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August 30, 2007 4:00 AM PDT
Will update drive Vista use?
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Microsoft initially downplayed the importance of service packs in an era where patches are easily available online. Also, the company urged businesses not to wait for a service pack to start testing and rolling out Vista.
Nonetheless, in announcing its plans to release Service Pack 1 early next year, Microsoft is noting that the milestone remains an important signal for some businesses that the operating system has reached a level of maturity.
Many analysts have consistently advised companies to hold off on Vista deployments until the first service pack's arrival.
"There's always a portion of the market that has that M.O. (modus operandi)," said Shanen Boettcher, a general manager in the Windows unit.
By talking about SP1, Microsoft hopes to sway some businesses that have yet to move forward in any fashion to start at least testing the OS.
"I would expect that we will see a little bit of an increase," Boettcher said.
Microsoft has said it expects businesses to move to Vista at twice the rate that they did with XP over its first 12 months. However, Al Gillen, an analyst at IDC, said that businesses seem to be moving at generally the same pace as with previous releases. "From what we can see, the adoption curve is running much like past releases," he said.
In part, that's because so much goes into upgrading the OS, Gillen said. Companies have to test it against their custom and packaged software, do security reviews, make sure they have enough machines capable of running the new operating system, and then budget for the hardware, software training and support costs.
"Customers drag their feet," Gillen said.
A few exceptions
While most businesses have yet to start deploying Vista in significant numbers, Microsoft is touting a few large companies that have started putting the operating system onto a sizable number of desktops. Infosys, for example, has 4,000 PCs running Vista now, with plans for 20,000 by year's end. Citigroup, Charter Communications and Continental Airlines all have more than 2,000 machines on Vista and plan to have 10,000 machines running the operating system by year's end.
"Yeah, there are some early adopters and Microsoft always parades them forward," Gillen said. "They are really the exception and not the norm."
Boettcher said that the adoption rate so far among businesses "is about how we expected it to be."
As for the company's goal of doubling adoption, he said, "It's still early to declare victory...All the signs are we are doing well versus our goal."
Gillen said that the timing of the service pack probably hasn't made a huge impact on when businesses move to Vista.
"If they had brought SP1 out in the first three to six months after the release, I don't think that would have dramatically changed the adoption," he said.
What's unclear is whether Service Pack 1 will help to dispel the notion that the operating system still has too many glitches and hitches to justify the effort of migration. Even some who were initially bullish on the OS, have lately criticized its trouble spots.
Microsoft says it now has better driver support and compatibility with existing software than it did at Vista's launch, which could help businesses justify making the move.
The company openly admits that the stars didn't align for a big-bang Vista launch--reminiscent of Windows 95's debut--that it clearly hoped for. "Frankly, the world wasn't 100 percent ready for Windows Vista," Corporate Vice President Mike Sievert said in an interview at Microsoft's recent partner conference in Denver. "That has changed in a very material way in the past six months."
Gillen said it was good to see Microsoft also commit to a timetable for Windows XP Service Pack 3, which is due out in the first half of next year. "It's a nice indication that they are not trying to subtly coerce customers to move forward onto Windows Vista."
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adoption, service pack, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., operating system
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Do you guys never tire of debating the same thing over and over again, I've been reading this site for over two years now and 90% of OS related stories end up in a OS X vs Windows vs Linux fight one way or another!
Vista started the conversation about operating systems and my boss, who would still be running Win 98 if he could is asking me about this Ubuntu thing and what is this Leopard thing the guy in the blue jeans keeps talking about. Suddenly mainstream has figured out that even phones have OS in them. So please as much as you may hate it Vista has to be successful in telling the OS story because the game has changed and they have a fight on their hand.
I have been using Vista since Beta2, and although it had some problems in the beginning, Microsoft fixed them, and I had no problems using it at home. Try getting that support with Linux, you will face problems beyond your worst nightmares. People don't realize that most problems are not within Vista but 3rd party apps and drivers, and home routers. Just like what happened in the past, SP1 will fix all the remaining glitches.
I guess all the third party games don't play well because they are all made wrong.......all of them!
You don't know crap.
Posted on: August 30, 2007, 6:36 AM PDT
Story: Will update drive Vista use?
Linux/Ubuntu is rock solid. The only problem I see with linux is exactly that, 3rd party drivers. If we had those there will be no reason to use MS. That is the only advantage they have. When a manufacturer releases drivers for a printer or a wireless card , it is usually only windows compatible. Then some programmer has to do some reverse engineering to make it work on Linux. Please dont be so stupid as to compare those two. I will bet Linux 100/1 against Windows anyday.
Day to day work will be really easy if manufacturer just release linux drivers.
It is funny that you talk about windows that way. I just stay until 2am because I had a Windows Metldown. You know , when everything stop working because you did not reintall the OS once a year??
I hate windows.
Knock Knock Jason, you don't actually own Vista.
SP1 will fix all the remaining glitches.
SP2 will fix all the remaining glitches.
SP3 will fix all the remaining glitches.
