Windows 7 is the successor to Windows Vista. As such, it takes its place
as the latest corporate desktop and workstation upgrade, and also sets
its sights on the home office and even home entertainment/gaming con-
sole, as Microsoft did with its ill-fated Windows Vista. This time,
though, Microsoft has gotten it right. In fact, we’re sure you’ll really
grow to like Windows 7 as you use it.
The goal Microsoft set for Windows Vista was quite ambitious. That
probably explains why it took Microsoft so long to get it to market.
During development, more and more features worked their way into
Microsoft Vista and the project became increasingly unwieldy. The code
kept ballooning, and the process couldn’t be stopped. This pushed out
the delivery date of Vista, first to 2005, then to early 2006, and finally to
late 2006.
Worse, when Vista did appear, its reception was lukewarm at best, and
customers complained long and loud about their preference for Windows
XP, even as it remained an older, less-attractive interface with more
security problems. Even six months past its January 2007 public release,
it was clear that Vista wasn’t attracting widespread adoption. To satisfy
a continued desire for Windows XP, Microsoft ended up trying to fix
Vista while simultaneously working on XP Service Pack 3 (released in
mid-2008).
In an attempt to convince customers that Vista was better than its
industry reputation, Microsoft remarketed it as “Mojave,” a campaign
that highlighted the many superb features of this system. It didn’t work,
so plans for a follow-on to Vista were accelerated. That successor is
what has been released as Windows 7.