Valentine’s Day is here and love is certainly in the air. Just pick up the latest Windows 7 Beta review and you’ll find gushing love scenes that would make Nora Roberts blush. But is all of this puppy love for Microsoft a real budding romance or just a result of some long-term guilty feelings? We take a look at what the first batch of reviews about Microsoft's forthcoming operating system have to say, and whether it's the straight dope or plain old PR politics.

Back in 2007, when Windows Vista was finally released five years after Windows XP, the reports were not good. The new operating system required hardware that few owned in order to run the fancy new Aero user interface. User Access Control (UAC) made it a pain to perform simple everyday tasks by requiring additional user intervention. Everything seemed a bit slower than good old Windows XP.

And the hardware drivers: To this day, I don’t understand why so few manufacturers were ready with updated drivers for their hardware.  For my personal machine, I was forced to buy a new scanner and a new printer — my year-old hardware was simply not supported. I’m not even going to go into what hardware and software I was required to replace in my business to get Vista usable.

PC retailers and manufacturers were dismayed by the delay in the shipment of Windows Vista. The end of January is certainly not a great time to try to squeeze a few bucks from Christmas-fatigued consumers for computer replacements. And the majority of small businesses, the ones that are most likely to ditch their old stuff and switch more quickly to a new OS, have a fiscal year that mirrors the calendar. Therefore, they weren’t looking to buy a bunch of new stuff to put it on that year’s books. They had already done that back in December.

Sales slipped, complaints increased, and buyers decided it wasn’t worth the headaches to switch to something that was reportedly slower than what they had been using for five years.

The reviewers and bloggers tore Microsoft apart. How could Bill Gates and Company do this to the world? Negative reviews of Windows Vista spread faster than news of Britney Spears’ latest rehab visit. (Well, almost.)

    “That’s not to say, however, that Vista is worth standing in line for…”  - David Pogue, New York Times

    “We see no compelling reason to upgrade”  - Robert Vamosi, CNET

    "Vista could be maddeningly slow even on new, well-configured computers."  - Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal

    “…inconsistencies are often jarring, and certain added features don't seem entirely fleshed out, making the OS — which was five years in development — feel rushed…”  - NYT’s David Pogue (again)

Fast forward two years and things have certainly changed for Microsoft. I have yet to run across a truly negative review of the Windows 7 Beta. In fact, there are lots of people out there suggesting that you dump your Vista installation and run 7 as an everyday operating system. It can seemingly run on just about any old piece of junk you have in your garage. It’s so easy, your grandma will be working on the next Pixar project with it and it will most likely get you a good-sized chunk of the next stimulus package.

    “I'm actually having fun using Seven, something I haven't said about a Microsoft operating system since Windows 95.”  - Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Watch

    “I’ve been working with the Windows 7 beta for several weeks, and I like it a lot. It feels snappier and more responsive than Windows Vista.”  - Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle

    "Windows 7 seems to be much improved than Windows Vista in lots of areas and the beta clearly shows that Microsoft has indeed taken users feedback on Vista seriously.”  - Chandran Chakkaradeep, Neowin

Everyone loves it. Why?

Quite frankly, because it’s good.

It all seems a little suspicious, really. Why the change in heart? Did Microsoft suddenly begin kissing babies and petting dogs at the local supermarket? I don’t remember seeing Bill Gates in a black turtleneck telling us that it’s “really, really great” and “I think you’re really going to like this — it’s pretty”.

No, I think that the reason people are glowing about how good Windows 7 is, is that Windows 7 is really good. (Except the name… Is that the best you could come up with? You know how hard it is to accurately Google “Windows 7” — even with quotes!)

When you take a look at the way the Aero interface has grown up substantially in the latest version, combined with some smart changes to the networking management and a few additional features Microsoft has shoe-horned into Win7, you see that they may have actually listened to their customers. That’s a refreshing change from the short-lived Mojave Experiment marketing that set out to prove that it was everyone else’s fault — including yours, the user — that Vista failed.

Features like the Problem Steps Recorder, the ability to run on older and less powerful equipment like netbooks, and a seemingly useful backup program included (finally!) are leading the charge in making what really could have been labeled as an incremental upgrade a pivotal moment in Microsoft history. Windows 7 is being set up to be the next major OS — more similar to Windows 3.1, 95, and XP than Millennium Edition and Vista.

(I just realized something, by the way. All of the good versions of Windows were short-named and the crappy ones tried to overcome a lack of good programming with a fancier name. Hmm… maybe “7” isn’t a bad choice after all!)

When it comes down to it, Windows XP was a fine operating system but people were growing weary of its interface. Although it ran smoothly and solidly, for the most part, users got bored with it. Look at the Mac explosion of recent years. iPods and iPhones helped, sure, but Microsoft didn’t help itself by letting its OS go stale. Consumers were clamoring for something new and exciting but they demanded that it be fun and fast. Vista, although five years in the making, still felt rushed. That led to a lack of support from the IT community, which quickly spread wider into that of casual users. With the right timing and marketing, Microsoft has a huge opportunity to turn things drastically around with Win7.

The public beta released several weeks ago shows that Vista wasn’t necessary full of bad ideas, it just wasn’t implemented very well. Windows 7 builds on some of those ideas and speeds everything up considerably to make it a joy to use.  It makes Vista’s ideas work.

While the fascination with Windows 7 may be just an infatuation of sorts, I believe that it will be love-at-first-release when it comes out later this year.

[Image courtesy of BadVista.org]