A LONG-HELD KNOCK

against

Microsoft

Dubbed Windows 7 for now, the new OS boasts multitouch, gesture control screen capabilities a la Apple's iPhone. It's terrific technology, and to be fair, Microsoft's had this sort of thing on hand for a while, as evidenced by the Surface, a kind of computer-in-a-coffee-table aimed at retailers.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer showed off the gesture control the most salient feature of the new OS at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference on Tuesday. It looks very pretty, and pretty cool, too. It also looks largely impractical.

The ability to rotate, re-size and flip images or play a virtual piano using just your fingers on a laptop screen is no doubt a neat and potentially useful trick, as shown by the demo.

That's great and all, but how many PC users sitting at their local Starbucks eating sticky buns want to smear icing all over their pristine screens? And when it comes to desktop PCs, forget about it. Leaning forward to manipulate programs on a monitor won't just make it dirty, it'll add some sort of new lower-back/neck/shoulder condition to the lexicon of computer-induced pathologies that began with carpal tunnel syndrome.

It works great on the MacBook Air's touchpad But on a laptop or PC screen? Perhaps, but probably not.

We'll grant that Windows 7 possesses many visual improvements (largely by copying elements that Apple pioneered.) But then Vista, the current OS, looks a lot better than its predecessor, too. Let's hope the similarities end there. The new OS is supposed to be ready by 2010. That's a good one.

After numerous delays, Vista took nearly six years to get out the door. And it is so perfectly disappointing that it actually makes Windows XP look good. It's slow. It nags users to distraction with irritating security pop-up windows. It devours RAM and graphics power. And even after more than a year, third-party driver support the pieces of software that allow hardware to work with an OS is still wonky.

That hasn't stopped Microsoft from selling loads of Vista to consumers, but then again they have no choice. Like it or not, it comes installed on all those PCs made by Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo and Acer. But notice how so many corporate IT departments are avoiding an upgrade to Vista like a communicable disease.

So if history is any guide, Windows 7 will likely be both late and disappointing, if not outright lame. Then there's the little problem that Apple's next version of its incomparable OS could beat Windows 7 to market, making it look dated before it's even born. (As a consolation, Microsoft will at least have some new ideas to steal.)

To Microsoft's credit, it plays a hell of a defense. And just when the empire looks decadent and overextended we're reminded that unlike the late Romans or the Britons, Microsoft's coffers are full. It has the resources to pursue every opportunity in the industry and the scale and market share to stay vital for a long time.

But as for Windows 7, wake us when it comes out. It'll be awhile, and we'll be pleasantly surprised if it's worth the wait.

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