People are going to look back at the last couple of years as a prime example of how not to roll out and promote a major product - Vista. Microsoft seems to have addressed all (or at least most) of the technical problems with Vista - I know people running it who don't have complaints.

However, the perception that "Vista Sucks" has been successfully transmitted, both by the initial failures from MS (and their lackluster response), and the highly successful Mac/PC ads put out by Apple. Apple rode the "Vista Sucks" wave to better Mac sales, and to a successful product definition. Now it looks like Microsoft has realized they have lost this particular battle:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday with an impassioned endorsement of PCs and a sneak peek at the company's future Windows 7 operating system.

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

It looks like they've given up on the "Mojave" idea, and gone straight to Windows 7. Now they need to get it from beta to product faster than the two year timespan Vista took to make that run. It will probably happen; by all accounts, Windows 7 is more or less Vista SP2 - making this largely a re-branding effort.

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