Will Windows 7 Pass the 'Mom' Test?

Testers seemed to like Windows Vista before it bombed. Windows 7 has also garnered positive reviews. The natural question: How much faith should we put in early tests of Windows?

Mary Jo Foley raises the question and notes that even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is wary of preaching early reviews as gospel. Sure, Walt Mossberg and a bevy of others like Windows 7. Mossberg says Windows 7 is as good as Apple’s (AAPL) Snow Leopard in places.

However, most of the Windows 7 reviewers are power users. The real proof will come when your mom takes a Windows 7 PC for a spin and finds it easy to use. The real proof will come when teenagers determine that Windows 7 is as cool as Apple’s OS. The real proof will come from word of mouth recommendations for Windows 7 because it’s easy and looks good.

Bottom line: Despite all the screencasts, benchmarks, how-tos and other tutorials we just don’t know how Windows 7 will do until it hits the marketplace. You can substitute consumers for chief information officers and the Windows 7 impact boils down to “we’ll see what happens.”

Sure, Dell (DELL) is talking of a Windows 7 upgrade cycle for consumers and the enterprise. But what else is it going to say? Some economists are betting on a Windows 7 bump for the overall economy. It’s not hard to find other optimistic views. In the end, we have no clue what the Windows 7 impact will be.

Perhaps that’s why Ballmer’s recent barnstorming tour is partially focused on lowering expectations for Windows 7. He’s not quite sure how it’ll turn out either. Windows 7 rests in the hands of your mom and millions of consumers everywhere.

Comments

[jack dee:]

>>>In the end, we have no clue what the Windows 7 impact will be.<<
>> “we’ll see what happens.”<<<

Really? thats the message? you are telling us you have and I quote "no clue" and we will see what happens.?


Great, thanks for that valuable insight , into the world of MSFT, you have really opened my eyes.

I now know that Larry has no clue as to the impact of Win 7.

Wow you are really going out on a limb there.

Oct 08 01:07 PM

[zorro6204:]

The big problem with Windows 7 is that takeup by existing XP users will be very slow (there are no Vista users, right?). In order to upgrade, you have to remove all of your files to external storage, it will not install "over" XP. Not that many people have standalone hard drives big enough, or would be inclined to buy one merely to upgrade. And then there's all the horror show with updating programs . . . blech. I'm not upgrading until it's absolutely necessary, probably around 2015, and I bet a lot of people are in the same boat.

Given how cheap PC's are these days, a fair number of people may upgrade that way, which should be a boon for Dell and HP.

Oct 08 03:46 PM

[THofler:]

I eagerly searched for yesterday's Ballmer quote. I found the Reuter's blurb after filtering through the day's other 83 MSFT news items.

The headline and 1st para stated that Ballmer says Win7 effect will be "small" or "slight." However, in the last paragraph the actual Ballmer quote said "we expect a Win7 PC surge, though it won't be huge."

Hmmm. Is "not huge" the same as small or slight??

Oct 08 07:25 PM

[Snitzer:]

Vista 64 running with i7 and 12 GB RAM on the desktop, no plans to upgrade for at least a year, maybe longer. Two older laptops, one with XP, the other with Vista (aero disabled; not enough RAM to run it with), and the Vista laptop may get a copy of W7 just to see how it runs on a low end computer.

Oct 09 11:20 AM

[TinyTim:]

I hear W7 is a spinoff of Vista (explains the ease of upgrade).
I also hear it's hardware intensive compared to XP (similar to Vista), especially in RAM. The real turnoff for Vista in notebooks was the CPU power required which ran down the batteries quicker.

I think I'll just buy that external hard drive and back up my entire system (should have done it years ago). Then wipe the system / drive and replace my old corrupted XP with a fresh XP. I'll have to reinstall all the old apps anyway if I go to W7.

I never buy anything with a low serial number, especially from MS.
Worst case, I'll wait for W7 SP1 with new hardware.

Oct 09 01:36 PM