Things I didn't expect to read today, part II: Steve Ballmer saying that the Windows 7 launch could in fact resemble Vista's very grisly debut:"'The test feedback (on Windows 7) has been good, but the test feedback on Vista was good,' Ballmer, 53, said in an interview last week. ‘I am optimistic, but the proof will be in the pudding.'"
To recap, that's Steve "I'm going to fucking kill Google" Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft. Admitting Windows 7 could blow up in their faces as badly as Vista.
To be fair, the chances of that happening are very slim. Windows 7 isn't the giant leap that Vista was from XP, so most stuff works about the same. It actually runs better than Vista on most machines. Everybody involved seems to have their shit together. PC makers are actually ready. There are no dumb, misleading stickers. Drivers, a huge problem last time, look mostly solid, with graphics dudes Nvidia (who was responsible for 30 percent of Vista crashes in 2007) and ATI getting drivers for Windows 7 out months ago. And, Windows 7 is just really good. (Plus, going to his point this is how most people approach betas nowadays.)
Now I'm just waiting for Steve Jobs to talk about how much he loves the Zune. [Bloomberg via ZDNet]
