Why Sm Biz and Home Users are NOT Excited about Windows 7

One of the ZDnet bloggers posed a question as to why so many people are still using “obsolete” Windows software. This may be another case of standing in the trees and not seeing the forest. Most of the people in the computer industry make rash assumptions as to the level of expertise and fervor the average user has. The bulk of the studies or surveys are done by contacting corporate users. This makes sense, you can get a great number of responses easily but you are dipping your toe into a limited pool. Seldom is there any attempt to find out what the small business or home user wants, let alone needs.

I’m retired, I just want my computers to run. Admittedly after spending 25 years in the industry I have a little more expertise than the average user. I also have a network. I have no interest in upgrading the OS of my machines. In 25 years I have seen nothing but incremental increases in ease of use or reliability in operating systems. I have seen MS automatic updates trash one of my systems to the point where I suspect I will just use if for spare parts rather than trying to recover the OS from whatever quadrant of space the automatic update sent it. I have seen MS automatic updates isolate my computers from each other so I have to reinstall networking.

So if I, who theoretically have a little more expertise than the average user, why in any sane world, would I want to dive in the cesspool of upgrading my OS. I have one notebook with Vista as long as I don’t expect a great deal from it, it is fine. My XP systems are tweaked, they run what I want and for the most part, unless the friendly folks at MS send out another automatic update, the are stable.
This is why real people, not corporate users who generally get no choice, have no interest in upgrades. They want their computer to work like their toaster or blender, do the job, do it reliably and don’t screw me up.