It’s no secret that I’m one of those rare IT people, who is actually a bit of a fan of Microsoft’s unloved Operating System, Windows Vista. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve never had a problem with it (all my applications work and I understood that there would be early teething problems when first released), or because I like innovation and development towards something new and fresh, or it could be that I’ve already convinced myself that this is the future of Microsoft Operating Systems no matter what.
This week, a short demo (or rather a tease), of Microsoft’s next OS – “Windows 7” – was shown this week by BillG and Steve Ballmer, highlighting the “Touch” capabilities they are going to build into the OS (and if you remember earlier posts, you’ll know my mind is already open to the use of touch to interact with devices). Anyone who’s seen videos of the demo may have noticed that underneath the touch interface, there was the same “Vista” framework.
Alright, Microsoft are far from a new Windows 7 operating system at this time (its not scheduled to be finished until 2009/2010), but its difficult to believe that the underlying structure of Windows will be all that different (I could be wrong of course, Microsoft have remained tight lipped on features within Windows 7), and that the Vista will have its place, even if that’s just a stepping stone to the next generation.
What I still haven’t got my head around yet is why Vista is not successful. I spoke to a couple of colleagues of mine about why they haven’t updated (and also the benefits and pitfalls of Office 2007), and the reasons were because Microsoft have changed too much and abandoned what has been their “traditional” user interface with something a bit different and more intelligent which makes it difficult to find the tools they are looking for (especially in Office 2007 with its “Ribbon” interface). I’m a bit more open minded than that and after using these new interfaces for a couple of hours, they become as second nature as the “traditional” approach people are used to from previous versions.
My counter argument was the difference in approach Microsoft took and the difference people endured during the transition from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, a radically different interface and a very different approach to the user interface – these same users who struggle to change their mindset to Vista lived through the transition to Windows 95, they have just forgotten how to open their minds and adapt, which is very sad to me.
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