Inside a Windows 7 house party
Although some scoffed at the notion of Windows 7 house parties, Elliott Minor of Albany, Ga., said his event was a hit.
Roughly two dozen people showed up to the event, which was held at his church. Although not a huge gathering, the event seemed to be one of many that served Microsoft's purpose--helping spread the word about its just-launched Windows 7 operating system.
Two techies from the area teamed up to highlight Windows 7's key features and answer questions.
"Judging from the oohs and aahs of guests, I'd say they were favorably impressed," Minor said in an e-mail interview.
Minor said he and the organizers tried to get in the Windows 7 spirit. "We served Windows 7 cake and cupcakes--all with green icing topped by a red 7--pimento cheese sandwiches on 7-grain bread, and we gave 'em 7-Up to help wash it down," Minor said. (Pimento-cheese? Well, at least it's healthier than Burger King Japan's seven-patty Windows 7 Whoppers.)
Anyway, rather than keep the party pack given to party hosts, Minor raffled them off, generating $77 for a local soup kitchen. (That's in contrast to the many folks that tried to put their swag up for sale on eBay.)
In all, Microsoft expects the house parties and meet-ups to reach some 800,000 people. Events are taking place in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Italy, India, and China. Microsoft employees have been having events for a little while now (such as this one), while the customer-hosted parties kicked off last Thursday on launch day.
For a look at other Windows 7 launch parties, check out this feature from Gizmodo. Meanwhile, I doubt this is what Redmond had in mind, but some folks in the UK did a funny video suggesting people have a Windows 7 torrenting party (Warning: some f-bombs and references to drug use).
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Can't wait for the International Bankers' Parties!
"Long Lives OS/2"!
http://www.os2bbs.com/OS2News/OS2History.html
Also, "In 1981 when the original IBM Personal Computer was announced, IBM released three operating systems for it. How many of you remember that? Since I wrote the first IBM course on how to fix this original PC, I had to know at least a little about all three of them.
IBM decided early in the development process of the PC that they did not want to hire a bunch of programmers to write software for it - especially an operating system. IBM wanted the hardware business and did not care about the software. Since there was no clear-cut contender for an operating system at the time, IBM approached three organizations about writing one for the PC.
IBM first approached Digital Research and asked them to create a version of CP/M (Control Program/Microcomputer). The owner of DR snubbed the IBM lawyers and went flying or golfing (depending upon whose story you hear) instead.
IBM then turned to Microsoft. Bill Gates was very receptive to the IBM overture and also had information about an operating system which had already been written that would fill IBM's need very nicely. Gates said yes to IBM, bought the operating system called DOS for $20,000 and modified it somewhat to run on the IBM PC...."
These Twenty "Seventh" parties (which should have been celebrated way back when) are therefore long in coming. And, anyone who "pass" on these would wonder when would be the SP Parties (after all the "FIXES" are in place).... so that they can attend then when it is more appropriate to do so.
Cool!
- by Dan7637 October 27, 2009 5:55 PM PDT
- i can only imagine......at a church?
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(16 Comments)