Not long ago we were reading how Mozilla Firefox had more exploits than Internet Explorer and today I am prepared to go out on a limb and recommend a point release of a Microsoft Operating system. What the heck is going on in Redmond? What happened to our churn the product out and let the customers find the bugs then patch the frequent security issues 2 months after they hit the wild company we grew to love? Apparently they have been listening to feedback and have made unprecedented improvements in product quality and security maybe we should send them a thank you card. Wait a minute, before we decide who we should thank, let’s look at some of the motivation that is driving the changes – namely competition. Apple has put up a very strong showing with their industry standard design and solid performance. This has created market share for them at a very fast pace. Google and Microsoft are also heating up the competition in a number of areas but perhaps most importantly the operating system arena with the upcoming Google Chrome Operating system. So before you mail your thank you card to Redmond, let’s remember that without strong competition they would not have been quite as anxious to improve their products.

Now on to the substance, Windows 7 is ready for Business

We skipped Vista, don’t get me wrong we used it and we knew it but we did not advise any of our customers to use Vista at any point of the product cycle. In fact we made efforts to have them avoid it, basically advising our customers that Windows XP was the way to go for business. That has all changed thanks to the fantastic work that Microsoft has put into making the point release of Windows 7 my favorite operating system ever. Yes I am excited about Microsoft product again, it’s been a long time but I am grateful because I’ve had a love/hate relationship with them for years. My relationship with Microsoft has had its ups and downs:

• DOS was ok.
• Windows 3.x was ok.
• Windows NT (3.x) was ok.
• Windows NT (4) was ok.
• Windows 95 loved it.
• Windows 98 was ok.
• Windows ME hated it!
• Windows 2000 loved it.
• Windows XP mostly loved it.
• Windows Vista mostly hated it.
• Windows 7 Love it!

So as you can see, without getting into disasters like Bob, or the security lapses, etc, the ups and downs I’ve experienced with Microsoft Operating systems have been significant. Please don’t tell Balmer that I like Windows 7, I want them to continue to think like they have been since they started working on Windows 7. Let’s let this be our secret.