Windows Vista unreadiness revealed
Analysts laugh at surface computing
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Microsoft has finally outlined the extent to which Windows Vista was unfit for the marketplace when it launched six months ago.
A mere 650 applications were certified for Vista when it launched, compared to 2,000 now. Seventy "critical" enterprise applications from corporate mainstays such as Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, McAfee, Citrix Systems, Oracle, SAP and IBM are "being resolved daily."
On hardware, 600,000 devices have been certified in the six months since launch, now making Windows Vista compatible with 2.1 million devices.
The numbers were offered by chief operating officer Kevin Turner, who tried to rally Wall Street analysts to the Microsoft flag of software - including Windows Vista - plus services.
Turner joined other senior executives at Microsoft's annual financial analyst summit to paint a future of Windows running on multiple devices and even inside table tops, with the recently unveiled surface computing - which runs on Windows Vista.
Based on Turner's excuses for the lack of Windows Vista certification, it seems users can expect future editions of the Windows client to also fall short on software and hardware support as Microsoft tries to target ever-more diverse systems in its strategy as a consumer device company.
"We came out with compatibility around applications and devices in better shape than when launched with [Windows] XP... there's more device complexity in the market place then as now."
Getting a first-hand taste of what's coming down the road from Microsoft, chairman Bill Gates was forced to ad lib during his conference demo, as the surface computing setup failed to work on the first attempt. "It's turned on... maybe we'll come back to that. It's more exciting when it does something - which right now it's not," Gates said to a ripple of analyst laugher.
The event came a week after Microsoft closed a fiscal year that saw Microsoft's client division - home to Windows Vista - deliver a predictably strong, but not stellar, performance for a product billed as Microsoft's most important launch for 10 years.
In a measure of the market reception, the president of the industry's fourth largest PC company last week called Microsoft's long-awaited update to the seven-year-old Windows XP a disappointment for the whole industry. Gianfranco Lanci cited problems with stability.
His complaints follow an earlier decision by Dell - the industry's second largest PC manufacturer - to recommit to selling Windows XP on PCs following customer requests, reversing the earlier decision to ship Windows Vista.®
COMMENTS
A sign
vista should be making a huge impact on microsoft's revenues, if it were truly successful. vista is selling for 2x to 3x the price point of xp. Seems like microsoft would be hooten and holleran alot more. I hear the next version of Apple's Mac OSX will not follow the pricing trend of microsoft, rather Apple will continue to sell OSX for the same price previous versions have sold for.
Cheers!
User's Lack of Control
I had my first Vista experience recently, which ate my client's accounting data. Since it was a nonprofit, this data is worth its weight in gold. In the process of the famous format and reload, the OS gave me almost no customization options. Furthermore, a load of Office 2007 minus certain features meant a full install and then later an uninstall of the undesired items. Windows has always had a severe set of limitations compared to *NIX and other systems when it comes to a user's control of the system environment and behavior.
As a technician, I fight Windows problems on the job, and enjoy coming home to my own system with the sane, easily controllable and configurable FreeBSD.
Hasta La Vista?
Most people avoid Vista as it is a relatively unexplored (by the populace at large) Operating System, and most have good reason to be weary - Microsoft have a very poor track record when it comes to releasing decent and fairly stable new Operating Systems.
It is not helped either by the large number of complaints about compatibility, which is surprising, given Microsoft were the users of 'Plug n Play'. Compatibility issues are what kill off a lot of operating systems (despite most people's insistance they are superior, better etc), as they usually lack the ability to use many of features people want, for example, development kits, games, professional software applications to name a few.
It's an even more surprising turn of events when you consider that XP had very good compatibility. They must of gone out of their way to screw that up / remove the neccessary coding for it. They haven't exactly built from the ground up either.
Wow, a whole new shiny interface that demands that you buy even more stuff to keep it running! Just what everyone really wanted! I know I'll be absolutely distracted from all the glaring security holes and exploits if I ever have the insanity to go out and buy this package.
Knowing anything, they are hoping that the operating system becomes widespread, making many of the older devices redundant, thus making it so you have to buy all these nice, new shiny expensive devices from companies that probably wanted (should I say 'influenced' with a transfer of a few digits into Bill's account) Vista to be incompatible with older technology in the first place!
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