Microsoft Corp launched Windows 7 on Thursday in its most important release for more than a decade, aiming to win back customers after the disappointing Vista and strengthen its grip on the PC market.
The world’s largest software company, which powers more than 90 percent of personal computers, has received good reviews for the newoperating system
“It’s the first really significant release of Windows in a decade,” analyst Brendan Barnicle of Pacific Crest Securities told Reuters Television. “Given the missteps around Vista, people really questioned Microsoft’s relevancy in the technology space. So this is a critical first step for Microsoft regaining that credibility.”
The new system — which is faster, less cluttered and has new touch-screen features — comes almost three years after the launch of Vista, whose complexity frustrated many home users and turned off business customers.
The success of Windows — which accounts for more than half of Microsoft’s profit — is crucial for Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to revive the company’s image as the world’s most important software firm.
“I have to say I’m chomping at the bit,” Ballmer told an audience of Microsoft customers and partners in Toronto on Wednesday, adding that he is ready to make sales calls himself on Windows 7.
Sales won’t immediately impact the bottom line of Microsoft, which is expected to post a lower quarterly profit on Friday.
Windows 7 will work on your existing PC hardware if you are using an at least 1 GHz CPU (processor) and 1 GB of RAM (memory), but a faster processor and more RAM will definitely improve the performance.
By contrast, Snow Leopard will only work on Intel-based Mac systems. That means that not only will Snow Leopard not work on the hardware vastly used, but it won’t even work on much of the hardware used by current Mac OS X users.
The most noticeable feature of Snow Leopard that enterprise users can look out for is that Apple has built a native support for Microsoft’s Exchange Server into its OS, a feat that no version of Windows has accomplished.
This will enable Macs to work seamlessly in businesses run on Windows without requiring additional third party software licensing or relying on Microsoft’s Mac clients. Apple also has no intention to change the OS to something new in the future, so Mac users can breathe easy on their financial investments.
The Snow Leopard single user license will be available for a maximum retail price of Rs 1,800 and the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for a maximum retail price of Rs 2,900. Win 7 (single user license) is expected to start at little over Rs 5,000.
“People like it,” said Michael Capone, chief information officer for payroll services firm ADP, pointing out its quick start-up time and good user interface.
“There is a line outside my door from people wanting to get into the pilot program,” said Capone, at a technology conference in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
His company typically waits at least 18 months to begin broad deployment of a new version of Windows, said Capone, but this time he could be more aggressive.
“In the surveys that we’ve done about half the CIOs (chief information officers) indicated that they would just use Windows 7 on existing PCs as opposed to replace the entire hardware,” said Barnicle. “That would be very positive for Microsoft but maybe not so positive for the PC manufacturers.”
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