Intel, Dell hold off on internal rollout of Vista

Intel will roll out Vista internally only once the first service pack of the operating system has been released, and Dell is likely to do the same.

Speaking to ZDNet UK at a Dell event in Paris on Thursday, Intel Europe's director of IT, Martin Mueller, said that the company's Vista deployment would commence in the second half of 2007, once Centrino Pro computers--incorporating the next-generation Santa Rosa platform--have become widely available.

"Centrino Pro is a far more capable platform (than the previous version of Centrino) based on the performance delivered by the Centrino core," Mueller said. "We will use it as our standard platform for rolling out Vista and Office 2007. We saw Santa Rosa and Vista coming along in roughly synchronized time, which led us to be a little slow on replacements (of computers within Intel) in the last few months."

More than 80 percent of Intel's employees use notebook computers. Mueller said that Service Pack 1 (SP1) of Vista would be "tied to the (Centrino Pro) platform" within Intel's internal IT plan, but he suggested that Intel had delayed its Vista rollout in any case, in order to "make sure that all our internal applications operate with Office 2007 and Vista."

He added that, while Intel's IT department often acts as a beta test site for the company's own products, it is nonetheless sometimes behind other companies in deploying the latest commercially available technology, due to the IT "rationality" of being a large company.

Dell has also not yet rolled out Vista internally, although its director of client marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Eric Greffier, said it is "very close" to doing so. "We are pretty much in the same position as Intel within Dell," he said Thursday. "We knew we would roll out Vista internally faster than any other OS (but) if we are at the SP1 level it is going to be safer."

Greffier said that the current demand for Vista is stronger than for Windows 2000 or XP. He also said that the security features inherent to Vista will make large companies' migration "almost mandatory" in light of current business regulations. "Our message is clear--you need to think (about your migration to Vista) now. If you don't, you will never be ready for next year," he said.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from Paris.

[Penguinisto]

Problem with "waiting for SP1"

Microsoft could lash together a series of updates and minor additions right now, and release it in a wad called "Service Pack 1" if they get desperate enough.

I suspect that it's prolly going to be more than just waiting for something named Service Pack 1 to come out... probably more along the lines of waiting for Vista to actually be stable and usable enough to satisfy a given business' requirements.

That is what MSFT is going to have to do, and given Vista's falterings and sputterings, it may be harder than they think.

/P

[law_hog]

Did you read the article

...or just the headline?

This is getting very boring.

zzzzzzzz

[law_hog]

Did you read the article

...or just the headline?

This is getting very boring.

zzzzzzzz

[wilswong]

The Days of Blind Tech Upgrading Is Over

Looks like Dell is really 'supporting' Vista all the way.

Centrino Pro or not...the platform is not the issue. The issue is that consumers are sick of being led by the nose in buying sub-standard software that leads to upgrading computer parts that is premature.

If we really want to be environmentally friendly, I suggest getting rid of power hungry Vista and just do the basics well. We don't need a new OS just to enjoy security. It should be with the OS in the first place and should have started from XP.

Ah well...i am but just one tiny voice in the land of Vista Marketing Machine.

[Macsaresafer]

You buy from Microsoft ?

You suffer the consequences. XP isn't as secure as it should be, and
neither is Vista.

Microsoft has been resting on their OS monopoly for two decades,
and the blame for that belongs solely with their customers. If you
had demanded better by refusing to buy their crap, they wouldn't
have thought they could keep shoveling it at you.

[pjianwei]

Going back to the Vista sucking battery life article.

It looks like the biggest handicap for consumer computing is likely to be battery, given the dominance of laptops. Frankly there is no advancement that money cannot buy except immortality potion. Until serious money is thrown into battery, maybe we will be seeing OS or even softwares that are suited for desktops and laptop respectively.
Imagine OS XV for Apple-on-the-go, Windows Twenties@ Lying-on-the-table or Endangered Penguin 10PCC ($10 per child computer).

[chuck0206]

Harware hold-off

A lot misleading,

This story just says that Intel is waiting on their new Centrino core - so we are waiting on hardware, not software.

[ckurowic]

Apple vs. PC marketshare myth

For those of you who compare Apples marketshare to Windows and
claim Macs suck because of this should educate yourselves here...

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/
FFE4A8E2-9816-4344-9FB0-61BED246674C.html

[ckurowic]

be sure to put full link in browser

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/
FFE4A8E2-9816-4344-9FB0-61BED246674C.html

[bluvg]

Funny article

Nice Apple puff piece. No one is saying Apple is unimportant. This author has a problem dealing with/accepting the facts as they are, though, which are that Apple has roughly 5% US marketshare, and less than 2.5% worldwide marketshare. Make of that what you will, but those are the numbers, and they aren't going to be argued away. (Talking about distortion... mixing in iPod figures to support some sort of "Mac marketshare conspiracy" is grossly misleading.)

Part of the issue for Apple will always be their enterprise strategy, which is virtually nonexistent. There are many issues of their philosophy that will prevent that from changing--single-source supplier for hardware, extremely limited product visibility, lack of truly enterprise-grade management tools (1st or 3rd party), a relative lack of concern for backwards compatibility... I could go on and on. They make great consumer gear... and part of that is because they don't have conflicting enterprise interests. Some of what makes them successful on the consumer side is what prevents them from being successful on the enterprise side.

I'm not sure what Apple apologists want... they complain (as in this article) about the marketshare "myths" and whatnot, but don't they realize that Apple's limited base is part of what makes Apple what it is? If they had a billion Mac users (particularly with widespread business use), the products that they would make would be *nothing* like what they make now.

[Seaspray0]

Apple vs. PC marketshare reality

I also look at what people are currently using. 95% of the current computers on the information highway today are driven by windows and 5% driven by apple. How many are being sold by each is another story. The % of new computers being sold today is not that same ratio. Given the move by apple to use the intel processor has improved their bottom line and their % of new computers is higher than existing computers... but they will have to continue sales at that level for several years before the number of computers on the road matches that same percentage and alot can happen in a few years.

[ethana2]

The hand that feeds you...

Naturally if they switched to Linux, Microsoft would devote a portion of its assets to taking them down. Feel the fear.

Use Linux, and let Microsoft violently fall back into the dusty trail of bankrupted companies it left behind. Would serve them right.

In the spirit of this, I offer: Anyone needing to ask general questions about using open source software like Firefox or Linux can ask them here: [e-mail]
I usually reply within six hours; I do so thoroughly; and yes, I do respond to hate mail.

[Penguinisto]

Suggestion:

You may do better by volunteering at www.linuxquestions.org :)

/P

[MSSlayer]

They should consider waiting longer

Much of SP1 is stuff that was supposed to be in the initial release but MS didn't want to put off the 4 years too late OS any more.

This means that it will be full of MS new release "quality".

A smart company will wait until SP3 or SP4, and seriously consider not even bothering with this POS.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Wow.

And.... this means by your logic that people should wait before using OSX until... oh, 2010? Your arguments fit that OS equally well.

I personally don't think we should condemn Apple or Microsoft to that fate. Perhaps we should wait and give the companies a fair chance before you shoot your mouth off again?

[Vegaman_Dan]

Wow.

And.... this means by your logic that people should wait before using OSX until... oh, 2010? Your arguments fit that OS equally well.

I personally don't think we should condemn Apple or Microsoft to that fate. Perhaps we should wait and give the companies a fair chance before you shoot your mouth off again?