Posted on 12/01/2006 7:49:10 PM PST by Zakeet
As he took the stage to usher Windows Vista to market, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week tried to put the software's laborious birth behind him. The company's 71,000 employees -- and the entire PC industry, for that matter -- could be excused for breathing a sigh of relief, too.
"It's an exciting thing to finally be here, and that's probably all I'll say about the past," Ballmer said at the unveiling from Nasdaq's cylindrical high-tech building in New York's Times Square. Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 also were introduced, and 30 more products will follow over the next year, all part of the same technology wave. "This is the biggest launch we've ever done," Ballmer said. Microsoft will spend $450 million marketing it all.
Yet for all the design missteps, overly ambitious plans, and personnel changes that led to a five-year lag between versions of Windows, questions about the future of Microsoft's software are top of mind for customers and partners. Ballmer swears to never let as much time elapse between Windows versions; the question now is how the company can keep churning out innovative products on a compressed timetable.
"Vista is the last of the Big Bang operating system releases from Microsoft," Credit Suisse research analyst Jason Maynard wrote in a report last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at informationweek.com ...
Somebody 'splain to me what's "innovative" here.
Build a better mouse trap. People will buy it.
There will have to be at least one more "big bang" OS release from Microsoft: The one where they have to take out all the DRM restrictions, due to customer resistance to them.
People will buy it because Microsoft will force retailers to sell it on PC's or else.
Microsoft will put the screws to their corporate customers and eventually make it impossible for them to not upgrade.
The usual.
Why start now?
Are you kidding?
Try reading up on the new features and capabilities of Windows Vista and get back to us.
If it's everything it promises to be, this will be a great new operating system.
My next computer will either be a Mac or a computer running some variant of UNIX. … no more windows. To many options avalible.
How about painting it a shiny new color and charging three times a much? :P
Why start now?
I guess being out front and on top for a decade plus becomes a habit?
Go figure!
also ppl will request it.
can you imagine the clusterf**k of trying to buy software for a busness or home with multiple os's?
face it micro~1 beat OS2, Beos, Linux, Mac, and Unix as the OS of choice for the masses. do they steal others innovations,(yup)
everyone loves to hate Microsoft...but honestly they are a success of the highest order.
What is your point? Which OS are you promoting?
What is so innovative in Vista?
I've heard that it phones home frequently, and it maintains a vigil over the validity of the Windows install.
I haven't read of anything newly spectacular in Vista.
At least XP claimed increased stability over Win98.
My prediction?: This is going to be the last "mass release" of software.
Everything down-the-road will be download/subsciption oriented and updated by degrees.
My next computer will be a MAC! I hope Microsoft eventually goes down in flames!
But what's the real minimum hardware to run it? I'm thinking anything less than a 2.4 Mhz dual core or dual processor system with a minumum of 2 GB RAM won't be worth upgrading. It might be great for most apps, but old Win 2K boxes will still be good for surfing the web.
Geez! I wonder how it became the #1 operating system?
I've been running XP for two years now (out of necessity, not choice!) and I religiously download all required updates and do all required maintenance, and I'm still starting to have serious problems with it, including sudden reboots and inordinately long boot times, among other things.
You must have a real POS computer.
I have 2 computers.
An older Compaq with one of the first versions of XP and a newer Emachine with a newer version.
The patches have the Compaq running great and then newer version requires almost no patches and is virtually trouble free.
I absolutely love Windows..and I am willing to bet Vista will blow all previous versions out of the water.
Have you defragmented the registry? Do you run CHKDKS /F at bootup at least once a month?
Yep, and (to Jorge) my computer is top of the line with all the best hardware and drivers. Just a crappy OS.
Jorge, that's not aiming real high.
I find Windows 2K is more reliable and faster than XP.
Sorry. Couldn't resist it, you left yourself wide open there.
Windows is okay. I use it and support it.
