Microsoft May Delay Windows Vista Again 482
UltimaGuy writes to mention a Reuters report, stating that Vista may be delayed again, this time by up to three months. From the article: " The research note, released to clients [by the Gartner Group] on Monday, said the new Windows Vista operating system is too complex to be able to meet Microsoft's targeted November release for volume license customers and January launch for retail consumers. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the Gartner report and it was still on track to meet its launch dates."
This is getting old (Score:3, Interesting)
If anyone actually expected MS to be on time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Brilliant! (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Wind
Re:Fixing non-problems (Score:3, Interesting)
Defections because why, exactly...? Do you know anybody who NEEDS Vista? I certainly don't. Windows 2000 and XP are pretty damn good products, and I know that we're not upgrading because there's no reason to. Vista will be just a "gee whiz, this is neat" thing if/when we ever buy new computers again.
Luckily for us, MS is doing a great job creating those problems.
What problems, exactly?
Re:Some "Analysis" (Score:3, Interesting)
There are? Really? Really? In all honesty, I don't think that I've ever heard any non-OSS zealots complain about Windows XP. It's essentially a finished product. There aren't really any major problems left to hammer out, or functionality to add, as far as I'm concerned. What, specifically, are "people" waiting for in Vista? I consider myself a geek, and I don't even know or care what Vista is going to do. Windows 2000/XP work just fine for us.
You can't make this stuff up (Score:4, Interesting)
OK, first of all, this is Gartner, not MS making the claims. From the article:
said the new Windows Vista operating system is too complex to be able to meet Microsoft's targeted November release... [emphasis added]
Yes, this is the same Gartner that said that Linux was too complex to have been written by Linus Torvalds...
But, it gets better:
Once production starts, it usually takes between six- to eight-weeks for PC manufacturers to load the operating system onto new computers, Gartner said.Six weeks! - and I thought I had a slow hard drive when it took two hours to install Linux.
Perhaps that should have been "six to eight weeks to begin shipping..."?
Tell me again, what's coming in Vista? (Score:5, Interesting)
In related news... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a dangerous game Microsoft's playing.
Re:Who cares? (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Some "Analysis" (Score:3, Interesting)
One specific thing would be DirectX 10 which will be a "Vista-only" feature. Further, anyone considering buying a new computer could be waiting for Vista boxes to ship, both for the pre-installed OS discounts and to ensure that they get compatible hardware.
Then again, I'm a gamer looking at buying a new computer and Vista doesn't even enter into my thinking since there will probably be at least a year or two where games will be compatible with both OSes. And, even if a Vista-only game is released I'm comfortable enough to upgrade my own hardware and software if necessary.
Depends on what you think Vista will be (Score:3, Interesting)
My question for these people is: what will this new OS do for you that isn't true right now?
Apply this question to any OS release, be it from Microsoft, Linux, Apple, or someone else. Generally there are things that people come to expect in the new release. Sometimes it's better security. Sometimes it's better stability. Sometimes it's improved networking, better utilization of CPU resources, or something else.
For a long time now, Microsoft has been billing Vista as The Next Big Thing. As they promised in their March 21 road map update [microsoft.com], "Windows Vista will deliver great value to businesses by seamlessly connecting people to information, enabling increased mobile and remote productivity, significantly reducing deployment and support costs, and providing a more secure and compliant desktop platform. For consumers, Windows Vista will bring clarity to the world of personal computing, enabling people to more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks, instantly find what they want, enjoy the latest in entertainment, and stay connected at home or on the go."
Microsoft's credibility has been sliding for years now. Regular everyday people are starting to realize that Microsoft isn't the only game in town. Apple is coming on strong and getting increasingly aggressive [apple.com] in its marketing of the Mac. The Linux user base continues to grow [wikipedia.org].
Microsoft advocates used to be able to claim that no matter what the technical limitations of the company's products, it was always run very well. Products shipped on time. You could usually figure that even if it was mediocre now, whatever Microsoft product you were using would probably be better in a year, and markedly improved in two or three years. That's certainly not the case now, and continued inability to deliver makes Microsoft a less reliable vendor.
