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Windows Vista for SMBs by John Obeto

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10 Steps to a successful Windows 7

If rumors are correct, Windows 7, the next iteration of the flagship Microsoft client operating system will be publicly introduced at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in November of this year.

In order to avoid the public relations fiasco Windows Vista is today, Windows 7 must adhere to the following ten steps:

  1. Eliminate Scope Creep. This is the most insidious of problems to beset a promising OS. Instead of trying to make Windows 7 be all things to everyone, Windows 7 must remain within the box, and not try to be a everything to everyone.
  2. Stop SKU Creep. While having several SKUs is nothing new to Microsoft, the current number of SKUs are, at a minimum, confusing. At worst, they allow shameless OEMs to create barely functional system configurations and pass them off to consumers as standard, foisting the subsequent buyers’ angst at Microsoft.
  3. Declare atomic war on the failure perception FUD associated with Microsoft client OSs. Hopefully, Microsoft is ready to begin battle,  and help us (partners) in the battle against the false failure perceptions regarding Windows Vista that we are engaged in. if the same amount of indifference is exhibited by Microsoft at the release of Windows 7, I fear that that OS would be Microsoft's last.
  4. Maintain a total news blackout. Really, can everyone at Microsoft shut up? For once? And in the process, ensure success for the OS, instead of leaking like a sieve?
  5. Stay away from the current love of Hollywood’s blockbuster-style marketing. Leading up to Windows Vista, there was innovative marketing, especially that engaging Vanishing Point Game, and the grand prize, a trip into near space. However, after the release of Windows Vista……nothing! Think that is a knee jerk? Try to register right now for any TechNet or MSDN event. None available. Isn’t that the way movies are marketed in Hollywood? While that might work for them, but not in IT. We have to bang the drum loudly and constantly. These guys need to wake up and realize that the competition is loud, and keeps advertising. We’ve all seen iPod ads recently When was the last time any of you saw a Zune™ ad?
  6. Under-promise and then over-deliver. So self explanatory it is not funny.
  7. Banish vague hardware requirements. The current Vista Capable lawsuit speaks to this, Microsoft needs to establish and maintain a very rigid hardware baseline for a rich Windows 7 experience. Furthermore, the dev teams should only use average, Vista Capable-class units for development, thereby forcing them to optimize the system.
  8. Announce sensible retail pricing. The current retail pricing scheme for Windows Vista could only have been created by a bean counter, not PMs. Coupled with user experience optimization on basic hardware, Windows 7 retail pricing needs to be normalized to real world prices in order to encourage a vast retail upgrade by users.
  9. Solve the issue of a lack of a multi-license SKU. Strangely, this no-brainer is beyond the comprehension of the top brass at 1, Microsoft Way, in Redmond! The ubiquity of multi-PC homes on Planet Earth positively cries out for this. Apple gets it. Why doesn’t Microsoft?
  10. Grow some Social media smarts. In my interactions with Microsoft, only a handful of Microserfs get Social Media. How crazy is this? This squandering of a golden opportunity to not only participate, but ultimately shape the perception of Microsoft products is tantamount to a crime!

(This is a reprint from the July 2008 issue of The Interlocutor)

Posted: Jul 19 2008, 12:34 PM by John Obeto | with 4 comment(s)

Comments

adacosta said:

SKUs are not the problem, its just the marketing, the majority of Vista SKU's are not in the eye of the consumer to confuse and can be easily identified by the role they play on the PC.

Vista Starter edition is sold only in developing markets on new machines.

Vista Enterprise only under Volume license agreements.

Customers are then left with three obvious choices:

Vista Home Basic - Preferrably for an XP Home computer, if you are doing light activities like web browsing, word processing, listening to music watch music, its an economic choice at $99.

Vista Home Premium - preferrably for a XP MCE machine and multimedia based laptops with Tablet PC functionality.

Vista Business - XP Professional, most obviously if you work in a corporate environment and need advanced back up capabilities, domain join, encryption, its a sensible choice.

Vista Ultimate is an exceptio in the sense of being the no compromise Windows, if you want everything from the Premium consumer and/or Premium business SKU's you can get it.

# July 28, 2008 5:05 PM

Ray said:

Very good list....

I especially like #4....I do not want to just get to know Vista and here about this Windows 7 OS already in development. That tells me that "Vista" may be an interim money maker for MS just like Windows ME was a few years ago....

# August 6, 2008 5:10 AM

adacosta said:

Its interesting you say 'interim' Ray, since Longhorn (Vista's codename) was indeed an interim release expected sometime in 2002 until the scope of the project changed when Bill Gates decided that he wanted to take it to a new level with things like a new storage model (WinFS). Over time the project got very ambitious but strained under the weight of the many technologies they were building into it on the XP Codebase.

Still, Vista has turned out successful and still a major upgrade in many areas, the only thing you could say has been dropped are WinFS, Tile base Sidebar, Castles and PC Syncing.

But when you look at the changes that permits a more reliabe OS, Vista is still a success, security and feature wise. Instant Search is the first one to mention, Graphics subsystem, new driver signing model (reliable device drivers), kernel mode protection, Complete PC Backup, new Network stack and an array of built in applications.

Vista does live up to its original promise. The only problem is it took too long to reach market and the way how it was market initially has affected its perception by the public. But no doubt its doing well, when you take into account its on over 180 million PCs (although some might dispute licenses from actually deployments. Vista is a eventual upgrade for many and the more persons are exposed to its features the more they seem to appreciate it.

I think Microsoft's Mojave experiment is a great move in fighting back some of the negative feelings and Open Source propaganda.

# August 6, 2008 5:35 PM

John Obeto said:

@adacosta: Actually, SKUs are the problem! If the basic SHU encompassed all of the features in Vista, then the onus would be on the hardware OEM to explain to the customer why the system cannot do <insert missing feature here>

Right now, those OEMs skate by accusing Microsoft. And it is working.

Only business users need that sort of OS modularity.

@Ray: Yeah, you would think they would learn to shut the f*&^ up!

# August 10, 2008 1:07 PM