“It’s widely agreed that columnist Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal is the ‘dean’ of tech journalists. He’s been at it as long as anyone, and his reviews merit serious attention from almost every corner of the industry. He’s even among the few on Apple’s preferred lists of journalists to get an early look at their new products. That’s why Mossberg, David Pogue and a handful of others manage to get those stories out sometimes before the new Apple gear goes on sale,” Gene Steinberg writes for TechNightOwl.
“When it comes to Mossberg, one of the reasons he’s earned special attention is the result of the calm, even-handed approach he takes in his reviews. It doesn’t hurt that he works for the most respected financial newspaper on the planet,” Steinberg writes. “So you can expect that when he wrote his review of Windows 7, people took notice. When he said that Windows, at long last, comes especially close to the Mac OS in terms of performance, features and reliability, certainly you have to consider what he says seriously.”
Steinberg writes, “On the other hand, nobody is infallible… I am extremely disappointed with the way Mossberg handled this particular piece, and it’s not because I’m a Mac user and consider Microsoft products mostly second rate. When you look behind the conclusions and examine the facts, you wonder if Mossberg isn’t seriously understating his conclusions and the distinctions he found between the two operating systems… This isn’t the first time Mossberg has been a little too enthusiastic about a Microsoft release. You see… he also raved in a similar fashion about Windows Vista back in 2007.”
Full article here.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune (crediting reader Jon T. of Cardiff, Wales) on two quotes from Mossberg’s Windows Vista and Windows 7 reviews:
“After months of testing Vista on multiple computers, new and old, I believe it is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced.” — Wall Street Journal, Jan. 18, 2007
“After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced.” — Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2009
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Windows rots. And we don’t just mean that’s inferior to our Macs, but that also over time, in the hands of everyday users, it clogs up, slows down, and generally deteriorates. Let’s give Windows 7 the time it needs for its inherent issues to begin showing up.
One review makes a successful release.
M$ products are second rate and that’s on a good day.
I am surprised anyone here really cares about Winblows 7. The only value M$ has for me is the bald halfwit in charge, he makes me laugh…..
A smoking gun indeed.
I feel sorry for Walt really.
But much less so than I would have a while back, now that Rupert Murdoch owns the WSJ.
@exposed,
you think the Mac fan base is ruffled do you?
mmm. that follows if you are silly enough to describe Windows 7 as a ‘damn good os’.
We went through all of this with Vista. History is rewriting itself. You’ll see.
MDN called the Waaahmbulance because Uncle Walt didn’t pan W7 with the same fervor that he praises Apple products?
Talk about living up to the Macolyte stereotype.
‘ It doesn’t hurt that he works for the most respected financial newspaper on the planet,” Steinberg writes.’
Mossberg writes for what WAS once the most respected financial newspaper. That died shortly after Rupert Murdoch started pulling his usual distortion and deconstruction job on it. Keep in mind that Murdoch invented both ‘Tits on page 3’ UK trash tabloids and FuxNews, the USA Neo-Con-Job political propaganda HATE MEDIA sewer.
As for Walt Mossberg, he never has been a technology expert, and he has even admitted it. He was one of the chief authors of anti-Apple journalism during the chic Apple bashing era of 1995 through 1998. Thankfully he got a clue and actually learned about Mac technology thereafter, and has been a chief proponent of dumping Windows.
That Mr. Mossberg exaggerates Windows game of Mac OS X catch up is not surprising, particularlly now that he is forced to work for Murdoch marketing machine. How could one not expect he has been under pressure to kiss the Windows pain.
An example of FuxNews style distortion: Why Mr. Mossberg believes anyone ever said Mac OS X is “bulletproof” is beyond my comprehension. That line is pure anti-Mac myth making.
In one respect Mr. Mossberg is correct. 7ista repairs several Vista blunders that do indeed help close the huge lag behind Mac OS X. And it is also fair to say that there are elements of 7ista that surpass Mac OS X. Mossberg missed one of them: With a shotgun held to their head, Microsoft have enacted some superior security strategies to help deter their reputation for having the most insecure commerical operating system on the planet.
I like reading Mr. Mossberg’s work, even when he’s blundered. It is another point of view. It is up to each of us to inform ourselves of the facts rather than relying strictly upon any one person’s critique of anything.
I just wish Mr. Mossberg was entirely free to say anything he personally pleases. I have have no expectation of truth in publishing from any Murdoch media venture. Sad times.
(;_;)
IHateThatCompany sez: “Can’t MS just die so that others can live?”
What is required for any human business system to work is competition. From that point of view, having Windows around is good for Mac.
What is required of MS is to stop damaging the computer community and end the current dark age of computing. The easy method of course is to delete MS from existance. The beneficial effect would be immediate.
However, MS could actually join in with efforts to improve computing. It would take a radically restructured company, with its current anti-innovation culture overthrown via an internal revolution. Considering the lingering legacy of Bill Gates, this is highly unlikely. But I have to point out that there are some superbly innovative bits of technology in 7ista, which to me is shocking and unexpected. I hold out hope that MS could in the future be an actual benefit to mankind. It could happen!
