Snipers do not perform drive by shootings, the whole point of a sniper is a gunman that positions themselves in a static position and waits for the ability to have a 1 shot kill.

As for your comments about my revenue stream, you sure do make a lot of assumptions about what I do for a living. You’re wrong. Yes, I’m in the process of writing Windows 7 Inside Out. If you were a regular visitor here rather than a drive-by sniper you would know that. But I do much more than write books these days. Regular visitors here already know that.

then why not release the final product rather than having an open beta then?

I think this is simply you becoming scared of any criticisms directed at your ‘hand that feeds’ Mr Botts, it is obvious that you are simply advocating a new product that will obviously provide you revenue streams.

John Dvorak hasn’t been relevant in years. I’m surprised he’s still out there writing.

As for Windows 7, other than dealing with some driver issues, it’s already in shape to hit the store shelves. Microsoft has a big win coming here.

Anyway, there’s much work that has been done and more to be done on Win7 before it’s released so we’ll see. MS needs a win with 7 after the PR faux pas with Vista (which works well for me). After all, competition is good thing and a great MS OS will kick Apple in the butt which will drive innovation for all as the wrong-headed negative perceptions of Vista have driven MS to do something great. And yes, MS Win7 is great now and I hope it stays great…

Stilgar is right…who knows what will be released. Let’s hope MS knocks this one out of the park….

Now, I don’t know that MS is leaving out “major security features” or not in their betas, but it’s not unreasonable to think that there are features left out of current beta builds.

The fact of the matter is that neither you nor Dvorak know what the final performance of Windows 7 will be like until it’s on store shelves and the service packs and patches start rolling out.

Maybe it’d be worth while to dig up a copy of a Vista beta and see how well the performance compares to a current, patched install of the OS.

You think Microsoft has a good track record of performance improvements with it’s patches? All you have to do is google “windows patches slow performance” and there are tons of complaints about poor performance after patching.

Oh, and calling someone else’s writing crude and juvenile is crude and juvenile.

If you’re so sensitive as to get offended at his pointed writing style, stop reading his stuff and try not to cry into your soy latte.

On a more positive note, Microsoft was brilliant to release the beta. Leo Laporte (a huge Mac fan) LOVES Windows 7 and has nothing but praise for it. Who knows? Maybe it’ll convert a few Macheads…

He hasn’t been relevant since PC Magazine was a must-read…

And Hylen’s link (if you follow it the actual content) kind of puts his rants in perspective. Basically, they’re saying his outrageous comments are just another marketing ploy, just like that a teen with 50 piercings and neon green hair.