SP4 will fix all the remaining glitches.
Oh yeah and I use XP, I'm planning on doing a Multiboot Configuration with XP and Ubuntu {or something or other} and begin migrating to linux {can't be more difficult then using "the ribbon"}.
Compiz Fusion is super cool!
worst nightmares? what: bad third party wireless support and and bad third party graphics drivers?
oh and no games {but you shouldn't be playing games at the office anyways}
People don't realize that most problems are not within Linux but 3rd party apps and drivers, and home routers.
Vista is pretty, but it sucks.
Linux may have no support, but MS support has not been any better than what I'd have with Linux.
Maybe SP2 but I think for a great deal or corporations they are going to stick with XP and skip Vista to see what their Software Assurance will get them for a new OS in Microsoft's promised 3 year interval.
Ok that was a joke, Microsoft can't release an OS in three years as promised under Software Assurance unless it is something like Vista ME.
Software Assurance has become the biggest joke in the industry.
BOTTOM LINE: SKIP VISTA
Day to day work will be really easy if manufacturer just release linux drivers.
It is funny that you talk about windows that way. I just stay until 2am because I had a Windows Metldown. You know , when everything stop working because you did not reintall the OS once a year??
I hate windows.
Most businesses I've been in contact with are NOT in any hurry to switch to vista. They currently run 2000 or XP and see no reason what so ever to switch to an os that offers nothing for them but bling.
and try to keep up..
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7223440296638629363" target="_newWindow">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7223440296638629363</a>
". . . is scheduled to discontinue support of its Campus Edition version in December 2006 leaving only the Vista edition of the course management system available and supported." (At that point, NMSU estimates that its annual licensing and running charges will rise from $40,000 to, in the first year of Vista operation, $650,800 US.) The estimated first year cost for a perpetual Vista license at New Mexico State University is $290,400. Additional costs would include an Oracle license, system hardware, and setup time. The annual maintenance cost of the perpetual license will be approximately $48,400. Estimated total first year costs associated with the implementation of a WebCT Vista course management system at NMSU is $602,400." This is not chump change for small institutions. No subtle coercion indeed - some people might call it simple extortion.
Acer will buy them, at a 50% premium for 1.90 a share when that time comes. That is if HP doesn't do it first.
So is it a Vista Issue or an Nvidia issue?
Now I did have trouble hooking up my 8 year old scanner to Vista. I don't use it often I bought it in 1999. Then I was thinking, what is the likely hood that when XP came out that I could take my 8 year scanner and make it work under XP? Eventualy maybe, but for the most part no.
SO there I was with my $490 scanner from 1999 that would not work. So I went online found a better scanner brand new for $90.
The desision to not support vista by some of these companies on there old hard ware is not a "MS" decision, but a direct marketing decision by 3rd party vendors who want you to buy new.
Basically I'm skipping Vista altogether. All of my Windows needs are met by VMware Fusion on OS X.
If/when Microsoft learns from ME-Second Edition (aka Vista), I'll adopt it's successor. I hope they get it right by then.
1) Microsoft can't release a new OS that is both secure and bug free. They try to improve security and hackers beat them. They make claims about bug free and there are still issues.
2)New Microsoft O/S are always designed with forcing consumers into buying new equipment every 5 or so years in order to have the latest and greatest O/S. Many consumers fall for this and spend a few thousand dollars every 5 or so years just to keep up. I call these consumers Microsheep.
3)Drivers. Vista has been out for about 15% of its life cycle, and still is not compatible with lots of common system add on's. Is this Microsoft's way of specifying what equipment customers can buy for their computers, or is it simply that Microsoft wants to dictate the market to manufacturers.
4)WGA. Microsoft wants me to repeatedly prove that I am running a legitimate copy of Vista.
Now, I don't mind an initial registration, but being accused of theft (no matter how Microsoft prefers to massage WGA's function) after plunking down a thousand or so dollars for a new machine is not an appealing market strategy.
Microsoft's BIG Brother program requires re verification every time I change, replace, or upgradev hardware. Why does Microsoft care or even need to know if I upgrade to a new DVD drive, change a hard drive etc?
We have all read about the outage this past weekend that impacted what Microsoft called 'a small number of users' and the press claims somewhere in the area of 12,000 users. If you were one of those 12,000, it was no small number to you, but it is a clear indictaion of your value to Microsoft as a customer.
In the future, what to stop Microsoft from using an end of life cycle that includes turning off these same servers and render every Vista OS obsolete?
Enough about Vista, and enough about WGA, it will be the program that drives many to make the jump conversion from Microsoft to Apple or Linux systems as I have decided to do.
When I need to upgrade, it will be with a company that wants and values me as a customer, not one that takes my money and then accuses me of theft.
1. Piracy: i.e. 99% of all software in china is pirated and the china government doesn't care.
2. Microsoft just wanted to P1$$ me off.
I can guess it's because of piracy. I don't like the DRM/activation/WGA, but I know why it's there. Can you suggest another way to stop the piracy?
First is the current lack of working drivers for Vista, and the apparent lack of concern on the part of Microsoft.
