Gigaom highlights this theory for why Windows 7 is more popular than Windows Vista.
Whoever at Microsoft decided to open up the Windows 7 beta and release candidate testing program to anyone wishing to try out the new OS deserves kudos.
By opening up the testing program Microsoft has increased the number of testers and chances of finding edge case bugs. Successful open source projects highlight the benefits of a large set of users whose use uncovers bugs that formal testing did not or could not find. I know of several people who have used Windows 7 as their primary operating system for over 2 months. All six of them are quite impressed with the quality of release candidate and have preordered Windows 7. This shift from user to purchaser is also a mainstay of the open source business model. Although, one could argue that the Windows 7 model is more related to the shareware model than an open source business model. Fair enough. But I’d argue both models rely on adoption led marketing.
Except though, Windows Vista also had a public beta period where anybody could download the beta, and two release candidate versions. I know -- I downloaded, and had shipped to me the beta and the first RC version. All just as public. And all reports were that MS acted less on feedback on Seven than on Vista. Vista was plagued by a way too public viewing of its development process which saw many features jettisoned, a miscalculation of the direction of the PC industry (laptops started becoming the dominant computer during the time of development, ending the free gains in performance by ever increasing hardware specs), and essentially the consequences of breaking changes -- similar to problems that Apple suffered when Apple transitioned from "Classic" Mac OS to Mac OS X. (Remember, OS X 10.0 was so reviled, that Apple released 10.1 about six months later and for free. And most people would not consider OS X a stable platform until 10.3!)
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