that inherits all the technical and ethical problems of Vista and general Windows design flaws. As evidence that M$ never learns,
- Windows 7 is even more DRM heavy than Vista was.
- their best idea for making money is to repeat the Vista Capable fiasco
- Windows 7 contacts Microsoft every time you connect to the internet. We already knew that Vista established encrypted communications to Microsoft that you can't turn off.
The death knell is already sounding for Vista 7, M$. now promotes Windows 8 as "the rebirth of Windows".
You are better off with Ubuntu. Vista's glaring issues, industry and popular rejection are explained here. "Cloud computing" M$ style is actually a way Vista 2.0 will deliver less to customers while demanding greater lockin from service vendors. The recession will take Windows 7 down faster than Vista and that will be the end of M$. Non free software was wrong from it's inception and is finally being rejected. This log will be short, M$ may fail before the 2010 Windows 7 release date.
2007 Marketing Birth, it was clear that Vista had failed as soon as M$ announced MinWin. Windows 7 is promissed to be everything GNU/Linux is and Vista is not.
See my Vista 7 Hype Log for categorized marketing hype put out by compliant journalists and below for a chronological listing that includes the market and technical failures that inevitably followed launch.
2008 More Marketing
- 01/22 - Release promised in second half of 2009 to freeze the market.
- 03/28 - Promises of modularity
- 10/27 - Rooted before it was introduced thanks to legacy code going at least as far back as Windows 2000. Windows security remains a complete failure.
- 10/28 - As soon as people got their hands on it, they say it's more Vista suck and worse. All the bloat, all the bugs, fewer applications and less compatibility. My takeaway: Migrating to GNU/Linux from XP will be easier than either Vista or Windows 7. M$ combats these bad reports with a flood of damage control hype [2].
- 10/29 - UI Slammed as bad copy of KDE. It's too early to tell, but they won't be able to catch free software speed and performance.
- 10/30 - "Mixed Reviews" is the polite way to say it sucks. If you offered it, some people would put nuclear waste under their kids bed and regret it later.
- 10/31 - Beware of good reviews, M$ has bribed bloggers with expensive gifts, really there's a pattern to it.
- 11/09 - Roughly Drafted predicts Windows 7's failure even if it's technically perfect because OEM's are tired of paying the Windows Tax for the pleasure of competing in a fierce low margin commodity market.
- 11/10 - Benchmarks show Windows 7 is just as slow as Vista and should have been offered as a service pack upgrade.
- 11/11 - Another, thourough benchmark concludes " Microsoft's follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits [still 40% slower than XP] while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues.".
- 11/19 - Inquirer thinks, The recession dooms Windows 7, even if it's perfect.
2009 Massive Hype, Early Industry Rejection and Quietly Dropped Features.
- 01/02 - "Leaked" to "Pirates", [by M$] like someone wanted it and the usual security problems.
- 01/12 - Burnt by Vista, PC makers do not expect Windows 7 to create sales for them.
- 01/10 - Beta released, with much hype, to unsuspecting public. Steve Ballmer hypes privacy violating deals with Facebook, Verizon and Dell.
- 01/12 - Fist patch released it fixes a bug that ate MP3 files but leave a SMB flaw open. You will have to buy the fix when they finally decide to sell it.
- 01/16 - Reviewer pans Windows 7 online lockin. If you like Google, Yahoo or any other non M$ online service provider, stay away from Windows 7.
- 01/18 - Even WinSuperSite SuperFanboy, Paul Theriot has issues with the UI, "Windows 7 is turning into something that is simple, but not easy.
- 01/19 - Computer World's Michael Horowitz bemoans Windows 7's UI "change for change's sake", "
Microsoft
- 01/29 - Rejected by Georgetown University, it's like Vista all over again because it is Vista.
- 02/02 - Vista 7 won't run on netbooks. They swear it will but will only sell netbooks with "starter" editions. Remember Vista Capable? It's like Vista all over again because it is Vista.