Second, they might be delaying a Media Center for Vista so that they have something 'new' to offer in a few years when they release the next version of windows.
Third, by eliminating a Media Center for this release, they are biding their time to see which next generation DVD format wins the format war...apparently they have no direction on this and are waiting for the market to determine which format comes out on top.
2. You can still get new computers with XP. Many manufacturers are bringing it back due to demand.
Buy it anyway.
I think Vista SP1 could be better than XP if it uses less hard drive space. Install Vista SP1 and XP on identical systems. If the Vista system has more free space, it could be a better OS.
Vista SP1 could be better than XP if it has less DRM. If Vista lets you have more control of content you paid for, it could be better than XP.
Most of my computers run Linux, BSD and OS-X, however I do own a XP-64 computer. If Vista SP1 is a leaner cleaner OS, I will think about upgrading.
Vista sucks, and you all know it! Why would anyone pay that much for a POS?
I will never buy another desktop. I will build my own and load Win2000 Pro. I can not buy a new laptop. I need an RS-232 port and the ne ones do not have that port. I've tried 4 different USB to RS232 adapters and one PC card to RS-232 addaptor and they do not work. I have indows XP on a refirbed Evo N610C (it has a hardware RS-232 prot) and when I found it, I bought a case of them. When they all break, I'm out of the radio business since all goverment mandated system 25 radios use RS-232 prots for programming.
They also knew that Vista would get lukewarm reception by businesses, at best.
So what did they do? If you guys remember, they pulled out a fair amount of buggy Vista code and told the world it will be part of SP1. This made sense to them, because all they needed was some bug fixes to roll it out. Granted SP1 was supposed to be out about now, but MS is nothing but incompetent.
So what this means, and I think most rational people know this, is that SP1 is really Vista v1.0. Actually it really isn't that since many features were removed because MS couldn't get those features working. Incidentally, many of those features have been available for years elsewhere, and in some cases decades.
So how does MS recover from this train wreck? Simple. They turn SP1 into a psychological and marketing fix, instead of a technical fix.
Will it work? Maybe somewhat, historically MS users and admins have swallowed massive amounts of BS from Microsoft. But many, many people are catching on and sick of the bugs, security nightmares, high prices, and loss of control that comes with a new MS OS. So it might help pick up a few new upgrades, but not as many as they think.
Money is tight these days and how can a company defend spending $800+ for a Vista and Office license, and hardware upgrades for a secretary that doesn't use even 25% of the Office "features"? That is insane. What is there in Vista or Office 2007 that a CEO would need it? Or some random paper pusher? If they bought software from a company that couldn't be bothered with the fairly simple task of cross platform compatibility why not just keep running XP? What does that extra money spent on Vista and Office 2007 buy them?
MS is a lot like our president. Still shoveling the same crap, oblivious to the fact most people aren't even listening anymore, and few of the listeners are buying it.
As for MS, I have no idea :-)
I definitely agree that Vista is a steaming pile of (let your imagination fill in the blank). M$ has been spending a lot of money to make keep their OS market lock in place. However, I disagree with the comparison between Vista and Office 2007.
Office 2007, which M$ has really only been marketing with Vista, is actually a good product. The redesigned interface takes getting used to; the more familiar you are with previous versions, the longer it's going to you take to adapt. However, for new users and people that do not work with Office a lot, the new user interface is, mostly, a lot more intuitive. After I made the adjustment, at last, I found that I liked it and did not enjoy going back to the interfaces of the previous MS Office version and OpenOffice. Yes, this is being written by an OpenOffice user.In addition to the interface improvements, the program is responsive and doesn't hog a lot of memory.
They can shove OOXML as far as I am concerned. It's hindering Office's adoption in the work place. I know this first hand as it is banned from being installed where I work because they don't want to deal with the chain reaction of a new file format. I work for a large educational institution so, this is no small deal. Not only is it a large number of workstation installs, this also effects the perception of the next generation of computer users.
I personally take issue with the fact that Microsoft will not add OpenDocument support. Note that, I don't care if they make it the default or not; just that it is supported. I won't adopt it as my primary Office tool until there is OpenDocument (ODF) support. *Hint, hint, Microsoft* I'll probably have to wait until Novell releases an ODF plugin for Office 2007.
Many of the "improvements" they have touted cause more trouble than they help, just like the new interface in Office 2007.
Even Millennium wasn't this bad, at least they didn't make getting around and doing things more trouble and time consuming. Like the changes they made to the All Programs option on the Start menu which is just horrible. The Aero interface is lame at best.
From what has been said SP1 is just going to be all of the patches rolled in to one download with very little else and certainly nothing that is going to correct Microsoft's bad usability and interface choices.
This is the first version of Windows that has really made me think about going Mac. Now that Apple has gone Intel and the Mac is getting to the point is has as many bugs and security issues as Windows I can finally feel at home with it, but end up with a better interface and more frequent and intelligent OS updates.
Vista is a let down. 5 Years waiting for this, please...
Robert