In the meantime, bashing MS, using facts to counter MS distortion, is a most honorable endevour. It is part of the competitive process and in this case is entirely deserved.
I wonder how many of you ripping on Windows 7 have actually used it, or are just lashing out in typical fan-boy fashion because it’s from Microsoft. Probably not many…
It’s obvious that Walt is on the M$ payroll.
Walt, Walt, Walt. (shakes head in disappointment and puzzlement)
I like the puppet. SHUDDUP!
The decrease in Suck % between Windows Vista and Windows 7 is a rounding error.
@ Amused,
I’m sure the number of people here who have actually used Windows 7 is about as low a percentage as the Windows users on other sites who rip on the Mac.
It’s childish behavior, but gives everyone something to feel superior about. What can ya do?
Look at it this way kids. If you laid your best, roundest, longest poop ever. You can announce “thats the best poop ever”. Doesn’t mean its better than a scoop of delicious chocolate ice cream.
Thats what he means with Windows 7. Best Poop Ever to come out of MS to date. There you go.
Ethical journalism is an oxymoron.
Everything put aside, I’m with MDN take today. Windows does rot over time.
“MDN called the Waaahmbulance because Uncle Walt didn’t pan W7 with the same fervor that he praises Apple products? “
MDN is pointing out that Uncle Walt has no credibility left when it comes to reviewing Windows. We’re talking about a man who wrote:
“After months of testing Vista on multiple computers, new and old, I believe it is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced.”
If anybody says they can take his review of W7 at face value after seeing that quote, I’ll show you a liar. Either that, or somebody who was living under a rock during the whole Vista fiasco.
@gooner4ever
“It’s obvious that Walt is on the M$ payroll.”
I think it’s more likely that WSJ is in Microsoft’s pocket, and poor Walt is pressured to tow the line whenever a new Windows comes down the pike.
“I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced.”
That does not mean it is actually a good product when compared to offerings from other companies…
I hope the review cleared the mortgage
After watching the 8 minute review, I felt that Walt concluded it was ok but far short of great. It is, after all, still a Windows operating system, a royal pain to upgrade from W/98, and in time the flaws will be revealed.
Dekekcurrie,
Thanks for your considered answer to my question: If it is necessary for Apple to have competition, why is it that it always seems that the ONLY solution to that delemma can be answered by Windows? Why not Linux?
Then you offered…What is required of MS is to stop damaging the computer community and end the current dark age of computing.
As I’ve said in many posts here. MS can’t change. MS won’t change. MS doesn’t want to either. It’s in their nature, to be the way that they are. Changing the guard won’t change how they behave. You know this.
I know that it may sound Woowoo, but let MS die. Let any good energy move on to companies that can ‘innovate’ and want to ‘compete’.
How many more years will MS promise to stop bullying, before people realize that MS is a bully. I’m not so small to hate a scorpion for being a scorpion, but I’m also awake enough to know that if I get near a scorpion — I WILL get stung.
After 34 years of MS stinging its ‘partners’, are you honestly naive enough to actually believe that MS has it in them to ‘stop damaging the computer community’ and to ‘actually join in with efforts to improve computing’?
I know the places where MS goes. I avoid them.
“I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced.”
Another classic in the same vein would be:
“For a fat girl, you sure don’t sweat much.”
I think uncle Walt found a way to sound positive without actually blatantly lying. When a toddler walks across the room and falls down only once it’s a great accomplishment. If a pro athlete does the same it’s not so great. Microsoft is working against a very low benchmark when compared to its past efforts.
> I believe it is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced.
Windows 7 probably is the best version of Windows. That’s not saying too much; the previous “best version” of Windows is probably Windows XP.
WTF is Mossberg anyway? Mossberg = microsh*t stooge. How much money to microsh*t chuck at the wall street journal in advertsing? He’s their bitch alright. The dean of tech, what crap. Stupid, stupid old man. Windoze 7 = another POS.
When the PPC G3 came out, it was “The Fastest Mac Ever” according to MacWorld. Later, the G4 was TFME. After that came the Core Duo and the Core 2 Duo processors, both declared TFME.
The point is, technology evolves. Now to criticize Mossberg for calling Vista the “best Windows Microsoft has produced” and then doing so with Windows 7 is not inconsistent or in-genuine. Both probably were the best at the time.
So stop picking on Uncle Walt, betches!
“It doesn’t hurt that he works for the most respected financial newspaper on the planet,”
***************************************************************************
It really hurts, because WSJ is one of the most biased, brainwashing, Orwellian type propagandistic machine.
Yeah, but at the time the PPC G4 really WAS the fastest Mac.
At the time Walt reviewed Vista, it was a pile of crap and XP mopped the floor with it, even as lame as XP was.