It should be easier to make updates to Vista now that Apple has been regularly updating its OS X system.
Microsoft just has to stay a few steps behind the innovative operating system of OS X now that Vista is such a transparent copy.
Everyone should boycott this spyware with all of its conditions tacked on. It offers nothing really new, and consumers will pay a high price to replace software and hardware that will not work with it.
Well they're introducing Vista "Basic" and "Premium" versions.
The Basic runs on older machines with fewer new features...but the Premium requires a dual core processor and around 2 GB RAM, a modern video card with around 128MB of dedicated graphics memory etc etc.
I plan to wait until the bugs get worked out and then buy a whole new computer with the newest Vista OS in maybe 6 to 12 months.
I've read articles from those who've tried Vista and say it's got great new features...and you will wonder how you did without it in the near future.
I want it!
Microsoft's business model now seems to be largely devoted to "churning" its customers.
Jorge, that's not aiming real high.
Let me see..they are aiming to beat the NUMBER ONE operating system in the WORLD.
Not aiming high?
Are you trying to make me laugh on purpose or what?
"My next computer will be a MAC! I hope Microsoft eventually goes down in flames!"
MS hasn't gone down yet and people have been cussing them for years. Fact is their OS is by far the most accepted in the business and consumer world. As for apple. The iPod is about the only product that apple sells at a profit.
Wide open for what?
Windows is the #1 operating system in the world.
But feel free to make a fool of yourself anytime you want. (oh... sorry!)
Hey Jorge, do you know where there is a table explaining every difference in the five (?) different versions of Vista?
My main concern is the security configuration that is also part of the difference between XP Home and XP Pro. In XP Home, you can't configure it for advanced security situations.
Any Service Packs issued yet?
Get real! The gamers need minimal overhead not a memory and CPU hog. The Office Suites users don't even need everything they have had with Win2K, Web servers use UNIX (also at mighty Microsoft), application servers, database servers, network servers, you're running all that on Windows and not UNIX, foo?!
One of the really good reasons I don't run XP Home on anything. I need to be able to support tunneling by several associates into the company network. XP Home is useless for this. It also lacks the encryption capabilities of XP Pro, and don't forget the lack of support for multiple monitors.
Oh, he didn't kick the bucket. He's just rebooting...
NO...and I hope to avoid all the pre-released revision confusion by waiting at least 6 months and most of the problems get ironed out.
LOL
Jorge, I'm not the one using the OS that requires you to spend as much money on Antivirus software as on production software.
I was joking and I said as much. I dislike Microsoft software, sometimes intensely as I did today when using Excel. Very powerful software, but just plain stupid and inscrutable when it does inexplicable things, as it often does. It helps to be able to "think" like Excel or any other Microsoft product to get the most out of it.
Windows is garbage. Office is OK. Flight Simulator is their best by far.
I'm not spending a cent on "Antivirus software" on either of my computers..with early and late versions of XP.
Comcast takes care of all that for me. I've had no problems for a very long time.
shut up coon
BWAAAAHAAAAHAA Oh yeah....
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
I'm laughing because I DO Windows support, Jorge.
I don't know what you are smoking, but viruses are just ONE of the major support issues.
I'm laughing because I DO Windows support, Jorge.
I don't know what you are smoking, but viruses are just ONE of the major support issues.
Yep. We discussed this before, haven't we? I use win2k pro and server versions and it's as solid as a rock. I've got multiple servers with various businesses and they don't crash unless it's a hardware failure. Now the only thing I miss is the 64 bit aspect.
I totally agree. Since 97 I've been using a Pentium II 300 MHz with 192 Megs of RAM on a Windows 2000 machine and it outperforms by far my recent mini-upgrade to a Pentium IV 1.29 GHz with 256 Megs of RAM.
And IE7 is a joke. I now do my browsing in Firefox.
Yep. I prefer Win2K over XP as well. By a wide margin.
When have you ever known this to be true?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.