- 02/04 - Malware trick of the kind Windows is famous for is demonstrated for Windows 7. All M$'s security band-aids, like signed code, do is make it harder for users to use the software they want or clean their machines of the inevitable infections Windows suffers.
- 02/05 - Benchmarks show you are better off with Ubuntu. Really.
- 02/15 - There will be no extra toys for the Ultimate Upsell Version because M$ can't afford "out of cycle" development.
- 02/16 - Windows 7 will come DRM like Vista. It's hard to call any DRM worse than another because no violation of software freedom should be considered acceptable.
- 02/20 - Beta testers complain that the Win 7 beta test is a sham.
- 03/05 - Ars Technia calls UAC a broken sham but only a move to normal Unix style privilege separation and permission schemes will bring real security. That won't happen because M$ will never let you be the root user.
- 04/02 - Matt Assay bloggs M$'s OEM partners push for GNU/Linux on Netbooks. He thinks it's because OEMs don't like being pushed around by big bad M$. That may be true but a more likely reason is that Vista is still broken and won't fit on small, power efficient machines and that Windows 7 is still Vista.
- 04/16 - CNet's David Rosenberg laughs at M$'s greedy scheme to cripple Windows 7 Home.
- 05/11 - The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian details Windows 7 as the usual M$ "cynical scam". Forced updates, shutdowns every two hours for the RC, and tech press manipulation win dis-honorable mention. Because of these and other denials of your rights, he concludes, "If you buy Windows 7 or even use it, you are an idiot." RMS would agree. For the last 25 years he has pointed out that non free software owners claim the right to terminate your use of their software at any time for any reason. You might not have believed him 25 years ago, but Windows has had the technical mechanisms to back up and exploit that threat for years.
- 06/08 - The upsell begins. If nothing else convinces you that Windows 7 is Vista, the sale of "upgrade rights" before the OS is shipped should. It's the Vista Capable fiasco all over again. Who in their right mind would trust M$ with a promissed ship date and promissed compatibility after that?
- 07/10 - Steven Sinofsky is the man holding the bag for the Windows 7 release. Good luck, Steve!
- 07/12 - Ubuntu wipes XP and Vista 7 in file system benchmarks, a critical performance bottleneck.
- 08/01 - Netbooks, the only market segment that's doing well, remains well out of reach of Vista 7. Windows 7 RTM brings a PR spurt of some tired promisses and excuses.
- 08/05 - Nasty memory leak derails RTM and voucher hype by threatenting to push back Vista 7 availability. Vista is still not ready for widespread use.
- 08/07 - SJVN of Computer World, says "It's time to get rid of Windows," because security failure threatens social networks and commerce. Windows 7 is explicitly condemned as being no better than any other version of Windows.
- 08/12 - Business as usual makes Windows 7 security just as bad as any other version of Windows, so M$ came up with a clever way to lie about it.
- 08/15 - M$ super fanboy, Rob Enderle now pins his hopes on Windows 8 for the "Rebirth of Windows". Vista 7 is dead before it hits the shelves.
- 08/15 - Early user trouble. Windows 7 broke itself in less than a week.
- 8/25 - As you might expect from Vista, Windows 7 has terrible battery life
- 8/30 - M$ will charge you $210/hour for Windows 7 backward compatibility advice. This makes it clear that they expect lots of problems and want to make lots of money with them. You are better off with Wine, Virtual Box, or Crossover Office.
- 08/30 - More stories of upgrade pain come out and prove that GNU/Linux is easy to use and upgrade.
- 09/03 - Windows 7 propaganda is laughed at in public by Best Buy employees.
- 09/05 - UAC is still broken and Windows 7 does not meet Federal computing requirements.
- 09/08 - SMB2 for Vista and Windows 7 has a unique, remote BSoD flaw that reminds everyone of the toy OS's glory days.
- 09/24 - Digitimes says Windows 7 won't drive PC sales.
- 10/22 - Official Release, it sucks from day one.
2010
- 01/18 - Windows 7 fails to drive sales. It's Vista all over again.
