Windows 7: who was first, Melbourne or Sydney...?

David Swan
Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:25

IT Industry - Development

The Melbourne/Sydney rivalry is set to hot up even further, with Sydneysiders claiming they were the first in the world to purchase the new operating system, and Melbourne punters claiming exactly the same thing.

The Age and numerous other media outlets reported last night and this morning that Spiros Giokaris was the “world’s first” Windows 7 owner. Giokaris gained instant winning a raffle draw at Sydney’s flagship Harvey Norman store.

I attended the Melbourne midnight launch last night, where Microsoft and Harvey Norman employees claimed the same thing.

Esteemed AFL former coach/player Leigh Matthews was on hand to sign and deliver the first copy in Melbourne, to a lucky woman who said she was “amazed” and “felt like a celebrity now" (pictured below). Winners were drawn from a raffle, and the MC claimed that the lucky winner was the world's first Windows 7 customer.

All cityside competition aside, the launch was fairly dry with people more excited at the cameras and phones to win, rather than Window 7’s big talking points.
New features "Shake" and jump lists were left by the wayside as customers seemed more content to toy with the laptops themselves (most of which housed Vista) or ogle at large plasma displays. Microsoft's team of "Walkers and Talkers" (read: promoters) stood largely unused, and I left a tad unsure of why I was supposed to be so excited. Football great Matthews was not really sure of why he was there, either.

Hopefully potential customers will look past the fanfare (or lackthereof) and see Windows 7 for what it is, a solid but unremarkable update to Vista.