IT Curmudgeon

If you haven't heard about the release of Windows 7 to the public for testing, you're one of the people who need a seat belt explanation when you fly. You can download and use the Windows 7 Operating System (OS) for free for nearly a year, when it will shut itself off.

After years of operating system wars, it is impossible to say anything either good or bad about Microsoft without being compared to a mass murderer by either Microsoft lovers or Microsoft haters. Don't get me started...

The really important point to consider is that Microsoft would never have let the public use their OS for free 20 years ago. They wouldn't have done it 10 years ago or 5 years ago, either.

Assuming we are not on another planet or were sucked into another dimension, what caused the sea-change in the Redmond Cathedral? There are probably a lot of factors that are causing them to experiment with their business model:

• Vista was a very costly and unpopular disaster
• Linux is getting better and better
• Governments are scrutinizing and penalizing anti-trust violations
• Corporate customers are not as eager to pay for and install new versions of Microsoft Office every few years
• Open source softare is getting better and better

I have always been an advocate of competition, and have long believed that the lack of serious competition has made Microsoft lazy and complacent. I'll revisit the problems that went unaddressed in Windows between 1990 and 2006 some other time.

I am hoping that this is a really good OS, and I hope that there are invisible forces out there, even if Microsoft would never admit it, that is forcing them to play a sharper game, and work more on the customers' behalf than they have in the past.