- 02/02 - Microsoft's dubious numbers show a flat bottom line for the first year of Windows 7. Like Vista before it, it has not caught on and is not a money maker for the company.
- 3/1 - Intel Windows 7 migration stumbles, just like Vista did. This is not a surprise because Windows 7 is Vista. It is likely that Intel was never serious about migrating to Vista, Windows 7 or other version of Windows.
- 4/28 - Windows 7 earns less money in its time than Vista did. Microsoft is unable to sell expensive licenses and Windows 7 has even less momentum than Vista.
- 5/27 - People burnt by Vista do not turn to Windows 7 for relief. They no longer trust Microsoft and are looking for alternatives that work, such as GNU/Linux.
- 10/28 - Don't be fooled by channel stuffing and revenue shifting, Windows 7 sales failed to move Microsoft's bottom line. It's as if nothing happened.
- 10/29 - IE 6 addiction prevents Vista 7 migration. Wine has run IE6 for years and it is easy to virtualize XP with GNU/Linux but Windows 7 "solutions" are forbidden by Microsoft's EULA.
2011
- 01/05 - DRAM prices collapse, just like they did when Vista sales disappointed. It can confidently be argued that the Windows 7 sales spurt is over.
- 02/07 - Burdened by Windows 7 preinstalls, netbook sales falter.
- 02/12 - VMWare broken by "windows update".
- 03/08 - April Fools! Overworked admins get 64 patches for Vista 7. When this is done, they can tell users, "Now ur secure."
- 03/14 - Service Pack 1 is a system breaker [Register Article]. The automatically downloaded service pack bricks many OEM installs and system restore is broken too.
- 04/02 - Microsoft promotes Windows 8, another good sign that Windows 7 suffered poor corporate adoption and is already on the way out.
- 04/07 - Windows 7 has the same old driver problems as previous versions and the finger pointing is getting worse. The author argues that free software does better for users despite a lack of vendor cooperation.
- 04/26 - Windows 7 does worse than Vista at world domination and Windows profits decline from 2008. Sales per desktop PC shipped fall to 66%. The figure is worse when you consider things like netbooks, smart phones and book readers.
- 06/11 - File copy is still impossibly slow with Windows 7, copying 13000 files (4 GB) from a DVD to the hard-disk is extremely slow in Windows 7: 10 hours! Well, estimated. I lost patience after 2 hours and rebooted. Doing the same operation on Linux: 7 minutes.
Vista's name change to Windows 7 should be analyzed in M$ terms to understand the magnitude of failure it represents. Why did they bother to change the name for what looks like the same old code? As M$ put it:
In the face of strong competition, Evangelism's focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology
Specifically, Vista failed to gain critical mass, more developers took up GNU/Linux than Vista, home and business users alike rejected it and even the Wintel press came around. Instead of becoming an industry standard, Vista was completely defeated. Windows revenues declined and continued to fall further behind PC market growth. M$ took up the demoralizing task of starting all over again with little chance for actual code improvement. A nearly exhausted cash pile, plans to enter debt, defecting investors and the coming recession make them increasingly desperate and off track even as they bluster about patents and bludgeon Yahoo. Features are already starting to fall off. Paralleling and integral to the fall of the Windows monopoly is fall of their old binary document monopoly. They are forced back to littigation threats, obvious bribery and corruption, and vaporous promises they can't meet here or in the clouds while their competitors run circles around them. Vista proved once and for all that M$'s business and development methods are broken. Windows 7 shows the company is incapable of change, clinging to discredited methods like cult members to their idols. No rational person waited until 2010 to find out that Windows 7 is Vista 2.0. The world is moving on.
When M$ fails, non free software will quickly fall from dominance to niche markets and slowly fade away. Free software has proved it can get the job done without billion dollar advertising budgets, bribes and mindless slogging at companies and individuals. Honest and open cooperation is a better way to get things done. We have already won and we will all keep on winning as vendors see the light.
Grumpin (Score:2)