Home | Publicityweb News | Press Releases | Events | Jobs | Contact | About
Google, Yahoo, Msn Search Engines | SEO | SEA | Marketing | Standards and Formats | Legal and Privacy
Home

Vista (incoming Windows) : years late and in 6 editions?

Windows Vista Logo
 

Microsoft's new Windows Operating system will finally be called Vista. Some people are waiting for it since a long time, since it's already a few years late.

According to BBC news, Wikipedia and a Microsoft press release, there will be at least 6 versions of Windows Vista I'm really not sure it's a good idea : consumers will certainly be lost.

  • Vista Starter
  • Vista Home Basic
  • Vista Home Premium
  • Vista Business
  • Vista Enterprise
  • Vista Ultimate

Is it worth upgrading ? Sure, Microsoft promised it will be the more secure version of Windows, ever, and they seem to have taken good steps. By example, the new users finally wont have admin priviledges by default, which is a really basic security measure they should have taken years ago.

But it's not the first time Microsoft make promises looking like vapourware (ex: full PNG support should have be part of IE 4, and IE 6 does not yet correctly support the transparency). And many technical people won't be duped again easily.

Moreover, to get advantage of some new features (eg the Aero interface), you'll need a powerfull machine with a strong video card. In other word, many of the current boxes (50%?) will need to be upgraded (or thrown away) to be able to run Microsoft Vista. Time to spend money to WIntel ?

If you have the money, you'll get extra features, but I'm not sure you want them. By example, more DRM technologies are present in Windows Vista (Media player). This can prevent you from copying your favorite songs on your favorite mp3 player, even if you've bought it. ohoh.

And Vista can prevent "unsecure" software from running : this will prevent some viruses from silently installing thanks to IE. But it could prevent drivers from running too, if they aren't digitally signed by Microsoft. What about other software, by example those that Microsoft won't like ?

Some more advanced technologies that were planned for vista won't be included. By example, the new WinFS, the smarter filesystem (using tags to help you finding your files if you're not well organized by example).

Will you buy new hardware and new costly licences to run Vista, for nearly no added functionnality and some added DRM restrictions for your media files?

Personnaly, I'll continue using alternative operating systems, as I happily did years ago. GNU/Linux rocks :-)

Refs

By Chris at 2006-03-01 14:00 | English | Standards and Formats | printer friendly version