Brandon Griggs gets it wrong

There are very few mainstream journalists that understand tech. Several, like Brandon Griggs here, is clearly pandering to those who hate Windows Vista but don’t actually use it. Griggs writes regarding Steve Ballmer’s keynote at CES:

The news suggests the world’s largest software maker may be giving up efforts to rehabilitate its often-maligned Vista operating system, which was released worldwide in January 2007.

“We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever,” Ballmer told an audience of several thousand tech professionals and journalists inside a cavernous ballroom at the Venetian hotel. “We’re working hard to get it right and get it ready.”

Umm, how about the news suggests that Microsoft is coming out with a new operating system like it does every few years? And of course Microsoft is going to call Windows 7 its “best operating system ever” or else why release it? Furthermore:

Without mentioning the security and compatibility issues that have dogged Vista, Ballmer promised that Windows 7 will make PCs faster and easier to use.

Has Griggs actually used Vista? While pre-SP1 may have had some compatibility issues (perhaps if you’re using some tired old ’95 Borland software), Service Pack 1 was a huge improvement. And security issues? Out of the box, Vista is the most secure version of Windows yet. And lastly:

He didn’t offer a timetable for its official release, although Windows Vista went on sale more than two years after it was issued in beta form.

So if Microsoft does release Windows 7 two years from now as opposed to later this year, then doesn’t that align with previous Microsoft OS releases? That means Windows 7 will ship 4 years after Vista did and on the edge of an OS life-cycle. Of course this is highly unlikely. Microsoft will probabably ship 7 later this year, or at the very latest, Q1 2010.

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