A new post on ZDNet today entitled “Could Windows 7 be the best Windows yet?” makes me laugh. Lets start with the title – it’s very intriguing if it were backed up with anything meaningful. Instead in the opening paragraph we get all we need to know about where this is going:

Given all the feedback that Microsoft has had from Vista users (both negative and positive), could Windows 7 be the best version of Windows yet?

Come on. Seriously? Has Microsoft never gotten feedback before? Maybe they didn’t get feedback during the Windows XP days – that must be why Windows Vista has disappointed. With apologies to the author, that has to be one of the worst opening paragraphs in the history of making an argument. Everyone gets feedback (both positive and negative) after a product launch. Does this cause everyone to go out and make the best product they’ve ever made? No.

I could just have easily have written a piece entitled “Could OS X 10.6 be the best OS X yet?” – and back it up with that very argument. I’d be laughed at. Hell, I could write “Could the new Ford Focus be the best Ford Focus yet?” – and start it off by saying that Ford has gotten a lot of feedback (both positive and negative) on the current Focus and so their new car will be their best yet.

A little further down we get:

If Microsoft has been listening to the feedback, the company will have a pretty good idea of what people thought was wrong with Vista, and this could give the project managers and developers a pretty blueprint for what the next version should be like.

Again, that is the argument for why Windows 7 will be the best yet? That’s it! They’ve nailed it! The secret formula for creating the best product ever. Like no one has ever thought of following customer feedback before?

A little further down still we get:

So, if Microsoft has been listening to the feedback, what will Windows 7 be like? Well, first off, Microsoft needs to trim the bloat out of the OS. While Vista can certainly be fast when you throw enough hardware at it, at the lower end of the hardware spectrum it’s hard not to start to see problems

While that is true, it’s not like it’s so simple to do that just because customer feedback says so. But I really point out this paragraph because just two paragraphs later we get:

Then we come onto performance. Think about performance and you realize that the main competition that Vista has doesn’t come from…

Isn’t that why the “first off” point was about?

The rest of the article is spent breaking down piece by piece why just about everything that makes up Vista (the UI, compatibility, features, etc) needs to be fixed. Well if only everything needs to be fixed then of course Windows 7 is going to be the best ever, clearly.

The author ends with:

That’s just some of what Microsoft needs to deal with. Whether it will or not will decide what kind of feedback Windows 7 will get.

That is quite a powerful closing paragraph for a post entitled “Could Windows 7 best the best Windows yet?”. I don’t see how you can use that title and than admittedly only mention “some” of the issues Microsoft needs to deal with – which, as I said above, already reads a lot like just about everything.

Yes, I’ve been known to use outlandish titles from time to time, but come on, this one is backed up by almost less than nothing. Windows 7 will be the best ever if Microsoft listens to customer feedback and fixes everything that is wrong with Vista. Sure, maybe, but not only is that a tall order, it’s utterly ridiculous to speculate about that at this point. Why not just say: “Windows 7 will be the best Windows ever if Microsoft makes the best version of Windows ever for version 7″? You would have saved yourself a lot of typing.

[UPDATE]: I didn’t even remember it at the time, but I did write as my #11 prediction for 2008:

11) Microsoft really starts hyping the idea of ‘Windows 7′ as Apple continues to grow more quickly and Vista continues to be an albatross
Vista usage will obviously continue to grow, but only because it is bundled with new PCs. They’ll improve it slightly, but will not be able to shake its association with failure. Instead their tune will turn to the next OS and making it the best one based on “all they’ve learned” from Vista. Meanwhile people will continue to switch to the Mac platform whether it be via desktop, laptop, sub-laptop, or mobile device (iPhone, iTablet, etc…).

Does this ZDNet article not start to lay all of that out perfectly? Especially the “making it the best” based on “all they’ve learned”.