If you always figured Vista wouldn't amount to much, the delay obviously won't matter to you personally. You could probably measure the slide in Microsoft's influence by the increase in lack of concern over Vista delays.
As for analysts, it sure would be great to get paid to engage in the same sort of random speculation we all do on Slashdot anyway. Hell, for reliable predictions about the technology market, I'd pick any ten Slashdot readers over any ten analysts any day.
Re:Some "Analysis" (Score:2, Interesting)
Speak for yourself(and your version). I was fool enough to buy the 64-bit version of XP. Boy, was that a mistake. It doesn't come with drivers for half of my devices, and few companies make drivers for it(not really a MS fault). To boot, most firewalls and anti-virus programs don't work on it! While the 32-bit version may be fine and dandy, I'm pretty disappointed with the 64-bit. In fact, I'm considering telling MS that, and demanding that they let me trade it in for a downgrade to 32-bit.
Features Removed (Score:2, Interesting)
* All the links to MSN are being removed. Probably for business or regulatory reasons. No links means you're (in theory) not pushing MSN, and you're being Web Homepage neutral. Or, it could be they're giving up on MSN? That would be very hard to believe.
* Unix tools are now optional? Considering the growth of Linux, this is surprising since more and more businesses actually are using these tools (especially "rsh" and "ssh". You'd think they'd want more compatibility than less. Wonder if "optional installation" means that you have to select it when you install it, or whether you have to pay for it. My take: Dell will probably include them anyway since so many people need them.
* FrontPage is a major component for many web pages and is a major feature for ISPs. How will this affect all those FrontPage webpages? Will FrontPage still be an optional component in the Server version? If not, how will this affect the ISPs?
* Lack of email support for HTTP via WebDAV: Is this a security concern? How will this affect people? Do a lot of Webmails still do this?
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Cringely has a whole theory that Apple (using MS own source code) will include the Windows XP API in their next release of OS X. (See http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060420
I find it hard to believe that Apple would actually be able to do this. However, people I know who work in these places tell me that Apple actually does have licensing rights to the Windows 2000 API (and therefore to most of Windows XP API). Rumors have it that MS gave Apple the licensing rights in exchange for the licensing rights for Mac OS 9 and the NeXTstep code. If that's true, Steve certainly got Bill to drink quite a bit of Koolaid.
Re:Tell me again, what's coming in Vista? (Score:2, Interesting)
Welcome to the 70's!!!
- New network stack with IPv6 in the core
Uauuuuuuuu!!! How many lines of code? 1000?
- New GUI / window manager in user-space (better stability / new eyecandy)
As in more resources wasted? And need for hardware update???
- Priority based I/O handling (virus scanner won't slow down your system because it's hitting the disk)
Why should you run a virus scanner at all? Ah!!! you are meaning Vista will be still unsecure!!! I got it!
- User Account Control (not running as Administrator by default anymore) A change in a default setting that will blow up zillions of apps bad designed that need Admin permisions?
And what is this? Need to update for something that took them 30 minutes for changing a chack box? 5 years to realize this? Uau!!! - New user-space audio subsystem (better stability, program-level volume control, AC3 decoding, etc.)
Welcome to the nineties!
- New speech recognition / synthesis engines
Already existing. nobody uses them
- New SMB protocol (better performance)
Screw up these Samba folks! and tell them the crap about better performance. Oops! that was your point
- Full disk encryption (BitLocker)
Screw up these dual-boooting folks! and tell them the crap about more security.
- Built in search
Uau! a search box in every window! 5 years to do that!
- Built in antispyware
What is spyware?
- Faster installation
Installation is (repeat after me) NEVER DONE BY AVERAGE USERS. But nevertheless, it will take now a decent time? great!!! Ahhh! but you are meaning that continuous re-installs must have to be done!!! Well, in that case....
- New bootloader
Useless, as all the bootloaders from MS.
- Deadlock detection
Welcome to the 20th century.
These reasons are awesome. I am impressed!!!
What a piece of sofware.
Re:This is getting old (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not like you're just buying a kernel when you buy an OS. People are looking for a newer, better, nicer and easier way to interact with their computer.
They're looking for special 3D effects and seamless media capabilities. These things are considered part of the OS.
If you're not interested in any of them, why even bother with Vista?